When Implementing Games In Your Classroom, Don’t Forget About Chess
When Implementing Games In Your Classroom, Don’t Forget About Chess
When Implementing Games In Your Classroom, Don’t Forget About Chess
By Paige Tutt
May 28, 2021
Summary
Over the last 30 years, teacher-turned-principal Salome Thomas-EL has found success leveraging the game of chess to teach math and history at the elementary and middle school levels, writes Kate Stoltzfus for ASCD. But chess is not just about rote academics, says Thomas-EL: The game boosts student confidence, teaches them critical thinking and problem solving skills, and engages them behaviorally, emotionally, and cognitively, along with providing a host of other benefits.
"What I often say is that smart students don't always play chess, but students who play chess always become smart," said Thomas-EL in the interview with ASCD. "Students I had 30 years ago reach out to me and say they still remember those matches and are still using those skills in life, in business, in the corporate world, in law school."
Many of Thomas-EL's students are disadvantaged students of color, who have historically lacked access to enrichment opportunities that challenge their minds, he says.
Thomas-EL's observations are backed by an array of studies that show chess improves students' academic and social and emotional skills.
Builds Confidence in Students: Research conducted by the St. Louis Chess Club showed that 72 percent of students polled believe chess made them more confident with learning challenges; 75 percent of those same students also felt chess motivated them to seek out more difficult opportunities.
Builds Problem Solving Skills: In chess, players must be thinking critically at all times when faced with a series of challenges on the board, predicting several moves ahead of their opponent to win-a feature that helps students develop stronger problem-solving capabilities, says Thomas-EL. A study conducted in the early '90s suggests that students who learned general problem-solving skills while playing chess could transfer those same skills to another academic domain, in this case, poetry.
These students possess skills that could be bolstered through chess because the game requires players to mentally picture a move they or their opponent may make on the board without physically touching any pieces.
"[Chess] teaches students to not only see the turn, but to see around the turn, because in chess you have to think five moves ahead," says Thomas-EL. Improves Math Scores: A study from 2015 showed a correlation between chess and improved math scores.
Out of a group of 560 students, half were exposed to "Normal school activities" while the other 280 students received in-person chess lessons and online training to bolster their mathematical problem-solving skills. Students don't have to wait until their next day back to in person school to continue their journey with chess, emphasizes Thomas-EL. Chess sets are fairly inexpensive and can be sent home with students.
Reference
Tutt, P. (2021, May 28). When implementing games in your classroom, don't forget about chess. Retrieved August 27, 2021, from https://www.edutopia.org/article/when-implementing-games-your-classroom-dont-forget-about-chess