Volume 03 Issue 09-2023
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International Journal of Advance Scientific Research
(ISSN
–
2750-1396)
VOLUME
03
ISSUE
09
Pages:
334-342
SJIF
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(2021:
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5.636
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6.741
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1368736135
A
BSTRACT
This article presents the processes of changing the epistemological concept of higher education in the
course of their historical, sociocultural development from Platonic ideas to a modern emphasis on critical
thinking and technology. Universities, as sources of higher education, as well as their conceptual
foundations, have gone through a number of stages of development, from schools of theology and "liberal
arts" in the Middle Ages, centers of humanization and rationalization of knowledge in the 18- 19 centuries,
centers of scientific research and training of professional personnel in the 19 -20 centuries, to institutions
of mass higher education aimed at saturating the labor market. Based on this, the stages of the evolution of
universities are considered based on their leading activities in the context of modern changes, the
fundamental differences between their target and content settings, as well as development prospects in
the context of the digitalization of knowledge.
K
EYWORDS
Higher education concept, university model, third generation university, digitalization, digital
technologies, artificial intelligence.
I
NTRODUCTION
The purpose of this work is to analyze the
evolution of ideas about the content and
methodology of higher education, as well as to
identify the main trends in the development of
Journal
Website:
http://sciencebring.co
m/index.php/ijasr
Copyright:
Original
content from this work
may be used under the
terms of the creative
commons
attributes
4.0 licence.
Research Article
EVOLUTION OF GNOSEOLOGICAL CONCEPTS OF HIGHER
EDUCATION AND ITS DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Submission Date:
September 20, 2023,
Accepted Date:
September 25, 2023,
Published Date:
September 30, 2023
Crossref doi:
https://doi.org/10.37547/ijasr-03-09-53
Filippov Olgerd Aleksandrovich
Rector Of The Navoi Branch Of The Non-Governmental Institution Of Higher Education "PROFI
UNIVERSITY". Uzbekistan
Volume 03 Issue 09-2023
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VOLUME
03
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Pages:
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modern higher education, its functions, values
and strategic goals under the influence of the
processes of digitalization and pragmatization of
knowledge.
Methods.
Theoretical
socio-philosophical
analysis of modern research, based on systemic
and socio-cultural approaches, in order to
identify the most general patterns of
development of higher education in modern
conditions.
R
ESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Epistemological concepts of higher education
have changed depending on the historical,
political, social, and cultural development of
humanity. Universities, as sources of higher
education, as well as their conceptual
foundations, went through a number of stages of
development, from schools of theology and
“liberal arts” in the Middle Ages, centers of
humanization and rationalization of knowledge in
the 18th and 19th centuries, centers of scientific
research and training of professional personnel in
the 19th -20 centuries, to institutions of mass
higher education aimed at saturating the labor
market .
J. Wissema in his work “University of the Third
Generation” , depending on the conceptual
model, content and target orientation of
education, gave the following historical
classification of institutions of higher education -
the university of the Middle Ages (university of
the first generation), engaged in creative
reproduction and a limited general cultural
tendency of generalized knowledge from various
fields of science from the previous generation to
the next, the “ Humbolt University” (second
generation), where reproduction was replaced by
empirical knowledge of reality and the
development of new areas of knowledge, the
“entrepreneurial university” (university 3.0) and
the fourth generation university, due to the
digitalization of knowledge.
However, it must be recognized that strictly
classifying universities into individual models,
based on the history and process of their
development, as well as the activities carried out,
is problematic . The fact is that the definition,
distribution
and
differentiation
of
the
fundamental aspects of the conceptual modeling
of universities are very heterogeneous in the
scientific community and in studies on the
development of education vary from identical to
opposite . The leading feature of the classification
of the evolutionary transformation of higher
education is the methods of providing
educational services and their main goal, as well
as the level of technologization of teaching
methods and higher education itself .
In this situation, it makes sense to consider the
most general relevant elements characteristic of a
particular university at a certain stage of its
development, based on the methods of socio-
philosophical analysis.
The medieval university, which grew out of the
fragments of ancient education, was engaged in a
creative understanding of the ideas of Greek
philosophy and knowledge of the inner harmony
Volume 03 Issue 09-2023
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VOLUME
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ISSUE
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Pages:
334-342
SJIF
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of the individual. Over time, the ideas of religious
teaching and Christian philosophy, aimed at
understanding the true essence of faith, and its
impact on the education, upbringing and
spirituality of the individual, began to dominate .
The organic relationship with the education of the
past period determined the content and
structural proximity of medieval education in the
ancient understanding of philosophy and the
entire spectrum of sciences that are its integral
components (the so-
called “seven liberal arts”);
they were divided into two groups: 1 - oratory
and applied sciences about familiar existence, 2 -
geometry, arithmetic and general scientific
disciplines, including art in its broad sense . By
the 12th century, these disciplines took shape as
the initial stage of university (in the more or less
modern understanding of this term) education,
and over time, not only religious literature, but
also preserved fragments or translations of
ancient philosophical and artistic works became
sources of education, as it was assumed that this
will allow the student to master a certain amount
of knowledge necessary for a classically educated
person .
