Higher order thinking skills include critical, logical, reflective, metacognitive, and creative thinking. They are activated when individuals encounter unfamiliar problems, uncertainties, questions, or dilemmas. They play an important role in developing University students to encounter any stressful situations. This study aims at identifying the extent to which higher-order thinking degrees contribute to predicting the psychological hardiness of university students and at identifying the differences between males and females in higher-order thinking skills and psychological hardiness The higher order thinking scale (prepared by the researchers) and the psychological hardiness scale (by Mukhaimar, 1996) were completed by (485) male and female Minia University students. The current research adopted the descriptive research approach. According to the statistical analysis, results revealed that there was a statistically significant positive relationship between higher-order thinking and psychological hardiness among the study sample and there were no statistically significant differences between males and females in higher-order thinking. In addition, higher-order thinking skills contributed holistically in predicting the psychological hardiness among the university students. This study recommended that higher order thinking skills should be an integral part of higher education. Lastly, this study offers specific suggestions for higher education stakeholders.

This study investigated the role of problem-solving skills as a mediator variable in the relationships between habits of mind and the psychological hardiness among university students, and to identify the difference between male and female students in each of the habits of mind, psychological hardiness, and problem-solving skills. The sample comprised of 285 male and female, third-year Faculty of Education, University students. The data collection utilized the habits of mind scale, the problem-solving scale, and the psychological hardiness scale (Mekhemer, 1996). SPSS v.25 and AMOS v.24 were used to process data. The findings revealed that problem-solving skills partially mediates the relationship between habits of mind and psychological hardiness, and the results also demonstrated that there are no statistically significant differences between male and female students in habits of mind, problem-solving skills, and psychological hardiness. Future research suggestions include planning stakeholders at the university stage should take into consideration the necessity to integrate habits of mind and problem-solving skills in curricula, and providing training for faculty members to enhance university students' psychological hardiness.

Psychological barriers are one of the most common problems facing individuals nowadays due to everyday life pressures. The current research aimed at identifying the extent to which psychological barriers contribute to predicting the perceived cognitive load of blackboard e-learning management system users. The research sample comprised (240) male and female among the University Students. The descriptive-analytical approach, specifically the predictive correlative research method was utilized to reveal the relationship between the research variables. The research main results revealed that there was a statistically significant correlative positive relationship between the psychological barriers and the cognitive load (intrinsic, extraneous, and the overall degree), and there was no statistically correlative relationship between psychological barriers and the Germane cognitive load. Besides, results concluded that the external psychological barriers were better at predicting the overall degree of the perceived cognitive load. Psychological barriers and cognitive load must be considered within the e-learning settings through making use of the results of the current study in developing training and counseling programs to reduce the students' psychological barriers and cognitive load levels.   Keywords: psychological barriers; cognitive load; Blackboard system

Purpose: The research aimed to identify the relationship between psychological empowerment and decision-making Styles among Al-Azhar teachers. The research also aimed to identify the differences in teachers' levels on the (psychological empowerment and decision-making styles) scale according to the variable (gender). Methodology: The research sample consisted of (556) male and female teachers in Al-Azhar. The research tools included a psychological empowerment scale and decision-making styles scale. The researcher used descriptive methods. To process the results and validate the hypotheses, the researcher used the correlation coefficients and t-test. Main Findings: The results show that there is a positive relationship between psychological empowerment and decision-making styles. There is a negative correlation between the dimensions of psychological empowerment and decision-making styles. The results indicated a statistically significant difference in psychological empowerment due to gender in favor of males. Lastly, there is no statistically significant difference due to gender in the (intuitive) style. Implication: Psychological empowerment should be utilized to raise the decision-making styles of university students. Novelty: This is a first attempt to explore the psychological empowerment of the decision-making styles of university students in Egypt which may be further explored to enrich the students’ understanding.