Designing the University’s Creative Environment: Structural-Functional Analysis

Abstract

Modern educational environments are a technologically challenging phenomenon that can make problematic both proper knowledge acquirement and creative activities of a cognizer. The latter plays an increasingly important role in training of specialists for the knowledge society. Among complicated theoretical issues, the study of which will shed light on the problem of constructing learning environments that combine a technologically sophisticated content and a highly efficient creative function, are the following: (1) separation of “knowledge” and “information” concepts in educational activities; (2) combination of cognitive processes and surroundings in the “creative space” concept; (3) design of a creative space structural-functional model with account of first two items. The article presents a methodological approach to separation of “knowledge” and “information” concepts and, based on this approach, the conceptualization of the “creative space” concept in the form of a cognitively generative system. Fundamentals of the structural-functional analysis for a modern university’s creative space, which define the method of its design method are presented.