Estimative Thinking Among History Department Students at the University of Diyala

Abstract

The current research aims to identify:

• Estimative thinking among students of the Department of History at the University of Diyala.
• The statistical significance of differences in estimative thinking among students of the Department of History at the University of Diyala according to the gender variable (males–females).

The research population consisted of students of the Department of History at the College of Education for Human Sciences, University of Diyala, morning studies for the academic year (2025–2026), totaling (695) male and female students. The researchers adopted the descriptive method in their study. As for the research instrument, the researchers constructed it according to Matthew Lipman’s model (Lipman, 2003). The scale consisted of (30) items distributed across three domains (cognitive, emotional, and social), with five alternatives for each item: (strongly applies to me, applies to me to a high degree, applies to me to a moderate degree, applies to me to a low degree, does not apply to me at all).

After verifying the statistical and psychometric properties, the scale was applied to a sample of (248) male and female students. After obtaining the data through responses to the scale items, it was processed using appropriate statistical methods. The results were as follows:

• The research sample possesses estimative thinking.
• There are no statistically significant differences in estimative thinking among the research sample according to the gender variable (males–females).

The researchers concluded their study with a set of recommendations and suggestions.