The paper looks at the intellectual elite reproduction as one of the key elements of innovative society development. In 2012, Russian President approved the National Concept for Identifying and Fostering the Young Talents. In many regions, there are local projects targeting gifted children and teenagers. Though, the main concern is the teaching staff development for working with extraordinary students. In author’s opinion, the university complexes appear to be the most capable of fulfilling the given task by providing the fundamental classical education expanding the horizons of professional perfection both at theoretical and practical levels; in this regard, the positive experience of Tumen State University, incorporating the Higher Pedagogical School and the Institute of Pedagogy and Psychology, is revealed. The main emphasis is on the high schools within the university complexes; the advantages of summer schools in selecting gifted children and developing creativity and intellectual abilities are  demonstrated. The author maintains that the teaching staff readiness for working with gifted children has long term prospects for developing the nation’s intellectual potential, and therefore can be regarded as the key criterion estimating the effectiveness of educational establishments. However, the managerial staff should be pro-vided with the relevant indicators for monitoring the above activity. 

The paper is devoted to systemizing the main theoretical approaches to classification, distribution and production of knowledge in the global economy. The author focuses on F. Machlup’s knowledge classification and the concept of useful knowledge by J. Mokyr.

The interpersonal and public channels of communication and acquisition of knowledge are observed taking into consideration the total changes caused by transition from industrial to postindustrial economy. The paper provides a comparative analysis of the given model and alternative concepts of knowledge generation: finalization of science, strategic research, post-normal science, academic capitalism, post-academic science, and the triple helix concept. 

The author maintains that the current concepts of knowledge generation reflect the fact of transformation of modern institutional technical environment due to the global technological changes, and increasing contribution of knowledge to the economic development. Accordingly, the roles of the main participants of the given process are changing along with the growing integration of education and science, state and businesses. 

The paper analyzes the dialectic relationship between the economic law effects and specific professional thinking formation. The methodology of the multidisciplinary research is based on scientific works in pedagogy, philosophy, economics of labor and economics of education. The author classifies the economic laws according to their impact to various spheres of social life, and the society’s development level; and emphasizes the fact that tasks and outcomes of professional training are conditioned by dominating economic factors of a specific historical period.

While the pre-industrial era required both craftsmen and intellectual elite – governors, politicians, philosophers; the industrial era, due to cooperation and labor division, required widely qualified workers; the postindustrial society has a need for multilevel professional workers dealing with information and communications technologies, and endowed with communication skills, creativity, mobility, capacity for self-education and self development.

The author considers the economic laws of labor division and variation, their relevance as well as transformation in the course of time, and outlines the future needs both for narrow and versatile specialists capable of fulfilling the complex technological tasks. 

The paper investigates the urgent issue of education outcomes estimation in the higher school, and reveals the current approaches to solving the problem of level estimation regarding the particular competences and their components – the elements of disciplinary competences.

The level model of the competence components formation and acquisition is recommended along with the computation method for weight estimation of disciplinary components by means of integral differential criteria of education outcomes assessment. 

The examples of and practical recommendations for the above method application are given. In authors’ opinion, implementation of the given model combined with available instrumental and methodological means can raise the quality of education based on the competence approach.

The paper is addressed to university teachers, methodologists and education quality experts in vocational universities. 

The paper explores the current development trends of primary, secondary and higher education. The authors emphasize the crisis of professionalism in various spheres of national economy caused by the crisis of Russian education. The vocational teaching and managerial staff are facing the global task of training the specialists demanded by the modern economy and capable of adapting to the increasingly changing life and information environment. The main emphasis is on the ability to foresee the production needs by analyzing the industrial enterprise from the socio-technological perspective. 

The authors outline the key factors affecting the above functions along with the resulting requirements for employees’ professional levels. To train the vocational university graduates in accordance with the above requirements, the authors suggest the project method implementation providing the accumulation of methodological, social and professional competences and facilitation of cross-disciplinary knowledge. 

The paper reveals the survey findings investigating the students’ attitude to the higher education quality. The education quality concepts are considered in pedagogical, economic and sociological context; the main aspects of education quality involve: the compliance with the existing norms and standards, and correspondence with students’ personal requirements for professional training.

