and

“If knowledge is power, then literacy is the key to the kingdom"(Jacobs, 2008)" The 21st century is characterized as a dynamic era of incessant changes in all fields of life. The amount of knowledge in all areas of study that is increasingly growing is enormous. New knowledge is not only accumulating continuously, but often replaces previous knowledge. Knowledge is thus becoming obsolete at an ever faster pace. No one today is able to embrace in his/her mind all the existing knowledge, even in a single content area. In light of this, the traditional approach, according to which the main role of education is to equip learners with information that they might need in the future, is no longer valid. There is hardly any prospect of encompassing all (or even most) of the knowledge learners will need in the future. Also, it can be assumed that, in many subjects, the details learned by students today will no longer be relevant within a few years. A historical view of the arguments for the strong specialist and for the strong generalist positions suggests that each camp, in its own way, has oversimplified the interaction between general strategic knowledge and specialized domain knowledge. Jacobs (2008) suggests a synthesis: General and specialized knowledge function in close partnership. Hence, the role of the education system in higher education is to focus on both approaches: Imparting to the students the skills they require in order to be able to cope independently with new knowledge, along with the relevant knowledge of the subject, in an effort to shape an autonomous student who is capable of learning through self-direction