A comparative study of eighth-grade students' spatial ability in rural and urban schools of Makkah, Saudi Arabia
General Material Designation
[Thesis]
First Statement of Responsibility
A. Y. Bagdady
Subsequent Statement of Responsibility
W. Korth
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
University of Pittsburgh
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
1990
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item
120
DISSERTATION (THESIS) NOTE
Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree
Ed.D.
Body granting the degree
University of Pittsburgh
Text preceding or following the note
1990
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
This study investigated the differences in cognitive spatial abilities between males and females in the urban city of Makkah and the rural village of Aljamoom in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The instruments used were the Space Relations subtest (SR) of the Differential Aptitude Tests and the Maze Tracing Speed Test. The subjects for this study were 235 eighth grade students selected to form four groups as follows: (a) 58 urban males, (b) 51 rural males, (c) 64 urban females, and (d) 62 rural females. Both the SR test and the maze test were administered to all groups under investigation along with a demographic data sheet. Stepwise regression analysis revealed that only sex and site--from a list of potential predictors--entered the regression equations as the best predictors for both dependent variables. For the variable SR, 5.36% of the total variance could be explained by site and 4.38% of the total variance could be explained by sex. For the variable Maze 2.51% of the total variance could be explained by site and 9.55 of the total variance could be explained by sex. Two-way ANOVA for the SR revealed that (a) males scored significantly (p <.05) higher than females. (b) Urban Ss scored significantly (p <.05) higher than rural Ss. Two-way ANOVA for the Maze revealed that there was a significant (p <.05) interaction between sex and site. The results of the simple main effects tests showed: (a) urban males scored significantly (p <.05) higher than urban females; (b) there was no significant (p >.05) difference between rural males and females; (c) urban males scored significantly (p <.05) higher than rural males; (d) there was no significant difference between urban and rural females.