The effects of the first part of the CoRT program for teaching thinking (BREADTH) on the development of communication skills among a sample of students from Al al-Bayt University in Jordan

This study aimed to investigate the effects of the first part of the CoRT program for teaching thinking (BREADTH) on the development of communication skills among a sample of students from Al al-Bayt University in Jordan. The study sample consisted of all the students enrolled in the training session for the first part of the CoRT program held by the Excellence and Innovation Center at Al al-Bayt University during the second semester of 2014/2015 academic year. It included 36 participants (20 females and 16 males) from different specializations and academic levels at the university. The researcher prepared a training program and a scale for communication skills, for which he extracted validity and reliability. Diagrams for arithmetic averages, standard deviations, T-test and Wilcoxon W test were used to answer the questions of the study. The results showed that there were statistically significant differences (α=0.05) between the pre and post measurements for members of the experimental group on the communication skills scale in favor of the post measurement. This indicates the effectiveness of the first part of the CoRT program (BREADTH) on the development of communication skills as well as the lack of statistically significant differences based on sex in the post measurement. The study recommended the need to implement the training program for more than one person including all the university students to develop their effective communication skills. Key words: The first part of the CoRT program (BREADTH), communication skills, university students.