English abstract
The present study aimed at identifying the degree to which third year secondary school students in the art section master the historical research skills necessary for them. This was formulated in term of the following questions: - What are the historical research skills necessary for those students? - To what extent do they master some of historical research skills?. - Are there statistically significant differences in the mastery of the historical research skills between male and female students?
To answer those questions, a list of historical research skills was developed by the researcher. This list consisted of (10) main skills which contained (44) sub-skills. The list was used to design a test for measuring the degree to which those students master those skills: reading and understanding the historical materials, chronological and spatial sequencing of historical events, exploiting historical resources in acquiring historical knowledge, relating causes and effects of historical events, and selection of primary sources. The following are the main findings of the study: - Students mastery of the historical research skills is relatively low (58%). This is lower than experts accepted level which is (70%). - There was no statistically significant difference between males and females in the grand mean for all historical research skills. However, there was a statistically significant difference between males and females in favour of females in two main skills, those are: reading and understanding the historical materials and exploiting historical resources in acquiring historical knowledge.
