Educating a Nation through Chess: Armenia December 7-8, 2013 Chess in Schools Conference

1. Educating a Nation through Chess: ArmeniaDecember 7-8, 2013Chess in Schools Conference London, UK Aram Hajian, Ph.D.Member, Board of DirectorsChess Academy of ArmeniaDean, College of Science and EngineeringAmerican University of Armenia

2. Outline • Chess and Values • Vision – This can be done • Implementation • Insights • Context

3. 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

4. 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

5. Vision – This can be done • 48 affiliates spread throughout the country • Network formed over the last decade • Coordination points for Chess in Schools proliferation

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004j7zg “Armenia: the cleverest nation on earth”

13. Challenges • Sedentary activity in the age of greater desired physical education activity • Always will be backlash • Competitiveness vs collaboration?

14. Additional thoughts • We can create, or least promote, our role models • Part of a general educational system challenge in the 21st century

15. Thank you! www.chessacademy.am