Chess in Education: Where is it being used?
- In 30 countries around the world, chess is part of the required school curriculum. In Venezuela, Iceland, Russia and other countries, chess is a subject in all public schools.
- Starting this year, chess is being offered as a Board Approved and Authorized (BAA) high school course at the Robert Bateman Sec. School, Abbotsford, in British Columbia, Canada. So chess is now offered as a full credit high school course, on an equal with Science, Socials or Mathematics.
- The mathematics curriculum in New Brunswick, Canada, is a text series called "Challenging Mathematics" which uses chess to teach logic from grades 2 to 7. Using this curriculum, the average problem-solving score of pupils in the province increased from 62% to 81%. The Province of Quebec, where the program was first introduced, has the best math marks in Canada and Canada scores better than the U.S.A. on international mathematics exams. (http://www.chess-math.org)
Robert Ferguson, executive director of the American Chess School in Bradford, PA. studied junior-high students, each of whom was enrolled in an activity -- either working with computers, playing chess, taking a creative writing workshop, or playing Dungeons and Dragons -- that was designed to develop critical and creative thinking skills. By the time the students had spent about 60 hours on their chosen activities, the chess players were well ahead of the others in several psychological tests, scoring almost 13 percentage points higher in critical thinking and 35 percentage points higher in creative thinking. (http://www.quadcitychess.com/benefits_of_chess.html)
During his governor's teacher grant from the New Jersey State Department of Education, William Levy found that chess consistently (1980-1987) promoted self-esteem after a year of exposure. Many students' self-images improved dramatically. (William Levy, ``Utilizing Chess to Promote Self-Esteem in Perceptually Impaired Students,'' a governor's teacher grant program through the New Jersey State Department of Education, 1987.)
In The Case for Chess as a Tool to Develop Our Children’s Minds by Dr Peter Dauvergne, of University of Sydney, educational and psychological studies were surveyed to examine the benefits for children of studying and playing chess. The author concluded that chess can:
1. Raise intelligence quotient (IQ) scores
2. Strengthen problem solving skills, teaching how to make difficult and abstract decisions independently
3. Enhance reading, memory, language, and mathematical abilities
4. Foster critical, creative, and original thinking
5. Provide practice at making accurate and fast decisions under time pressure, a skill that can help improve exam scores at school
6. Teach how to think logically and efficiently, learning to select the ‘best’ choice from a large number of options
7. Challenge gifted children while potentially helping underachieving gifted students learn how to study and strive for excellence
8. Demonstrate the importance of flexible planning, concentration, and the consequences of decisions
9. Reach boys and girls regardless of their natural abilities or socio-economic backgrounds
(http://www.auschess.org.au/articles/chessmind.htm)
What do Educators Say? (Compiled by Dr. Robert C. Ferguson)
• Public School 68 in the Bronx noted standardized scores increased 11.2% in reading and 18.6% in math during the 1994-95 school year. Principal Cheryl Coles wrote: ``As encouraging as our scores are, the benefits of our Chess Education Program far exceeded anything that these scores could ever hope to indicate. There were significant outgrowths in varying degrees in all curriculum areas. Such as: increased enthusiasm for learning, increase in general fund of knowledge, increase in pupil attendance, increase in self-confidence, increase in parent involvement, etc.''
• Dr. Fred Loveland, superintendent of the Panama City schools, voiced his opinion: ``Chess has taught my students more than any other subject.''
• The article ``Chess Improves Academic Performance'' from the NY School Chess Program features a number of testimonies from school principals, including: ``Not only have the reading and math skills of these children soared, their ability to socialize has increased substantially, too. Our studies have shown that incidents of suspension and outside altercations have decreased by at least 60% since these children became interested in chess.''
• ``I see them (students) able to attend to something for more than an hour and a half. I am stunned. Some of them could not attend to things for more than 20 minutes.'' -- Jo Bruno, Principal, P.S. 189
• Rob Roy of Connecticut: ``Children with special problems can also learn chess. I taught a successful course for emotionally and educationally disadvantaged children in the Waterbury schools and used chess as a way for them to learn and practice self-control.It was like turning on switches in their heads. You see the child looking at a problem, breaking it down, and then putting the whole thing back together. The process involves recall, analysis, judgment and abstract reasoning.''
• Beulah McMeans, a guidance counselor at Morningside Elementary School in Prince George's County, MD, uses chess ``to help raise the self-esteem and higher order thinking skills for young students, particularly those at risk.''
Further Links and Resources:
1. The Brainy Benefits of Chess http://www.parents.com/kids/development/intellectual/benefits-of-chess/
No comments:
Post a Comment