The Study of the Phenomenon of Creativity in the Educational Environment

The modern world has changed dramatically: now it is the world of increasing volatility, heterogeneity, diversity, and rapid changes. It has become a self-organizing system that goes out of a human control and imposes its own laws. The state of a managed object has varied, whereas the methods of learning and management remain the same. The article argues that it is necessary to use new forms of training and management, based on non-linear thinking and creativity. The main purpose of the research was to investigate the attitudes towards the phenomenon of creativity in the educational environment. The article presents the results of a sociological survey of 350 teachers/professors, 680 students and 300 entrepreneurs about their attitudes to the possibility of teaching and using of creative technologies. The survey results show that the teachers/professors are rather conservative, while business people generally recognize the effectiveness of creativity in their work. The authors propose technology, techniques, software, and organizational forms of training students and schoolchildren in accordance with the requirements of the knowledge economy, which implies not only the possession of a set of necessary knowledge, but also the ability to generate and apply it in real life situations. An original intelligent IT-system for the formation and development of the individual creative thinking, as well as team skills of innovative project work of students and schoolchildren, is outlined in the paper. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.