Universities of this type include the Bologna,
Paris, and Oxford universities that first emerged
in large cities, as well as the Padua , Naples ,
Cambridge, and Siena universities that arose a
little later.
It should also be noted the utilitarian reasons for
the emergence of universities, because with the
growth of urbanization, the need for people of
intellectual labor increased, providing for the
various needs of city residents due to the
complication of their economic and production
relations. At the same time, the growth of the
educated stratum of urban society contributed to
the concentration of intellectuals and the
complication of their educational and industrial
interaction, which prompted the higher school of
that time to expand and deepen educational
activities. Hence the priority function of the
medieval university was the preservation,
generalization and transmission of education.
Over time, accumulating existing knowledge,
universities begin to become more complex due
to the emergence of laboratories and their own
scientific theories. Thus, priority moves from
simple retransmission of knowledge to scientific
research, empirical knowledge, not just the study
of reality, but its reconstruction, modeling and
design. These processes are also associated with
the development of economic relations, the
complication
of
production,
for
which
engineering knowledge becomes necessary,
rationalization of resource development and their
subsequent proc
essing. The “ Humboldt
University” , a university of the Enlightenment,
emerges.
Now the fundamental task of higher education
becomes the transfer of knowledge that is
obtained and verified by heuristic, empirical
methods; there is a need not only to know the
achievements of classical science, but to be able to
substantiate them on the basis of hypothetico-
deductive thinking . The university begins to have
a research character.
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VOLUME
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In turn, the “ Humboldt University,” as J. Wissema
wrote in his works , over time is forced to adapt
to the growth of interdisciplinary research, which
significantly increases costs, the sudden increase
in the number of students and their educational
needs , globalization and, as a consequence,
inclusion in the system market relations
requiring optimization of financial and economic
activities, entrepreneurship, cooperation with
other participants in the educational services
market .
These
factors
undoubtedly
affect
the
transformation of the university concept.
The development of production activities,
increasing the variety of products and services
provided, the expansion and growth of the
economic importance of private property
determine the need for qualified entrepreneurs,
managers, and office personnel with a wide range
of
financial,
economic,
managerial
and
psychological knowledge. At the same time, the
leading activity of higher education is the
activation of creative and innovative activities,
humanitarian and sociocultural design. The
industrialization of knowledge has led to the
emergence of the postmodern university,
university 3.0 .
Universities of this type are subject to
transformation both on the basis of exogenous
reasons, such as the influence of market relations
and the transition from education to the provision
of educational services, digitalization and
globalization (B. Clark), and on the basis of
endogenous factors - the need for financial
independence in organizing educational and
research activities , entrepreneurial activity using
the innovative potential of faculty and students
(Y. Wissema ).
The inclusion of universities in market relations
leads to competition for funding and investment
in scientific, research, economic activities and
equipment with modern laboratory and technical
equipment, financial interest and well-being of
teachers, which ultimately leads to the
displacement of uncompetitive institutions from
the market .
Some researchers, speaking about third
generation
universities,
use
the
term
“entrepreneurial” , for example B.
Clark; At the
same time, when talking about entrepreneurial
activity, the idea of creating innovations in the
structure and processes of education, thanks to
which universities adapt to a changing market,
comes to the fore. And indeed, the desire to
expand sources of funding - budgetary,
competitive, subsidized, grant and sponsorship -
transforms the educational and infrastructure
strategy of universities, and, ultimately, adapts
state policy in the field of supporting higher
education to their needs .
At the same time, it is important to understand
that all of the above changes most often begin
with the structural divisions of the university,
which are usually more mobile in initiatives and
have the ability to establish innovative
educational programs that meet the needs of
business and the public, and only then, based on
the specific achievements of individual
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departments or faculties, they receive access to
sources
of
extra-budgetary
funding,
a
transformation of the university itself inevitably
occurs.
At this stage, many foreign universities are
characterized by precisely this model, when
institutions of higher education, in addition to
scientific and educational activities, are also
engaged in entrepreneurial activities, creating
new educational products, startups, creating and
expanding the educational market area around
themselves, so that teachers and students can not
only receive knowledge or conduct research in a
specific area of knowledge, but also developed
entrepreneurial skills and turned ideas into
profitable businesses. That is, the strategic model
of such a university is to recognize the creative
potential of a student or teacher so that in the
future he can connect his life with the area in
which he will be the strongest and most
competitive . In this situation, the priority
becomes the commercialization of mental
potential and its implementation, in the
commercial sense of the word, based on the needs
of the local, regional or state market, turning the
human capital of higher education into a
fundamental resource for its development.
It should be noted that globalization processes,
digitalization and pragmatization of knowledge
bring their own adjustments to the concepts of
third generation universities . Initially, the
rethinking of the tasks of higher education was
caused by the differentiation of target orientation
and tools of pedagogical science . This has led to
changes in the functions of participants in the
educational process; the student turns from a
passive recipient of knowledge into an active co-
researcher
with
the
competencies
to
independently search, analyze and assimilate
knowledge; this, in turn, changes the structure
and methodology of teaching. A university that
aspires to modernity should not be limited to the
actual functions of teaching, mechanical transfer
of knowledge, skills and abilities, but also to
develop
business
thinking,
digital
and
entrepreneurial competencies in students.
