Developing a Science Teaching Unit Based on Habits of Mind and its Impact on Scientific Concepts and Positive Thinking among Ninth-Grade Female Students

This study aimed to develop a science teaching unit based on Habits of Mind and to measure its impact on the acquisition of scientific concepts and positive thinking among ninth-grade female students. A quasi-experimental pre–post design was used with two groups. The sample consisted of 60 students from Ain Jalut Secondary School for Girls, affiliated with the Directorate of Education for the First Zarqa Region, during the first semester of the 2023/2024 academic year. Two ninth-grade classes were randomly selected and assigned to an experimental group and a control group. A teaching unit based on Habits of Mind was designed for the experimental group, while the control group studied the regular textbook unit. Two instruments were developed: a test for the acquisition of scientific concepts and a positive thinking scale, and their validity and reliability were verified. The results indicated statistically significant differences at the α = 0.05 level between the mean scores of the experimental and control groups in both the acquisition of scientific concepts and positive thinking, in favor of the experimental group. These differences appeared at the overall level of each tool and at the level of their subdimensions, indicating the effectiveness of integrating Habits of Mind into science instruction in enhancing conceptual understanding and fostering positive thinking.  The study recommends conducting further research on teaching units based on Habits of Mind across different grade levels, subject areas, and educational contexts, and examining their impact on additional cognitive and affective variables, in order to inform curriculum development and evidence-based instructional practices in science education.