Because it was difficult to find information during the last century, it was significant to raise individuals who acquired, learned, and memorized it and had basic level skills. Currently in our world, memorizing information has lost its significance. Thanks to the technological developments, reaching the desired information has become extremely easy. Therefore, what is being expected from the individuals today is to question the accuracy of the information they reached, to produce new information from the one in hand, and to realize the change and transformation with the information they acquired by the help of self-directed learning skills. Nowadays, the changes occurring in technology and information every single day have made lifelong learning and in this direction self- directed learning important, which is one of the basic elements of it. The societies that bring up individuals who assume their own responsibility by seizing the transformation in education and execute the necessities of it have a voice around the world and direct the future.
TopThe Term “Learning” And An Overview To Learning From Past To Present
Along with being an essential necessity in human nature, learning is a key element for an individual to sustain his/her life and to harmonize with the changing conditions. None of the living beings manage to survive for a long time without learning how to exploit the environment to meeting their basic needs. The living creatures are constantly exposed to learning since they always have to fulfill their needs in various environments and be effective for adapting their environment in order to maintain their life, and it is observed that the majority of their behaviors are learned ones (Senemoğlu, 2012). For this reason, the need to define and explain “learning” emerged to unveil how the behaviors of the living ones are formed and why they act that way. In accordance with this need, various research have been made on how learning materializes; and diverse ideas, discussions, definitions and explanations on learning have come until today from the age- old times.
Since the time that psychology was established as an independent discipline, learning has virtually been a fundamental subject in a lot of pedagogical and psychological research (Houwer, Barnes-Holmes, Moors, 2013). Some of the foremost researchers who have studied on learning from past to present and contributed to the world literature with their discoveries are; Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), Edward Thorndike (1874-1952), John Broadus Watson (1878-1958), Clark Leonard Hull (1884-1952), Edwin Ray Guthrie (1886-1959), Jean Piaget (1986-1980), Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (1896-1934), Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-1990), Donald Olding Hebb (1904-1985), Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), Albert Bandura (1925-…).1 The studies that the aforementioned social scientists conducted, have helped us better understand how we learn, and also provided us the opportunity to catch the basics of learning and accordingly shape the conditions more effectively so that a successful learning would come true. Hereby, these studies have served as guides for the individuals to perform more effective, more perpetual and more qualified learning (Dumont, Istance and Benavides, 2010).