How chess is putting sagging grades in checkmate
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by Brett Henebery11 May 2015
Amaroo School, located in Canberra’s north, is providing an elective chess program for Years 6 and 7 to opt into, which is helping students be motivated and engaged in learning.
Year 5 teacher, Steve Clarke, told The Educator that apart from helping to improve the concentration of students, chess also teaches patience and perseverance.
“These are qualities which many students of today’s fast paced media age often struggle to develop,” Clarke said.
“Chess provides an opportunity for students to be taught how to focus on a problem or situation through careful observation of the events that are unfolding around them.”
John Adams, government relations director with the Australian Chess Federation (ACF), recently announced plans to conduct a research project drawing on a large international body of work into the positive impacts of the game on brain development.
“The Gonski report clearly outlined that the performance of Australian school children, based on the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment, has been in decline since 2000 across mathematics, science and reading,” Adams told theABC.
“The research project will investigate whether chess in schools can assist in arresting the decline in student performance and enhance educational outcomes.”
Full article here.