The Relative Contribution of Statistical Thinking in Predicting Self-Research Competence Among Postgraduate Students at the College of Education, King Khalid University

The study aimed to determine the levels of both statistical thinking and self-research competence, the relationship between them, and identify differences in the level of statistical thinking among postgraduate students at the College of Education, King Khalid University, according to the variables (gender, specialization, and academic stage). Also to determine the degree of relative contribution of statistical thinking and its sub-dimensions in predicting self-research competence. The descriptive approach and a stratified sample have been used. The sample consisted of 309 postgraduate students. The study used the statistical thinking scale, and the self-research competence scale (prepared by Author). The results showed that: (a) the level of statistical thinking among students was Moderate, while the level of self-research competence among the students was high. (b) There was a statistically significant positive correlation at the significance level (0.01) between self-research competence, and statistical thinking. (c) There are statistically significant differences between the average scores of students at the level of statistical thinking related to the variables of specialization and academic stage. (d) The possibility of the relative contribution of statistical thinking in predicting Self-Research Competence has been found, where statistical thinking explains (86.8%) of the variance in the level of Self-Research Competence.