aram hajian, ph.d. member, board of directors chess academy of armenia dean, college of science and...

Aram Hajian, Ph.D.

Member, Board of DirectorsChess Academy of Armenia

Dean, College of Science and EngineeringAmerican University of Armenia

Educating a Nation through Chess: Armenia

December 7-8, 2013Chess in Schools Conference

London, UK

Outline

• Chess and Values

• Vision – This can be done

• Implementation

• Insights

• Context

Chess and Values

• Creativity/innovation– how to teach it?

• Logic, Memory, et al.

• Fair play

• Counterbalance to culture of instant-gratification (video games, twitter, etc.)

• Lose with dignity, win with grace

• Taking responsibility for one’s actions

• Analysis of dynamic situation

Vision – Chess in all schools is doable

• Armenia is small (~3M population)

• Chess is popular/widespread

• President is Chess Fed President and an avid chess fan and supporter

• Names/authorities in chess community with conviction in Chess in Schools vision: champions who champion the cause

• Chess passion and success

Vision – This can be done

• 48 affiliates spread throughout the country

• Network formed over the last decade

• Coordination points for Chess in Schools proliferation

Implementation – How it was done

• Strategy team coalescence

• Needs assessment

• Pilot – proof of concept

• Decision: Chess for all 2nd, 3rd, 4th grade students

• Screening, selection of instructors

• Training of instructors, filtering

Implementation – How it was done (2)

• Content creation• Textbook, workbook, teacher’s guide,

psychologist’s guide

• Inclusion of puzzles, games, pedagogical variety

• Regular trainings: team comprised of• Psychologists

• Chess professionals

• Schoolteachers

Implementation Timeline

• 2008: Prep work, needs assessment, resource inventory re: chess teachers, chess players, printed material, chess sets, et al.

• 2009: Material preparation

• 2010: Pilot with trainers/psychologists; further development of materials, localization

Implementation Timeline (2)

• 2011: Coordination with Education Ministry, with Chess Academy at nerve center

• 2011: Teacher selection and training - preparation of teachers drawing greatly upon pilot work from previous year– Most difficult task

– Hundreds of simuls to determine candidates

– ID teachers across country

– Keys: strong federation, Academy network, leadership

• Teacher certification follow-up

Current state of affairs

• Ongoing process

• Continual state of improvement– Pedagogical

– Psychological

– ID of metrics to best quantify benefit

• Positive publicity, both in country and internationally

• Popularization, e.g. pan-national school olympiads

• Expansion, e.g. virtual classroom

Research activity

• Preliminary findings are very encouraging

• Control group has been children one-year-older, ie those who did not get exposure to chess in school

• Rich data set

• Findings shared primarily in Russian-speaking sphere, to date

• Welcome to Armenia

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004j7zg

“Armenia: the cleverest nation on earth”

Challenges

• Sedentary activity in the age of greater desired physical education activity

• Always will be backlash• Competitiveness vs

collaboration?

Additional thoughts

• We can create, or least promote, our role models

• Part of a general educational system challenge in the 21st century

Thank you! www.chessacademy.am