The effectiveness of the realistic teaching model in the cognitive achievement of the Scouting Education course at the College of Physical Education and Sports Sciences and the development of critical thinking

The importance.of.this strategy.lies in its ability to transform learners into active participants in the classroom. This encourages them to draw upon their prior knowledge and apply it in discussions to solve problems they may encounter while learning scouting skills.

This research aims to.determine the effectiveness of the realistic.teaching model in enhancing the cognitive achievement of scouting students. It also seeks to explore the effectiveness of this.model in.developing critical.thinking skills among.first-year students in the college of Physical Education and Sports Sciences. The researcher.employed the.experimental method due to its suitability for the nature of the research. The research population consisted of first-year students at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Sciences at the University of Mosul for the academic year (2024-2025) The research sample was purposively selected, .comprising two.sections (D and T) with a total of (40) students. These participants were divided into two groups: an experimental group and a control group, with (20) students in each. The independent variables were the Realistic Teaching Strategy and the traditional method, whereby the experimental group being taught using the Realistic Teaching Strategy. Mean while, the controlgroup was taught using the traditional method. The duration of the experiment was equal for.both research.groups, spanning. (8) weeks with one instructional unit per week,Pre-tests and post-tests were conducted for the research variables (the.Critical.Thinking Test and the Cognitive Achievement Test).

The researcher utilized the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to process and extract the results. The study concluded.that the Realistic.Teaching Strategy is highly.effective in improving cognitive achievement and the acquisition of scouting education concepts. Furthermore,the strategy proved.effective in developing critical thinking, with the experimental group significantly outperforming the