Dominant Thinking Styles Among Students of the Mathematics Department at the College of Basic Education

Abstract

The current research aimed to identify the predominant thinking styles among students in the Mathematics Department at the College of Basic Education for the academic year 2024-2025, and to determine whether there are differences in these styles attributed to the gender variable. The research sample consisted of (200) students, including (92) male and (108) female students from the Mathematics Department. The researcher relied on the thinking styles scale according to the theory of Harrison and Bramison (Harrison & Bramison, 1982), which included (10) situations in its final form, with (5) thinking styles for each situation: (synthetic, idealistic, practical, analytical, realistic). This was applied to the sample members after verifying its validity and reliability. The data were statistically processed using means, standard deviations, T-test, and Pearson correlation coefficient. The research findings concluded that:

1.The analytical thinking style is considered the best among students in the Mathematics Department at the College of Basic Education, followed by the idealistic thinking style in preference compared to other thinking styles (synthetic, practical, realistic), which ranked third, fourth, and fifth, respectively.

2.The results also indicated that male students preferred the analytical thinking style more, while female responses showed a greater preference for the idealistic thinking style.

 In light of the results, the researcher provided a set of recommendations and suggestions.