ABSTRACT

Curiosity is one of the most important motivating forces in human behaviour. It has a developmental line, from a state of alert wakefulness in the infant to active investigation of the environment, which includes body products and anatomical differences, and then includes a wide range of interests in the outer world as well as in the inner psychological world¹. Philosophers have made a great number of definitions of curiosity. In general, they define the concept of curiosity in three different ways. Aristotle and Cicero defined the concept of curiosity as an intrinsically motivated desire. Saints Augistine and David Hume defined it as a passion, associating curiosity with the desire for knowledge. Jeremy Bentham and Kant, on the other hand, Bentham and Kant referred to curiosity as being appetitive, similar to Ferubach’s idea that curiosity results from an unsatisfied knowledge drive². The main thoughts on curiosity are as follows: the first one refers to the thought that curiosity causes to reduce negative situations such as uncertainty, novelty, arousal, impulse, and knowledge gaps; the second one refers to the thought that curiosity is an intrinsic source of motivation that encourages individuals to learn and explore for their own good, and; the third and last one refers to the thought that curiosity is a stable difference in motivation among people, with differences in knowledge, goals, achievements, and experiences. As a matter of fact, it is difficult to define the scope of psychological thinking that affects curiosity in a simple way. However, offers inspiration for researchers curious about why people learn and explore in the absence of obvious external rewards³. Literature in psychology has shown that curiosity is the intrinsic motivation for exploration, learning, and creativity⁴. The views, theories, and definitions about curiosity establish common grounds on the assumption that curiosity is to learn, explore, and surrender to interesting elements. In the long run, curiosity greatly affects the function of building knowledge and competence. It encourages learning new things, discovering new things, meeting new people, and developing new skills. When the individual is curious, s/he becomes aware of everything that exists and will exist and accepts everything that is or will be in the process. Curiosity motivates people to act, think, research, and learn in different and new ways⁵. Being seen as an important criterion in the learning process, curiosity enables the achievement of educational success. Current research shows that there is a relationship between curiosity and academic achievement. In general, youngsters with high curiosity tend to ask more and better questions, select more adventurous activities, have more information about the world around them, recall more specific facts, and persist longer at problem-solving⁶. Curiosity, which has been defined as a desire for information, is a motivation that drives educational attainment, knowledge, and achievements⁷. The satisfaction of curiosity through acquiring knowledge brings pleasure⁸. Curiosity is an aspect of intrinsic motivation that has great potential to enhance student learning⁹. Improving learning and instilling an investigative personality in the student is also one of the main elements of education. A researcher is characteristically defined as someone who is genuinely motivated to inquire well. Therefore, a relationship has been established between curiosity and inquisitiveness, and it can be seen that at the root of this relationship, inquisitiveness plays a differentiating role in the learning of both young people and children. It is also stated that this phenomenon, which is distinguished both intellectually and in terms of life, is ultimately a virtue. Therefore, it is concluded that inquisitiveness is a primary intellectual virtue that should be trained¹⁰. Education is seen as a process that occurs throughout life and especially in the work and leisure of individuals rather than certain institutions and organizations and during childhood and youth. It makes great contributions to increasing the quality of human resources, which are important supporters of development and progress. Students are a core resource that underlies the potential that needs to be developed through education. On the other hand, education is a conscious effort to develop and direct students' personalities and abilities both inside and outside the school^11,12. Since one of the main tasks of the students is to participate in the school-course and to participate and organize leisure activities in the remaining time, they experience some lack of time and the need to balance their lives in managing these two concepts¹³. Students experience many situations in which they have many opportunities for leisure activities, but it is difficult to evaluate and realize these situations in the same way¹⁴. The concept of course-leisure conflict is a concept for this situation. The importance of leisure education is once again revealed to ensure progress in course-leisure conflicts, leisure activities, especially in terms of individual and social development, and to make sense of this process. Leisure education is accepted as an emerging need for increasing the quality of life of both students and society¹⁵. Taking this need into consideration and meeting it will lead students, young people, and society in general in a more conscious and positive way. Based on the abovementioned considerations, this study examines the concepts of university students' course-leisure conflicts and curiosity.