Effect of Cognitive Strategy-Based Instructional Guidance on Analytical Thinking and Rhythmic Gymnastics Skills

Abstrak

Background   The problem. Teaching often focuses solely on the skill and technical aspects, without paying attention to the mental and cognitive processes that accompany the learning process, which play a fundamental role in simplifying, understanding, and analyzing skills.

Objectives      Design an educational guidance program based on cognitive strategies for analytical thinking and the performance of some free skills in rhythmic gymnastics for female students. Identify the impact of the guidance program based on cognitive strategies for analytical thinking and the performance of some free skills in rhythmic gymnastics for female students between the pre- and post-tests, and between the two research groups (experimental and control) in the post-tests

Methods         To achieve the objectives, the experimental approach was used, with a design of two equivalent groups (control and experimental), and a descriptive approach using a survey method, as it suited the nature of the research problem. The research community was defined as (117) second-year female students in the College of Physical Education (University of Dhi Qar, Basra, and Maysan) for the academic year (2023-2024). The research population was selected from the universities of Basra and Maysan, numbering (78) students. The exploratory and application samples were from the University of Dhi Qar, numbering (39) students: (9) students for the exploratory sample and (30) for the application sample.

Results            It was found that the experimental and control groups achieved their goal of a significant effect between the pre- and post-tests on learning research skills and the analytical thinking scale.

Conclusion     The educational guidance program, based on cognitive strategies, demonstrated clear effectiveness in developing students' analytical thinking, which positively impacted their ability to analyze and understand the details of freestyle skills in rhythmic gymnastics. The program also contributed to improving students' skill performance, particularly in freestyle skills that require a high level of awareness and mental focus. Keywords: Counseling program, cognitive strategies, analytical thinking, free skills