The comparative analysis of the above survey findings demonstrates that the students’ idea of education quality is based on the teaching staff professionalism, implementation of new educational technologies and individual approach. Students at a technical state university emphasized the high level of professional training, adaptive abilities development and career prospects; while students at private classical universities valued personal and cultural qualities, and fundamental knowledge. Few of the surveyed students mentioned the normative content aspect of education quality - compliance with the state educational standards. Therefore, the author proves the need for acquainting students with the above standards in their respective profiles.

The research findings can be applied for optimizing the training process in the higher educational establishments. 

The paper investigates the pedagogic potential of visualization phenomenon. The research is aimed at substantiating the didactic instruments implementation for raising the effectiveness of knowledge acquisition. The research methodology basis incorporates the cognitive visualization ideas along with the theory and technology of instrumental didactics.

The projection process, viewed as the mechanism and outcome of the human mind activity, is regarded as a pedagogic means for visualization and modeling of educational content. For organizing and controlling the above process, the author introduces a regulative concept, referred to as the programming basis of a human consciousness directing the cognition processes and reflecting the outcomes of teaching activity.

The development trends of pedagogic principle of visibility are demonstrated; the projective regulative visualization of didactic objects being outlined. The author describes the anthropological and socio-cultural background of visibility principle and suggests the complex of didactic visual means for solving the pedagogic tasks. 

The paper describes numerous attempts at upbringing the new personality undertaken in various periods of Russian history: the baptism of the Russian people by Prince Vladimir, reforms of Peter I concerning education and science, educational procedures introduced by Ekaterina II, etc. Each time, the governors wanted to see their people transformed and enlightened. The author analyzes the contribution of D. I. Mendeleyev to the national tradition of fostering the new personality; the scientist emphasized a priority of upbringing well-educated tutors who, in their turn, would educate a new breed of people. The Soviet time experience concerning education and upbringing of the future communism builders is revealed.

Based on the retrospective analysis, the author comes to conclusion that all the unsuccessful attempts at upbringing the new personality resulted from the discrepancy between the officially stated goals and insufficient at-tempts to develop loyal and reliable citizens. Not enough emphasis was placed on the inner world of people compared to their words, deeds and attitudes. In author’s opinion, the actual renewal of people’s world outlook can be achieved only by getting rid of old misunderstandings and emphasizing the spiritual potential and existential bases. 

The paper considers the issue of children preparation for school in so called starting schools. In author’s opinion, the arts disciplines such as music, drawing and choreography can develop the aesthetic sense, moral qualities, more optimistic world outlook and respectful  attitude; the child develops creative skills and beauty perception both in fine arts and wild life.

The author looks at the problems of planning and organizing the music training of preschool children, the different requirements for and concepts of the preschool and primary school normative documents being analyzed. The paper substantiates the effectiveness of poly-artistic and activity approaches to the split-level teaching, in particular – the method of projecting the familiar actions onto some sort of artistic activities. Based on the succession of preschool and primary school training, the author specifies the goals of music classes in starting schools, and outlines the most relevant game activities of role plays, didactic plays and contests.

The paper is addressed to preschool and primary school teachers, music teachers, as well as methodologists and researchers dealing with preschool teaching. 

The paper looks at the issue of quality monitoring of higher education. The research is aimed at identifying the criteria and indices related to educational activities of Ukrainian universities, and required for establishing a unified and scientifically proved estimation system. As the Ukraine strives for integration into the European educational environment, the author analyzes the recognized scientific recourses concerning the education quality assessment such as the models of educational indicators of UNESCO, the European Union and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, as well as the documents and recommendations of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA).

The author singles out the following estimation criteria: competence, independence, utility, accuracy, feasibility of recommendations for quality assurance, transparency of monitoring procedures and  compliance with the laws and moral norms. The given indices of education quality monitoring are based on the systematic approach and incorporate the indicators of provision, effectiveness and impact; therefore, the education quality can be analyzed as the process, management system and outcomes of the process. The above three groups of indicators form the effective instruments for education quality assessment corresponding with the world educational standards.