Pivotal thinking among students of the University of Babylon

Abstract

The aim of the current research is to identify:

1.The level of pivotal thinking among students of the University of Babylon (research sample).

2.Statistically significant differences in pivotal thinking according to the gender variable among students of the University of Babylon (research sample).

In order to achieve the goals, it was necessary to prepare a tool to measure pivotal thinking. The researcher relied on the (Barzanji, 2018) scale, which was based on the theory and definition of Tony Buzan, who defined pivotal thinking as: (A series of mental activities that the brain performs when exposed to a stimulus received through one or more of the five senses). The scale consists of (39) paragraphs, and each paragraph has two alternatives (A-B) and the weights of the alternatives are (2,1). After verifying the psychometric properties of the research scale and its paragraphs, it was applied to the basic research sample of (379) male and female students who were chosen randomly with proportional distribution, as choosing the sample in this way makes it more representative of the original research community, and also gives the researcher freedom to choose a number from each gender in a random way that is proportional to its size in the research community. After analyzing the data statistically using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), the results showed the following:

1.University students have a level of central thinking.

2. There are no statistically significant differences in central thinking according to the gender variable.