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Can Chess Improve Math Scores? An Italian Experiment Goes International.

This study examines the effect of chess on math scores in primary school children. The research shows that a chess course can improve math ability, and a blended (in-presence + online) course can enhance OECD-PISA math scores.

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Can Chess Improve Math Scores? An Italian Experiment Goes International.

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  1. Can Chess Improve Math Scores? An Italian Experiment Goes International. Roberto Trinchero roberto.trinchero@unito.it Department of Philosophy and Education University of Turin Giuliano D'Eredità – University of Palermo Workgroup: Alessandro Dominici, Giovanni SalaDario Mione, Malola Prasath, Gianluca Argentin 1

  2. Can Chess Improve Math Scores in primary school children? Gobet F., Campitelli G. (2006), Educational benefits of chess instruction. A critical review, http://people.brunel.ac.uk/~hsstffg/preprints/chess_and_education.pdfTrinchero R. (2012), Gli scacchi, un gioco per crescere. Sei anni di sperimentazione nella scuola primaria, Milano, FrancoAngeli. The implicit in the chess activities in school is the belief that skills acquired playing chess can transfer to other domains; Is this belief based on well-substantiated evidence?; Italian research 2006-2012  A basic in-presence Chess course of 30 hours can improve specific Math ability. 2

  3. Our 2012-2013 Research: Chess and Oecd-Pisa Math Scores • Hypotesis: A blended (in-presence+online) basic Chess course can improve Oecd-Pisa Math Scores in children of 8-11 age; • Sample: 568 pupils of Italian primary school (non-random sample from Piedmont and Lombardy); • Method: Solomon 4-group test-retest experimental design; • Subsamples: The Experimental Group was differentiated by: • Class attended (grade 3, 4, 5); • Number of hours of the course (10, 11, 14, 16); • Year of chess course (1, 2, 3). 3

  4. The Math test Seven Oecd-Pisa released item (selected to be faceable by 8-11 years-old pupils): 4

  5. An Example of item 5

  6. The Experimental Design: Solomon 4-group test-retest January-February 2013 October-November 2012 CAT = Computer Assisted Training (www.europechesspromotion.org) Shadish W. R., Cook T. D., Campbell D. T. (2002), Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Generalized Causal Inference, Boston-New York, Houghton Mifflin Company, http://depts.washington.edu/methods/readings/Shadish.pdf 6

  7. Score gain in mathematic ability: General results The pre-test has lead to a significative decrease of gain in Experimental Group (probably «boredom» effect) There is a little but significative increase of Math scores in Experimental Group (0,67 vs a maximum of 7, Anova) 7

  8. Score gain in mathematics ability: Subgroups analysis Significance relevant to Control Group (from Anova) Successful subgroups Score gain 8

  9. Successful subgroups Successful subgroups have attended a chess course of almost 14 hour OR … 9

  10. Engagement in the online game (CAT) … with an exception … … have had a greater involvement in the CAT 10

  11. Unsuccessful subgroups Exception: a class with a very high initial score, and with several organizational problems in post-test 11

  12. Score gain in Chess ability 12 Maximum gain is 18.Significance is relevant to the control group and calculated with Anova

  13. Overall results Trinchero R. (2012), Gli scacchi, un gioco per crescere. Sei anni di sperimentazione nella scuola primaria, Milano, FrancoAngeli. The gain in math scores is proportional to time spent in the chess course; CAT can be an effective instrument for chess training; These results are compliant with results of Italian research 2006-2012. 13

  14. Weakness of the study and future challenges • Weakness: Participants were not randomly selected: • Groups and subgroups are not statistically equivalent; • Results are not generalizable. • Challenges: • To define the conditions of transferability  when the transferability can occur; • To explain the dynamics of chess transfer  what ability are transferable and why. 14

  15. The experience in 2010:Using the digital technologies for chess scholastic learning • A collaboration among Turin University, Palermo University and Italian National Research Council (CNR), with the support of Italian Chess Federation- Piedmont Committee, Banca San Paolo, MSP; • The goal of the inquire was to compare different chess learning settings; • We submitted to 3rd grade students a short chess protocol (10h) using digital or traditional learning;For traditional learning we considered 3 modes: Chess Instr. only, Chess Instr.+Class Teacher, 2 Chess Instr.+Class Teacher • We adopted the software Gatto Vittorio (it was its first appearance !) 15

  16. The experience in 2010: Main results • Surprisingly, kids who already knew chess obtained worst results! • The best results were obtained using the 2 Ch.Instructors+Teacher mode, followed by Ch.Instr.+ Teacher, after Ch. Instr, at last the digital one, but the only significative difference was found for the 2Ch. Instr + teacher mode; • We have to respect kids' learning time (digitalactivity requires more time with respect to the traditional one); 10 h is the minimum time to obtain any achievement); • Doing tests, and obtaining feedback from them improve the chess learning 16

  17. In progress: Research «Chess World» 2013-2014 Test Test Test Change 2 Change 1 G1 Control G2 Experimental G1 Experimental G2 Control Randomized selection Replication of 2012-2013 research design, with: An international sample (Italy and India) (about 6000 participants); Sample with randomized pairs of equivalent classes (swap experimental-control groups): 17 Hypotesis is corroborated if Ch1(G1)>Ch1(G2) And Ch2(G2)>Ch2(G1)

  18. We are managing to realize an implicative statistical analysis with respect to the reasoning and arguing style of the students; • Through an a-priori analysis of the items we will formulate other research hypotheses based on epistemological and social-linguistic considerations; • These hypotheses are to be turned into implications and correlations among the occurrences of the tests outputs, using binary variables (Y or N); • We'll adopt the implication and correlation indexes as in Gras (2000), using the software CHIC 18

  19. Syntesis of italian research 2006-2012 R. Trinchero (2012), Gli scacchi, un gioco per crescere. Sei anni di sperimentazione nella scuola primaria, Milano, FrancoAngeli. R. Trinchero (2012), Chess, a game to grow up with: a synthesis of six years of research, Milano, FrancoAngeli (the book has a chapter in English that summarize the results). 19

  20. Thanks… roberto.trinchero@unito.it giuliano.deredita@gmail.com Presentation is available on www.europechesspromotion.org Thanks to workgroup: Alessandro Dominici - Giovanni Sala Dario Mione - Malola Prasath - Gianluca Argentin 20

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