The Two Styles of Superficial -Deep Learning and Their Relationship to the Academic Skills of the Students of the Department of History at the University of Diyala

Abstract

The current research aims to identify:

1- The methods of superficial and deep learning among students of the Department of History at the College of Education for Humanities at the University of Diyala.

2- Academic skills among students of the History Department at the College of Education for Humanities at the University of Diyala.

3- The correlation between the superficial and deep learning methods and the academic skills of the students of the Department of History at the College of Education for Humanities, University of Diyala.

To achieve the objectives of the current research, the researcher adopted the descriptive (relational) approach to her study. The research community consisted of (613)male and female students and the research sample consisted of (236) male and female students from the Department of History in the College of Education for Humanities , University of Diyala for morning study and its four stages for the academic year (2021-2022). To collect the study data, the researcher, in the first tool of the study, built a scale for the superficial and deep learning methods according to the Marton and Salgo model.

In its final form, the scale consisted of (20) items divided into two types of methods, and five alternatives were identified for the scale (always, often, sometimes, rarely, very rarely) and the weights of these alternatives (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) for the items that came in a negative direction, As for the positive trend (5, 4, 3, 2, 1), the highest score for the scale is (100) and the lowest score is (20). As for the second tool, the researcher adopted the academic skills scale prepared by (Al-Taie, 2018), and it consists of (64) items distributed over (8) domains. All items came in the positive direction, and five alternatives were assigned to the scale (always, often, sometimes, rarely, very rarely), the weights of these alternatives (5, 4, 3, 2, 1), the highest score for the scale (320) and the lowest score (64). The researcher extracted the psychometric characteristics of the scale from the face validity and construction validity, as well as extracted the reliability by the Cronbach Alpha method and its discriminatory power. (SPSS) and the results were as follows:

1- It turns out that the students of the Department of History in the College of Education for Humanities at Diyala University have the method of deep learning.

2- The researcher concluded that university students have academic skills.

3- The researcher concluded that there is an inverse relationship between the superficial learning style and academic skills and the existence of a positive direct correlation in the deep learning style and academic skills, the lower the superficial learning style, the academic skills become lower,  and the higher the deep learning style is ,  the higher the academic skills are.

This result supports the positive correlation found in the current study.

1- Learning outcomes in educational colleges require their possession of thinking skills, analysis, evaluation, interpretation and application, and this is reflected positively on their possession of the deep learning method that the current study has reached.

2- The research sample members have a weakness in the superficial learning method due to the requirements of the College of Education in accordance with the courses that require them to have  higher thinking skills such as analysis and evaluation, in addition to the superficial learning method that requires only memorization and remembering, as it represents the lowest level of learning.

Through what the current research has brought, and for the purpose of further documenting the relationship between superficial-deep learning methods and academic skills, the researcher recommends the following:

1- Curriculum designers' interest in the necessity of including history curricula for learning methods and academic skills in Iraqi universities.

2- The necessity of taking into account deep learning and its development of students by the teachers by following modern teaching strategies and methods.

 To complement the relevant aspects of this research, the researcher suggests conducting similar studies for the current study, which include:

1- Identifying the relationship between the superficial and deep learning methods and academic skills at different stages of study: primary, intermediate and secondary.

 2- Studying the relationship of the superficial and deep learning methods with other variables (such as the level of ambition, self-learning and self-skill efficiency).