Is chess the solution to Australia's education problems?

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cal7102
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WayneT

The above referenced article is somewhat simplistic for a couple of reasons.

The author alludes to the government's objective, whilst being a challenge, as foolhardy then in the summation questions what's being done to improve the standards. Then tells us that Russia ranks second in the world simply because they employ chess in their curriculum.

The author hasn't bothered to provide us with any other possibilities with-in the Russian curriculum that may have inluenced outcomes.

The actual report itself identifies a couple of possibilities. It showed, as a general rule of thumb, students' results were directly proportional to their parental educational standards. Additionally, Australia would have faired better if the test results of only the ACT were provided.

This suggests possibly two areas for analysis, obviously, there are many other areas not identified (perhaps some of which the Russians employ). Firstly, make  mature education more attractive, in particular for the adults in pre and early family development. Secondly, components of the ACT curriculum standards/methods may be worth consideration for broader implementation, perhaps national (?). Please note, it may simply be the case that the average ACT parents have higher educational levels(?).

There are many tools that may prove positive, including the implementation of mental/cognitive training activities like chess.

Clearly, much research is required.

cal7102

Dear Waynet,
 I didn't make it clear before but I am the author. This article was written to document the benifits of chess and suggest how it could be used to improve the state of Australia's education. This article was not based on finding the best way to improve education in Australia.Obviously, some more thought needs to be put into the headline to make the objective of the article clearer.

WayneT

Oh I see. The title and the content got me interested and I rambled on a bit. Mind you I had a g&t's and it was late lol.

Certainly, chess as a tool for cognitive development is excellent. I guess one difficulty with implementation would be to capture the interest in students that have none in these kind of games - that I guess is the trademark of a "good teacher".

Mandy711

I don't know if including chess in school would improve the educational system. But getting students interested in chess would lessen their interest in TV and video games which is damaging their intellectual pursuit. There is only one way to find out if chess helps. Try.

Valtron

Could you give us some more info on these literacy tests? For example, are they all in English or the first language of the country tested?

kco

Are you asking whether Australia speak something else other than english ?

Valtron

No, I want to know whether the literacy tests taken by Russia were in Russian or English (because I'm told that Russian is not as complicated of a language as English).

DrSpudnik

Though the chess-in-the-schools thing has been around a while and the data should be around to study it without just guessing at the effects, there is nothing that motivates people to learn better than dangling a future in front of them that is attainable by striving toward that end.

WayneT

My understanding is that the tests are undertaken in the primary language of the country in which the test is conducted. It identifies what the students were 'supposed' to learn and tests them accordingly. It is not the same test questions for everyone. The tests are designed to see how the students are learning what they are supposed to.

camter

I think teaching Chess in Australian schools is a great idea. At least the would learn something, although I suspect that it would be a gigantic consultation game that they would learn going by the style of teaching this days.

One small problem would be to get them to actually sit still to play OTB.

And, I could imagine one or two small problems.

"Please, Miss, this is Boring."

"Please, Ms, this is too hard!"

"Please, Sir!" No, wouldn't happen, as blokes gave away teaching years ago, except in the elite Schools, and they always have a Chess Club anyway. 

Pardon me, but Chess builds on skills, it does not teach them.

I bet it is the same the world over, not just here dow nunder.

There are a lot of young people play Chess here from all around the world. I am an old man and get beaten by the clock a lot, as I think slower than I used to, and I have not the muscle skills taught by years of video games.

But, most of them are very vunerable to back row mates. I had one bloke accuse me of using a computer to help me. I used the Traxler on him. He could not believe that if he took the Traxler Bishop that his Knight fork of Quuen and Rook would never actually be completed as the following Knight Check would see my Queen at his throat very quickly.

I hope he studied the Traxler afterward, and if he invites it again, I will not try it, because i know he will have prepared, and I will wear his Fried Liver, only I know where to go after the follow up Queen Check, which is counterintuitive. No one below 1200 seems to know how to defend the Fried Liver.

Hope you little Aussies are all listening!

"Oh, sir, this is too hard."

"What, you once played Bobby Fischer, sir?"

"No, son, but I played someone who played him".

"Cool!"

I did not tell that Averbach won a minor piece in about 5 moves flat in a QGD, But I did tell him that he autographed my copy of his "Chess Endings: Essential Knowledge".

Great book, but it requires a little application to grasp, something that is not easily done by the easily bored.

Dear me, it is not the children's fault, but teaching cramps their creative abilities, doesn't it! And please, no rote learning, except slogans!  

kco

I say is a bad idea, maybe is ok for activity only for a short time.

iamdeafzed

Playing chess well obviously requires certain cognitive faculties, but neither is doing so a substitute for reading a book or solving a math problem. Actually, my understanding is that very few mathematicians ever made for good chess players (GM John Nunn obviously being a glaring exception), despite the obvious mathematical nature of chess...probably because in practice, most players (especially club players) rely more heavily on pattern recognition and memory than they actually do cold hard logic.

kco

the children would be better off learning on how to learn.

TitanCG

There is a documentary called "Brooklyn Castle" about a middle school in New York that has chess in it's curriculum as well as a chess team that has done very well in national tournaments. It's definitely worth a watch.

kco

Very good but the question is did it help them to read, write and do maths well ?

kco

what a moron.

kco

What did I do to you and that I deserve these attacks from you ?

cal7102
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KeyserSzoze

no, rugby is

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