Metamotivational states according to reversal theory in Relation to critical thinking dispositions a Group of preparatory school Students: Analysis by Gender and school type

he purpose of this study is to investigate the differences in the metamotivational states according to the metamotivational  reversal theory: telic, paratelic, arousal-avoidance, arousal-Seeking, negativism, conformity, autic-mastery, autic-sympathy alloic-mastery, alloic-sympathy (in terms of orientations, dominances, saliences and transactions), as well as the critical thinking dispositions in its four dimensions (learning orientation, creative problem solving, mental focus, cognitive integration) depending on the gender (males / females), and the type of school (governmental, private), examining differences in critical thinking dispositions in its four dimensions according to the levels of metamotivation dominances (high, low), examine the relationship between the ten metamotivation states orientations and critical thinking dispositions in its four dimensions, and investigate possibility of predicting the critical thinking dispositions and its four dimensions through the ten metamotivation orientation, amongst a group of second grade preparatory students (N=514) including both males(N=252) and females(262), distributed equally between governmental schools (N=257) and private schools (age mean = 13.92, SD = 0.280). To achieve this objective the researchers adopted the descriptive research design, both correlational and comparative. Data collection was conducted using the Motivational Style Profile for Children (Sit, Lindner, Apter, Michel & Mallows, 2010) and The California Measure of Mental Motivation (CM3) Short Form (Giancarlo, Blohm & Urdan, 2004). Results were statistically treated using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, v.23). Two-way ANOVA results indicated that there were significant difference ((P≤ =01) between mean scores of the private schools students and those of their governmental counterparts in metamotivational states in terms of orientations, dominances, saliences (telic/parateic only) and transactions, favoring private schools students, While there were no significant differences between male and female and the effect of interactions between the participants’ gender and school types were not statistically significant in these metamotivational states. One-way ANOVA results indicated that there were significant effect ((P≤ =01) for the level metamotivational dominances (high-low) in critical thinking dispositions in its four dimensions. Two-way ANOVA results indicated that there were significant difference ((P≤ =01) between mean scores of the private schools students and those of their governmental counterparts in critical thinking dispositions in its four dimensions, favoring private schools students, While there were no significant differences between male and female and the effect of interactions between the participants’ gender and school types were not statistically significant in critical thinking dispositions in its four dimensions. Findings also revealed a statistically significant correlation (P≤ .05) between participants’ degrees of metamotivational orientations and critical thinking dispositions in its four dimensions. Finally, the results of the simple linear regression analysis revealed that the degree of metamotivational orientations can predict critical thinking dispositions in its four dimensions.