APPLYING LEARNING THROUGH PLAY APPROACH TO TRAINING STUDENTS IN CREATIVE DISCIPLINES
In this article, an attempt has been made to justify the use of learning through play approach, an innovative technology, in order to accelerate forming professional competencies in students who acquire creative professions, such as architects and environment designers. The paper aims to investigate a potential for implementing a learning through play concept, or business game, as a practice-oriented approach, in forming trainees' professional competencies. To this end, we have carried out studies and have generalized results of introducing a business game approach into Environment Landscape Design Course for full-time bachelor architects and environment designers. Our findings confirm gaming technology efficiency as an active training form for students developing their landscape design projects; also, a new practice-oriented approach to forming professional competencies in the shortest possible time is suggested. In a professional training situation which imitates real production processes, the proposed approach should activate trainees' behavior and thinking, enhance their practical creativity and intensify their professional development.