The Intellectual Competence among the Students at the Department of History in Diyala University

Abstract

The current thesis aims to identify the level of intellectual competence among students of the Department of History at the College of Education for Humanities at the University of Diyala according to the variable of gender (males - females). The research sample consisted of (250) male and female students from the Department of History at the College of Education for Humanities at the University of Diyala, (125) male and (125) female students, who are  chosen by the stratified random sampling with equal distribution. They constitute (41%) of the research basic population, which is consisted of (612) male and female students. In order to achieve the objectives of the research, two scales were constructed: (Intellectual Competence scale) based on Chickering's theory (1969) and (Open-Mindedness Scale) based on Rokeach's theory (1960). The researcher verified the psychometric properties of the scale, whose items were analyzed logically and statistically, as the reliability coefficient of the scale was calculated by two methods (retesting) and it was respectively (0.814) and the (Cronbach's Alpha Formula) was respectively (0.805). As the validity of the scale was verified by indicators of face validity, construct validity, and extracting discriminatory power, for all scale items.The thesis reached the following results: Students of the Department of History at the College of Education for Humanities at the University of Diyala generally have a high level of intellectual competence