The Level of Mental Capacity among General Tenth-grade Students in some Public Secondary Schools in Deir ez-Zor

Abstract

The current research aims to identify the level of mental capacity among tenth-grade students in public secondary schools in some government schools in Deir ez-Zor city and examine the differences according to the variable of gender. The research problem was represented by a gap between the theoretical importance of mental capacity and the field reality in which students face difficulties in comprehending abstract concepts and processing complex information. The research relied on the descriptive method, and the research sample consisted of (150) male and female students selected randomly. To achieve the objectives, the researcher prepared a specific scale to measure mental capacity consisting of (30) items distributed across three dimensions (working memory, information processing, attention). The results showed that the overall arithmetic mean of the level of mental capacity came at a moderate level, with statistically significant differences in favor of females. The research concluded that the average level of mental capacity among students indicates a need to develop teaching methods and enhance mental skills, and that the superiority of females may be attributed to educational and social factors related to cognitive organization and academic discipline.