How an educational program can improve social intelligence in preparatory-school girls

Verifying the Effect of an Educational Program on Developing Social Intelligence among Preparatory-Stage Female Students

The present study aimed to verify the effect of an educational program on developing social intelligence among preparatory-stage female students, and to reveal the differences between the experimental and control groups in the pre- and post-administrations. The study adopted the experimental method with an equivalent-groups design. The research sample consisted of (60) female students of the fourth preparatory grade in the center of Nineveh Governorate for the academic year (2025–2026), distributed into four groups—two experimental and two control—after establishing equivalence among them in the variables of the pretest, chronological age, and the father's and mother's educational attainment. The two research instruments were the educational program, consisting of (20) lessons in addition to an introductory lesson, delivered at a rate of four sessions per week, each lasting (40) minutes, and the Social Intelligence Test (Idham, 2009). The psychometric properties of both instruments were verified: the experts' agreement rate on the test items reached (98%), and the test-retest reliability coefficient was (0.72). The results showed that preparatory-stage female students possess a high level of social intelligence compared with the hypothetical mean of the scale, and that the educational program had a statistically significant effect at the (0.05) level on developing social intelligence in favor of the post-administration, in addition to statistically significant differences between the experimental and control groups in the post-administration in favor of the experimental group. In light of the results, the study recommended integrating social intelligence skills into school curricula and activities and training teachers and educational counselors to employ educational and counseling programs in developing them.