Trufanova, E. O., Yanovskaya, O. R. Institute of Education in Knowledge Society

Abstract: The present article is devoted to the role of the institute of education in a modern society that can be described as the ‘knowledge society’. The authors of the article study the history of development of the terms ‘information society’ and ‘knowledge society, demonstrate the difference between the terms ‘information’ and ‘knowledge’ and show how the institute of education is transformed due to the formation of a new type of society. Based on the analysis of the UNESCO documents related to the concept of knowledge society, the authors study the main innovative elements of the institute of education such as ‘continuous education’, ‘e-learning’ and the concept of how to ‘learn to study’. The authors also suggest to view the role of philosophy for children as a method of development of cognitive abilities, flexible thinking and an efficient dialogue when discussing other points of view. It is shown that such classes for children can actually have a positive impact on one’s learning abilities and continuous education throughout life while the modern system of education prepares narrowly focused specialists who are often unable to learn something new during their carrier. At the end of the article the authors carry out a critical analysis of the above mentioned problems in modern Russian education, most of all, in high schools, including those caused by the formation of new type of educational institution — research university.

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