The article proves that globalization, informatization, openness and standardization of the education quality have radically changed not only the scheme of knowledge transfer, teaching methods, but also have actualized the problem of understanding the deep essence of knowledge itself, its levels. The emphasis is placed on the priorities of cultural and personal knowledge, which are an integral part of the personality and provide with the expansion of his/ her social experience. It is substantiated a significance of the educational knowledge formation as a synthesized set of philosophical principles, humanitarian knowledge, pedagogical experience, which are designed to overcome the inconsistency and diversity of two types of «products»: «production of a cultural person» in education and «production of knowledge» about the structure and basic processes of education. It is stated that the positions of a synergetic approach allow to analyze the development and functioning of the educational system both in the short and long perspective, to create favorable conditions in the educational environment for choosing and giving each subject a chance to move individually, to stimulate independence of choice and making a responsible decision, to provide personal development and educational knowledge, the formation of skills of knowledge self-management of as the basis of professional competence.