The Effectiveness of the Dual Situated Learning Model (DSLM) for Middle School Students in Their Flexible Thinking

Abstract

The research aimed to determine (the effectiveness of the Dual Situated Learning Model (DSLM) for middle school students in their flexible thinking). In line with the research objectives, the researcher adopted the analytical research method to analyze the scientific material and the experimental research method. A true experimental design with two equivalent groups and a post-test for flexible thinking was used. To verify the research objective, the following null hypothesis was formulated:

• There is no statistically significant difference at the (0.05) level between the mean scores of the experimental group students who studied according to the Dual Situated Learning Model (DSLM) and the scores of the control group students who studied using the traditional method in the flexible thinking test.
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The research population was defined as second-grade middle school female students in day middle and secondary schools affiliated with the General Directorate of Education of Baghdad / Rusafa Third. The research sample consisted of (82) female students from (Al-Maw'itha Middle School for Girls), distributed into two groups:

• An experimental group that studied using the Dual Situated Learning Model (DSLM), consisting of (40) students.
• A control group that studied using the traditional method, consisting of (42) students.

Equivalence was established for the two groups in a number of variables believed to affect the dependent variables along with the independent variable, namely (intelligence, prior achievement, prior knowledge, age in months). To achieve the research objectives and collect relevant data, a research tool was constructed as follows:

A flexible thinking test consisting of (20) essay items, based on the types of flexible thinking (spontaneous flexibility, adaptive flexibility.The tools were applied to a pilot sample to verify the clarity of the test items, test instructions, and time limit. Appropriate statistical analyses were conducted, and psychometric properties were confirmed, making the tools ready for application to the research sample. After applying the test to the two research groups, the results were analyzed using statistical tools including (t-test, Levene's test, Pearson correlation coefficient, Spearman-Brown formula, Cooper's equation, Eta-squared). This was achieved using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22Through the results, the researcher reached key conclusions, including:

The model's application was uniform in the thinking of the experimental group students, and the lack of differentiation during its use for the experimental group led to the equality of students in both groups in answering the flexible thinking items.In light of the conclusions, a number of suggestions and recommendations were put forward, as will be mentioned later.