Thesis:

Investigating the effect of self-directed learning on changes in the quality of learning and learning skills in the social studies of the second year students of primary schools in Sabzevar city in ۲۰۲۴-۲۵

This study aimed to investigate the impact of self-directed learning on changes in the quality of learning and learning skills in the Social Studies course among upper elementary school students in Sabzevar during the academic year 2024–2025. This research is applied in terms of purpose and falls under the category of quasi-experimental studies using a pretest-posttest design with an unequal control group. The statistical population included all male students in the upper elementary level in Sabzevar, totaling 9,220 individuals. Based on entry criteria, a stratified sample of 60 students from each of the three grades was selected. The Quality of Learning Questionnaire (Elimelai et al., 2020) and the Learning Skills Questionnaire (Renzulli, 2021) were administered among the participants. After data collection and scoring, the participants were divided into two groups of 15 students each — experimental and control — based on specific criteria. The experimental group underwent 8 training sessions on learning strategies based on the Deshler model, while the control group received no intervention. Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) were used for initial data analysis. To test the hypotheses, ANCOVA (analysis of covariance) was applied, and data were analyzed using SPSS version 28. The results indicated that the significance levels associated with pretest scores for both variables — quality of learning and learning skills — were less than 0.05. Therefore, a linear relationship between pretest and posttest scores was confirmed with 95% confidence. Additionally, the significance levels for the group factor in both variables were below 0.025, thus confirming the hypothesis that "self-directed learning significantly influences changes in the quality of learning and learning skills in the Social Studies course among upper elementary students in Sabzevar during the academic year 2024–2025" with 95% confidence. The findings also showed that the eta coefficient for both quality and skills of learning increased in the posttest, indicating that self-directed learning led to an improvement in both the quality and the skills of learning.

Keywords: Keywords: Self-Directed Learning, Quality of Learning, Learning Skill