Abstract Academic achievement is considered as one of the major factors in the learning process, as it is one of the complex variables that have an important influence on learning. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationship between academic motivation, academic help-seeking and academic achievement. A total of 437 university students were selected randomly (simple random–online questionnaires) from many Arab countries (Jordan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Syria) who responded to the questionnaire on academic motivation (intrinsic, extrinsic and amotivation) and academic help-seeking (instrumental, executive, avoidance and benefits of help-seeking). Path analysis results showed direct effects from intrinsic motivation to instrumental help-seeking (0.291**), amotivation to executive help-seeking (0.709**), instrumental help-seeking to grade point average (GPA) (0.377**), executive help-seeking to GPA (−0.349**), intrinsic motivation to benefits of help-seeking (0.528**) and from amotivation to avoidance help-seeking (0.738**). Also, there were indirect effects from amotivation to GPA (−0.248**) and from intrinsic motivation to GPA (0.110**). The results illustrate the importance of academic motivation and help-seeking to provide a fuller understanding of students’ academic achievement. Keywords: Intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, amotivation, instrumental help-seeking, executive help-seeking, avoidance help-seeking, benefits of help-seeking, path analysis.

Critical thinking is a central part of our daily life. It has great importance in immunizing the individual against the vast amount of information, events, and situations that the individual deals with and faces. This study aimed at identifying differences in critical thinking according to different variables. The variables were specializations (scientific, literary), gender (male, female), the Grade Point Average (GPA) and the scores of Jordanian high school national exam (Tawjiji) to predict critical thinking skills. This quantitative study used the descriptive approach by applying Watson's and Glasser's [16] critical thinking appraisal short form transferred to Arabic by Alotaibi [7]. This study was applied to a sample comprising (216) students from Ajloun University College, affiliated with Al-Balqa Applied University, students in Jordan. The results indicated that the study sample had high levels of critical thinking of sub-skills and a high level in critical thinking as for the total scores. There were statistically significant differences in all critical thinking of sub-skills according to specializations in favour of the scientific stream. Besides, there were statistically significant differences in all critical thinking skills according to gender in favour of males. Also, critical thinking could be predicted by the degree of the national examination for high school in Jordan (Tawjiji) but not by Grade Point Average (GPA). The differences in critical thinking between students of scientific streams and literary ones may refer to the difference in school curricula. The scientific courses focus on critical thinking skills more than literary ones. Therefore, it was important to include critical thinking skills in school curricula since critical thinking skills are very important in an individual's success both in study and life.

Abstract:This research aimed at identifying the levels of metacognitive skills (planning, monitoring, and assessment), cognitive failure, the differences in them according to specialisations (scientific college and literary college), and the predictive ability of metacognitive skills in detecting cognitive failure. The metacognitive skills questionnaire (MCSQ) and cognitive failure questionnaire (CFQ) were applied to 241 female students from Qassim University in Saudi Arabia. It was found that these students have high level of planning, low level of monitoring and assessment, and low level of cognitive failure. Next, it was revealed that there were statistically significant differences in planning and monitoring skills according to specialisations in favour of scientific colleges, and statistically significant differences in cognitive failure in favour of literary colleges. Also, cognitive failure could be inversely predicted by planning and monitoring.

This study aimed to identify the differences between cognitive flexibility and subjective vitality according to specialisation background (scientific and literary), gender (male and female) and the ability of cognitive flexibility as a predictor of subjective vitality. The cognitive flexibility inventory and subjective vitality scale were applied to 189 undergraduate students in Jordan. The results showed that the highest mean of cognitive flexibility dimensions belonged to alternative flexibility, whereas control flexibility came in the second rank. The results indicated that there were statistically significant differences in alternative flexibility according to specialisation background in favour of literary background students, but no significant differences were found in control flexibility, total cognitive flexibility and total score of subjective vitality. The results also indicated that there were significant differences in alternative flexibility and the total score of cognitive flexibility according to gender for males’ benefit, but no significant differences in control flexibility and the total score of subjective vitality according to gender were found. Furthermore, the subjective vitality could be predicted by cognitive flexibility.   Keywords: Cognitive flexibility, subjective vitality, undergraduate students, AL-Balqa Applied University, educational psychology.

It seems that the academic motivation structure is affected by cultural factors. Many studies have examined the factorial structure of the academic motivation scale (AMS), and the results showed different factorial structures of AMS (e.g., Taghipour Ali Hosein et al. (EL-yazidi and Louzani, 2017) concluded that the scale consists of two dimensions; Natalya and Purwanto (2018) concluded that it consists of three dimensions; Alruaili (2020) concluded that it consists of four dimensions; Abu Awad (2009) concluded that the scale consists of six dimensions). The AMS is one of the most widely used academic motivation measures across the world. It was built on the basis of the self-determination theory. The current study aimed at investigating the factorial structure of the AMS using the exploratory factor analysis (PCA) and the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The AMS was applied to a sample of 401 university students. The results of PCA suggested a three-factor solution (intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and Amotivation), and CFA was conducted for three competing structures (three factors, five factors, and seven factors); the results confirmed the three-factor solution for the AMS. The results also showed that the AMS dimensions had good alpha coefficient values which were greater than the acceptable cut-off value of 0.7. In conclusion, the Jordanian version of the AMS is a valid scale that consists of 24 items loaded on three factors (intrinsic, extrinsic, and Amotivation) for measuring academic motivation.