Abstract:

Over the past two decades, the economy has undergone some major changes including the processes of globalization, mobilization (industrial use of personal mobile devices), Internetization, “cloudization” (exit to cloud technologies), intellectualization (SMART–revolution), etc. Social, personal and humanitarian influences on the economy have sharply increased – the stock market has become more important than the trade market; the activities of individuals have overturned the economy (Jobs, Gates, Page, Brin, Zuckerberg, Musk, Branson, etc.).

All the four areas covered by the concept of “economy” – economic theory, economic practice, economic policy and economy management have changed considerably. Economic theory has witnessed a paradigm shift (the neoclassical paradigm gave way to the institutional paradigm, the latter conceded to the evolution paradigm, and at the beginning of the century a systemic paradigm came into existence); the business behaviour has changed; the economic policy has become more socially oriented and management has become smoother, more organic, and humanitarian-oriented.

The education sector, and particularly economic education has only remained practically unchanged (and in some countries like Russia, it has simply degraded – there came into being a phenomenon that can be called “simulation education,” which is based on imitation, i.e. a matching external form without much inner content like wooden planes and control towns in the Melanesian cargo cult. Imitative knowledge is connected with imitative learning technologies and both eventually generate imitative specialists.

The development of the knowledge economy consists of two stages. The term ‘knowledge economy’ usually refers to an economy, in which knowledge makes one of the most important (key) factors of production. However, this is just the first stage of the knowledge economy. The second occurs when knowledge becomes a significant (major) result of production. In other words, in the knowledge economy the production turns into knowledge production.
Economics as a field of activity is a combination of economic theory (economics), economic policy (political economy), economic management and business practices (economy). Economic knowledge is also divided into four sections and, depending on the subject area, take specific forms: theoretical erudition; political intuition; management skills; and economic (entrepreneurial) grip.

Summing up the stated above, we can offer the following recommendations:
1. The development of the system paradigm in economics should generate the development and implementation of a system paradigm in education.
2. Students should get basic knowledge of a) each of the four areas (theory, practice, policy, management), as well as connections and mutual influence.
3. It is necessary to strive to create holistic knowledge of economy in students’ minds. Differentiated teaching of economic disciplines must be supplemented, firstly, with interdisciplinary courses and, secondly, with supra-disciplinary (meta-disciplinary) training leading to systematic knowledge.
4. Professor is the central figure of the educational process. It is impossible to replace Professor with a processor. Professor is a living model of socio-economic world. “The study of Professor” by students is an obligatory part of studying the economy and society.
5. Education of the 21st century is amalgam of knowledge, understanding, sense and comprehension.

Keywords:

Holistic knowledge, paradigm shift, economic education, “simulation education”, cargo cult.