A proposed program according to the Cognitive burden theory to develop cognitive achievement and Crisis management skills at the subject of Social Studies for the prep stage pupils

The present study aims to investigate the effectiveness of a proposed program in light of Cognitive Load Theory for developing academic achievement and crisis management skills among preparatory stage students.The researcher randomly selected a sample of 40 second-year preparatory students from Mohamed Ali El-Bahiry Basic Education School in Giza Governorate. The researcher adopted the educational experimental method, preparing an academic achievement test in social studies and a crisis management skills test. Both tests were applied to the research group as a pre-test, after which the proposed program—based on Cognitive Load Theory—was taught to the students in the research group. Following the program, the academic achievement test and the crisis management skills test were re-applied as a post-test to the same group.The results revealed a statistically significant difference at the 0.05 level between the mean scores of the students in the research group on the pre- and post-tests of both academic achievement and crisis management skills, in favor of the post-test. The study also confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed program, designed in light of Cognitive Load Theory in social studies, in enhancing academic achievement and social responsibility among preparatory students. Based on these results, several recommendations were made, such as: the necessity of incorporating crisis management skills into the content of social studies curricula at the preparatory stage, and conducting training courses for social studies teachers to train them on how to use teaching strategies related to Cognitive Load Theory.