Successes and Challenges

CHESS AND EDUCATION LONDON CONFERENCE Successes and Challenges Improving School Chess Practice, Research and Strategy Saturday 7th - Sunday 8th December 2013 Olympia Kensington Saturday, 7 December 10.00 - 11.00 12.45 - 13.45 Registration and Get Together Video Lunch (Foyer) Corsica, Land of Chess 11.00 - 12.30 (France, 4 min) The Opening Session Presented by Léo Battesti / Corsican Chess League Chaired by Stefan Loeffler, Chess in the Public Interest Psychomotricity (Italy, 6 min) Welcome Presented by Alessandro Dominici / Malcolm Pein, Scacchi a Scuola Piemonte Chess in Schools and Communities Kindergarten Chess Keynote (Israel, 6 min) Prof. Aram Hajian, Presented by Boris Alterman, Chess in a New Way American University of Armenia Educating a Nation with Chess The Chess Palace Programme Aram Hajian is the Dean of the College of (Hungary, 15 min, dir. Csaba Sass, Science and Engineering of the American ed. Tamas Breitner) University of Armenia in Yerevan. The Presented by Ferenc von Maurer / Judit Pólgar Stanford and Harvard graduate is a board Chess Foundation member of the Armenian Chess Academy. 13.45 - 15.30 Prof. Fernand Gobet, University of Liverpool The Research Session A Research Agenda for Scholastic Chess Chaired by Jonathan Rowson, RSA Whether chess instruction transfers to other fields is still an open question. This talk Keynote will address two issues. First, what kind of Dr. Michelle Ellefson, University of Cambridge research should be pursued to establish Does Chess Make Children Smart? beyond doubt whether chess instruction Insights from Cognitive Science is beneficial outside the chess board? Second, what should be the content of chess A number of cognitive benefits have been instruction? More specifically, I propose that attributed to playing chess. However, there the school curriculum (e.g. in mathematics are a number of methodological and design and language) should strongly inform the limitations in current findings that prevent way chess is taught. strong conclusions about which type of thinking skills might be influenced by learning Fernand Gobet is a cognitive scientist at to play chess and whether it is those thinking Liverpool University interested in learning, skills that might lead to the academic gains language aquisition and expertise. An related to chess playing. During this talk, I International Master and former national present the case for why chess might improve team player for Switzerland, he has one area of thinking skills called executive conducted many studies on chess. functions. I explore how these skills are beneficial for academic achievement and why they are the focus of a chess intervention 12.30 - 13.45 programme that I am running with an Lunch Break international team of collaborators. 2 CHESS AND EDUCATION LONDON CONFERENCE Further, I include a discussion on how certain which she won a three year Reach for Change aspects of cognitive science might be useful grant to develop chess as an educational tool for exploring the impact of playing chess for for children with special needs and education. for integration. She has studied social psychology and is a trained “Kaospilot”, Dr. Ellefson is a lecturer in Psychology & i.e. social entrepreneurship and leadership. Neuroscience in Education with the Faculty She is based in Kopenhagen, but her projects of Education at the University of Cambridge. are in Sweden. Her work integrates cognition, neuroscience, child development, and education into a multi-disciplinary research programme aimed Prof. Christopher Chabris, at improving maths and science education. Union College / Albany Medical College She is principal investigator of the Mind Match Finding the Active Ingredients in a Chess Chess project (2011-2014). Intervention Christopher Chabris is Co-Director of the Roberto Trinchero, University Torino Neuroscience Program at Union College and Giuliano d´Ereditá, University Palermo Adjunct Assistant Professor of Neurology Can Chess Improve Math Scores? An at Albany Medical College. He has many Italian Experiment Goes International scholarly and popular publications on cognitive psychology including a number of chess related We show that a chess intervention with studies. For many years he organized chess in-presence lessons and online training can at Harvard. improve significantly the scores of children on the OECD-Pisa Mathematics Scale. We are now testing the role of digital chess instruction in 15.30 - 15.45 an international research project. Coffee Break Roberto Trinchero is Professor of Education Research at the Deparment of Philosophy 15.45 - 17.00 and Science of Education at the University The Best Practice Session of Torino. The trained sociologist has Chaired by John Foley, CSC lead numerous studies on the effects of chess