The Level of Evaluative Thinking Skills among Shqra'a University Students

Abstract

This research aimed to identify the level of evaluative thinking skills of Shaqra University students, and to detect differences between Shaqra University students in the level of evaluative thinking according to the variables of: academic achievement, gender, academic specialization, and academic level. To achieve this goal, the research followed the descriptive survey method via selecting a simple random sample of university students in the two Faculties of Science and Human Studies in Afif and Dawadmi, which amounted to (506) male and female students, in addition to the arabization of the evaluative thinking scale developed by Cornell University, 2011, which included (22) items divided into three dimensions: attending to evaluation and its practice, asking questions and adopting choices, describing and illustrating thinking, and then verifying its psychometric characteristics to suit the research sample. The application of the scale produced results, the most notably of which are: there is a high level of evaluative thinking skills among the students of Shaqra University; there are statistically significant differences at the level (0.05) between the students of Shaqra University in the total score of the evaluation thinking scale and in the dimension (attending to evaluation and its practice) according to their level of academic achievement, in favor of an excellent level compared to a good level; there are statistically significant differences at the level of (0.05) in favor of the scientific specializations in the total score of the Evaluative Thinking Scale and in the two dimensions of attending to evaluation and its practice and asking questions and adopting choices, that was significant at the level of (0.01) in the dimension (describing and illustrating thinking), compared to literary specializations; and there was no significant differences in the level of evaluative thinking according to the variables of gender and academic level.