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Yuri Razuvaev, Ñhairmen FIDE Trainer's Committee Chess and a system of education
Now days the theme “Chess and a system of education” is attracting outstanding public attention in many countries of the world – already chess is included in school programs as an optional subject or an additional education subject in the following countries: Slovenia , Germany , Singapore , Brazil , Italy , Turkey etc. Accumulated foreign experience of teaching chess in general schools indicates that the ideal age for starting studies lies at 7-12 years of age. After mastering the huge alphanumeric system of a native language, which is accomplished mainly at age 5, the following important process starts to develop – forming an ability of mental action. Such actions precede motive process and verbal expressions. A child first tried to play out the following actions and words before their realization. Psychological science has noted that the logical mistakes admitted in this stage of development may become fixed and hardly corrigible. And chess provides a perfect model for the stage of forming ability of mental action. Chess rules are so simple that every phase of the “mental action” there may be controlled by teacher. And pupils not only solve the exercises but also are clearly and apparently tested. Great Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget wrote that “Moral has respect to the rules” . Chess has clear and obligatory rules. Studying chess helps children to accustom to following the rules and laws accepted in the modern world from the childhood. A notorious pedagogue A.V. Sukhomlinsky was first in world practice to emphasize the meaning of chess for the harmonious development of children and started to practice chess education in his “School of joy”. He wrote: “In bringing up the culture of thought chess occupies an outstanding position… Playing chess disciplines thinking, raises concentration… It is impossible to imagine a complete education of mental abilities and memory without chess. The chess game must enter school life as one of the components of mental culture. We speak about the primary school, where the intellectual development is a primary focus, which demands special forms and methods of work.” Chess education is not an end in itself. It is exploiting chess as an educational means that allows us to fully use the developing potential of the ancient game. The paradox of chess education is that it is not only exceptionally fruitful for gifted and “normal” children but also for children with retarded psycho-physiological development. It is only important to offer adequate developing tasks suitable for each pupil. Yet another important aspect is provided by computers in education. At the present moment the success of an educational process in school depends on solving contradictions between the traditions of a classical education and the new computer technologies. Playing chess with its harmonious interaction with a computer allows us to make chess a natural and harmless way of transition to modern technologies. Here we note three important aspects:
One of the approved ways of introducing chess into schools is suite of programs Chess for Networks . This suite is already successfully implemented in the republic Slovenia (2005-2006) being included into the school project for this country and its introduction is planned in the Khanty-Mansyisk region, Russia (2007). The suite of programs Chess for Networks is designed for computer classes and for work over the Internet. It contains material and methods for giving chess lessons over a 2-3 year period. In total the suite includes over 3000 exercises and more than 150 lessons designed for 3 years of study starting from an initial level. The suite of programs Chess for Networks allows the teacher:
Now let us consider what advantages arise for pupils using the suite of programs Chess for Networks :
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