teaching. Carl Fredrik Johansson, Giuliano d´Ereditá is Lecturer in Didactics of Swedish Chess Federation Mathematics and Physics at the University Who are the Chess Teachers of the Future? of Palermo and the school chess coordinator of the Italian Chess Federation. I will talk about the path we have chosen in Sweden to get Chess in School as strong and durable as possible. In particular, I will talk Johanna Valentin, Utsiktstornet.se about the chess trainers of the future, and the Chess as an Educational Tool for Children success we hope to achieve after we finally have with Learning Disabilities realized that chess players in general are pretty bad teachers. There are plenty of non-conventional possibilities within the chess game for social Carl-Fredrik Johansson is President of the and intellectual development. My talk Swedish Chess Federation since summer 2013. will include research on the subject and In 2005 he founded the Uppsala School Chess experiences from working with chess in Society. Besides being a trainer for the best schools and with children with special needs. juniors in town, he trained teachers, taught Johanna Valentin is the founder and director children and helped to introduce chess in more of Utsiktstornet (The Vantage Tower), for than thirty schools. 3 CHESS AND EDUCATION LONDON CONFERENCE Ferenc von Maurer, Judit Pólgar Chess Foundation author and translator, he was the school chess Chess in All Subjects - The Chess Palace coordinator of the French Chess Federation from Programme 2008 until 2013. Judit Pólgar’s Chess Palace Programme goes beyond Marisa van der Merwe, Mini Chess South Africa the normal boarders of chess teaching, and focuses Game Changer - A Primary Chess Curriculum on improving academic skills, logical, creative thinking and problem solving, preparing children I will focus on the development of age specific to be able to accept the challenges of the digital curriculum content, implementation and materials society they live in. The teaching material has (Learner Workbooks, Teacher Manuals & lesson exceptionally strong skills training through cross- plans as well as teaching aids) over the course of curricular links with is completely integrated into more than twenty years in South African classrooms, the regular elementary school curriculum. using chess-related activities for critical capacity building in 5 to 9 year-olds. Mini Chess has been Ferenc von Maurer is the Educational and PR the subject of several studies, of which the roll- Manager of the Judit Pólgar Chess Foundation out and results will be shared. It targets teacher for Educational Benefits. He combines a broad empowerment, job creation and bridging cultural academic and professional background as a teacher and language barriers. of English, physical education and drama, as a TV sports presenter and as a PR strategist for different Marisa van der Merwe is the founder and director sport organizations. of Mini Chess, a curriculum she has recently roled out in several African countries in cooperation with Jérome Maufras, Académie de Créteil Kasparov Chess Foundation Africa. She is co-founder Mini Games - Improving Academic Skills of the charity Moves for Life and was manager of with Chess the Waterkloof Chess Center for eight years. Those in favour of the development of chess in schools are enthusiast as long as you are talking 17.00 - 18.30 about convincing people to embrace their cause. The Worldcafé Session They are more silent, however, when it comes to the (Three sessions of thirty minutes of debating, after pedagogic methods that should be used to make it thirty minutes everyone changes table) work. One thing is for sure: the debate cannot only be reduced to teaching how to checkmate, deliver How We Deceive Ourselves about the Benefits a fork or sacrifice on h7, or else chess will remain a of Chess (Room 2) competitive and fun game confined to after school Hosted by Prof. Christopher Chabris, time but it will not be considered by educators and Union College / Albany Medical College parents as a tool to develop or improve academic skills. I think the educational potential of chess has How to Make Chess Less Scary for Girls and not been fully exploited yet. The development of Female Teachers? chess in schools is still too competition-oriented, Hosted by Sarah Kett, TSK Chess Wales not only in its goals (training new players) but in its methods (developing chess skills) as well. I will How to Make Chess More Inclusive and show how mini-games or chess-like situations Socially Integrative? improve not just chess skills but also academic Hosted by Johanna Valentin, Utsiktstornet.se skills, how this conception of chess in schools development can help chess to fit in with teachers, Should Chess be a Subject

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