شبكة المعلومات العربية التربوية

The present study aims to reveal the differences in the habits of the mind among third year secondary school students according to the variable of the academic specialization (literary, scientific), and to identify common habits of the mind in the literary and scientific specializations. To achieve this, the descriptive analytical approach was used. The study sample consisted of (120) male and female students from third year classes. Third year students were chosen because they took a period of three years in the specialization, which enabled them to have good and continuous contact with the cognitive content of the specialty they studied which may have affected their thinking methods and habits of mind. They were randomly selected using the stratified sampling technique. Habits of the mind questionnaire was designed by the two researchers, it consisted of 13 dimensions which are as follows: (perseverance, controlling recklessness, listening with understanding and compassion, thinking flexibly, thinking and beyond thinking, the struggle for accuracy, questioning and issuing problems, applying past knowledge in new situations, visualization, innovation and renewal, thinking and communicating clearly and precisely, taking responsible risks, creating humor, constant preparation for continuous learning.). The psychometric properties of the tool were calculated using Cronbach’s alpha and Pearson correlation coefficient, and length correction coefficient of Spearman Brown). The statistical treatment was conducted using "Spss" version 20. To test the study’s hypotheses, "T" test was used for two independent samples. The study reached the following results: There are no differences in the habits of the mind among students due to the variable of specialization except in the dimensions of listening with understanding and sympathy, and finding humor between scientific and literary students for the benefit of scientists. There are also differences in the struggle for accuracy dimension, applying past knowledge, and taking responsible risks between scientific and literary students in favor of literary ones. (Published abstract)