Abstract:

The present study aims to investigate the impact of the Saudi Aramco Research Science Initiative (SA RSI) on the development of higher-order thinking skills – particularly metacognitive thinking skills, problem-solving skills, and decision-making and time-management skills. The study also seeks to measure the students’ level of metacognitive thinking skills in relation to three fundamental areas: planning, self-control, and self-assessment. A scale prepared by Abdel-Salam Hassan was implemented in the process of measuring time-management, problem-solving, and decision-making skills. The study sample was comprised of 42 talented female high-school students ranging in age between 15 and 16 with an average age of 15.97 and a standard deviation of 0.154. The students participated in a five-week, six-hour-per-day intensive science camp offered through the STEM laboratories within a higher-education institution in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Multiple strategies and training methods were employed with the objective of stimulating and amplifying the students’ capabilities, especially in terms of critical thinking and analysis. The strategies varied between discussion and participation in scientific projects under the guidance and supervision of a group of faculty members who are specialists in the STEM disciplines. The data were statistically processed using t-tests. Significant differences were found at the level of significance of 0.01 between pre-application and post-application in the students’ mean scores in terms of meta-cognitive thinking skills, decision-making skills, and time-management skills, as well as in terms of problem-solving ability, where the differences to apply to the first three skills were in favour of the dimensional application. The results showed the presence of a correlation function statistical relationship between time-management skills and metacognitive-thinking skills with a correlation coefficient of 0.345, and a function of the value at the 0.05 level.

Keywords:

Effectiveness of the SA-RSI, Promoting the Development of Higher-order Thinking, Talented Students.