The Effect of the S.N.I.P.S Strategy on the Development of Divergent Thinking among Students of Educational and Psychological Sciences Departments in the Subject of Comparative Education

Abstract

The aim of the current research is to identify the effect of the S.N.I.P.S strategy on the development of divergent thinking among students of the Departments of Educational and Psychological Sciences in the subject of Comparative Education. The researcher adopted a quasi-experimental design and randomly selected students from the Department of Educational and Psychological Sciences at the College of Education, University of Wasit. Section (A) was chosen as the experimental group, where students were taught using the S.N.I.P.S strategy, while Section (B) was selected as the control group, where students were taught using the traditional method. The research sample consisted of 80 students. Prior to starting the experiment, the researcher ensured statistical equivalence between the two groups in several variables that might influence the validity of the experiment. The educational material selected for teaching included the first five chapters of Comparative Education. Based on the content, behavioral objectives were formulated across six levels, and 16 lesson plans were prepared for both groups. The researcher developed a divergent thinking test consisting of 30 items distributed across six areas and validated its reliability, consistency, and discrimination. The researcher herself conducted the teaching, and after completing the experiment, administered the post-test for divergent thinking to both groups. Following the collection of results, the data were analyzed using appropriate statistical methods. The results showed a statistically significant difference at the 0.05 level between the mean scores of the experimental group and the control group in the post-test of divergent thinking, favoring the experimental group. Additionally, a statistically significant difference was found at the 0.05 level in the mean differences between the pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group, favoring the post-test. Based on these results, the researcher made a set of conclusions, recommendations, and suggestions.