Without interrupting the development of
academic literacy in the field of fundamental
sciences, higher education, at the same time, must
respond to the demands of the labor market in
innovative personnel, generating advanced ideas
and technologies, becoming a progressive cluster
in the economy of a region or country.
Conceptually, a modern university can be
represented as an “ecosystem of innovation,
which, together with educational and research
functions, implements the function of technology
transfer and delivery to end users .
Particular attention when transforming the
concept of universities under the influence of
digitalization deserves the fact that intangible
assets of the university are beginning to acquire
greater value, and a gradual shift towards
virtualization of educational, research and
entrepreneurial processes.
The processes described above give reason to
predict the formation of a new model of higher
education, which will become sources of cognitive
technologies with the ability to capitalize their
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own knowledge . Nowadays, the capabilities of
cybernetic programs and systems in teaching
have already become obvious, the introduction of
artificial intelligence in production, education,
and the service sector, all this leads to the
hybridization of cognitive-creative processes, the
development of cooperation and co-creation of
universities at different levels of trust and
participation . Digitalization of higher education
activities can be considered the next stage in the
evolutionary development of universities .
The process is natural . in which globalization
processes
initiate
the
development
of
entrepreneurial activities of universities, but at
the same time, the university, transforming into
an element of the digital economy, itself acts as
the engine of globalization, realizing the market
needs for innovative ideas, technologies and
services more successfully than enterprises in the
real sector . The multidirectional, meta-subject
nature of the research and innovation activities of
universities makes it possible to accumulate
intellectual
potential
and
successfully
commercialize it . Thus, Russian researcher E.V.
Neborsky defines this phenomenon as a “
biodigital university” and considers it as “a
promising model of universities that combine
physical and virtual space, developing on digital
platforms . ”
The new formation of the university is based on
the constant search for solutions to current
economic issues aimed at expanding, deepening
and massifying the use of the capabilities of
cybernetic technologies, exploring new markets
for investment and financing, striving for
technical leadership . Another feature of a digital
university is its ability not only to compete in the
labor market, but to act as an employer itself. In
this status, higher education acquires special
importance in the public sector of the economy
and the development of production, as an
additional tool for industrial development .
Thus, a modern entrepreneurial university is a
complex conglomerate of functions that are
integrated or transformed depending on the
changing demand in the labor market, knowledge
or innovative production on a local, regional
scale, while experiencing significant influence
from global trends in the globalization of the
educational space .
An undoubted factor in the evolution of higher
education concepts is its intensive digitalization,
which contributes to the emergence of a cross-
border scientific, educational, research space
based
on
modern
information
and
communication technologies, distance learning
programs, and intensification of the process of
cognition itself .
Particularly active mass computerization and
digitization of all kinds of processes in various
fields has begun recently under the pressure of
not only intra-system factors, but also the
external environment - the pandemic, blockchain
, the growth in the number of information
knowledge and its databases.
Digital transformation of education is a change in
planned educational results, content of education,
methodology, structure and organizational forms
of the educational process, as well as assessment
Volume 03 Issue 09-2023
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(ISSN
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Pages:
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SJIF
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of achieved results in a rapidly developing digital
environment to fundamentally improve the
cognitive results of each student. For the first
time, digital technologies make it possible to
ensure the individualization of the educational
trajectory for each student, the methods and pace
of mastering educational material, and make it
possible to optimize cognitive and all other
related organizational processes to a much
greater extent.
When talking about digitalization, we mean the
following interacting processes:
a)
development
of
digital
space
and
infrastructure; b) introduction of digital tools into
sources, tools, services, and assessment of the
educational process; c) development of models of
cybernetic training and organization of the
educational process with elements of artificial
intelligence.
The digital space of higher education is an
electronic educational environment in a
combination of information and communication
technologies
and tools that optimize the organization and
management of the educational process. The
advanced achievements of foreign universities
clearly demonstrate how effective the processes
of informatization of education can be: cataloging
all resources (formation of databases) of
universities, creating electronic document
management, creating
a “knowledge map” of
departments, monitoring the progress of students
and the effectiveness of department teachers,
building individual learning paths for students
and their employment , automation of the
knowledge management process and its transfer.
Another factor that determines the importance
and necessity of creating a holistic educational
environment is confirmed by the needs and
interests of the students themselves, because the
majority of the modern generation is an active
user of certain digital technologies, for some this
is the only opportunity for socialization.
The accumulation and improvement of digital
learning tools, cognitive services, and cybernetic
modeling of the educational process is based on
global trends, transforming higher education into
an open, dynamic, interactive system, providing
ample opportunities for creativity, non-standard
formats and approaches to teaching - even
lessons in virtual reality.
Thus, the future of higher education lies with
innovative universities that are actively involved
in the commercialization of knowledge based on
information technology, because artificial
intelligence, the digital environment and online
learning are the future that will determine the
vector of development of world education for
many years.
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