Listen to thisKnights, pawns, kings, and queens can facilitate eight positive transitions for young people – and for the educators who work with them.
One of the most significant periods of transition in my life was my enlistment in the U.S. Navy. In this “previous life" (1971–75), I was stationed aboard a ship for some time. Often there was much to do, but at other times – especially after work hours – I had time on my hands. I remember playing a lot of chess as a way to pass the off-hours pleasantly. My love for chess that developed during that time sparked my interest in how chess can facilitate successful transitions for others – especially young people.
During times of transition or uncertain direction, such as my tenure in the Navy, people need an anchor, something to look forward to, an area of strength to focus on. As an alternative school teacher who works with teenagers on probation, I have seen chess provide this anchor and incentive for many young people. Although this is not a story of lives transformed by chess, it describes the many small, daily miracles – the little “Aha!" moments – I have witnessed as a result of the game. I would like to share some of these small victories, in the hopes that other educators and youth workers may also add chess to their collection of effective strategies for reaching resistant or disconnected youth.
I have seen the game of chess facilitate gains in three different categories:
Helping students transition from a closed, turf mentality to an open, neighborly outlook.
Helping students transition from academic disconnectedness to confidence in their abilities in at least one academic area.
Helping educators transition from a narrow, traditional definition of intelligence to a wider, more inclusive understanding of what it means to be smart.
When chess is included in the classroom or other youth setting, these three transitions are evident in at least eight powerful ways:
Chess removes barriers between students.
Make the classroom a neutral, safe place by allowing students to set
aside differences such as gang affiliation, race, and gender, and
just interact as two kids having fun. I have seen friendships
blossom between people from competing affiliations as they strike up
a friendly rivalry across the chessboard. This natural and fun
method of encouraging interaction goes a long way toward
counteracting the stereotypes and discrimination that many students
like mine bring with them to the classroom (e.g., “All people from
that gang/race/gender/part of town are bad/dishonest!
dumb/dirty/lazy/treacherous").
Chess gives students at least one reason
to come to school.
Often, a change in attitude toward school begins with success in
just one curricular area (Glasser, 1972; Kennedy, 1996). When
students are excited about even one school-based activity, school
grounds are no longer seen as foreign territory. Chess can be that
one activity, and then serve as a natural point of entry into more
traditional disciplines. One might capitalize on students' interest
in chess through writing and social studies assignments. For
example, when Iraq and the U.S. seemed headed for another
confrontation recently, I asked my students to write their answers
to the question “How are diplomacy and war like a chess game?" It is
also easy to find themes that link chess with literature and
science. But math is perhaps the most obvious connection. Chess can
richly advance all the major fields of math (Steen, 1990):
dimension, quantity, shape, analytic geometry (with the chess
board's ranks, files, and coordinates), and uncertainty. The “basics" can also make more sense when chess is used as an
illustration. For example, I have successfully used pawns to teach
the concept of fractions (e.g., 1 of 8) and the skill of reducing
fractions (e.g., 4/8 = 1/2)
Chess builds rapport between adults and
students.
At the conclusion of each chess match with a student, I always shake
hands and tell my student opponent that he or she played a good
game, win or lose. The sportsmanship benefits – so conspicuously
absent in this generation – are obvious. However, this adult-child
interaction also creates an environment where teacher is learner and
student is teacher as they meet as equals at the chessboard (Purkey
& Novak, 1978, 1984)
Chess honors nontraditional cognitive
styles.
As an academic pursuit, chess rewards nontraditional learners as
well as traditional ones. In particular, chess is three-dimensional
(or manipulative) instead of one- or two-dimensional. Chess is also
interactive, and thus supportive of those types of learners
variously described as “interpersonal" (Gardner, 1983), “cooperative" (Gibbs, 1987), “group" (Dunn, 1996), “emotionally
intelligent" (Goleman, 1995), or “culturally field-dependent"
(Witkin & Goodenough, 1986). The game is also an authentic pursuit – that is, it has a real outcome and is therefore performed for
authentic purpose – which is an important prerequisite for deep,
meaningful learning (Kennedy, 1996; Caine & Caine, 1991; Wiggins,
1993).
Chess builds life skills and critical
thinking.
Clearly, one crucial lesson all young people must learn is to think
before they act. Chess teaches this skill in an authentic way: every
move in chess has consequences, and successful players must learn to
anticipate these consequences many moves in advance. An opponent’s expected response is what guides the player’s decision to make or
avoid a certain move. In addition to this basic lesson learned
through play, chess can be used as a framework or prompt for
teaching other life skills in the whole-class curriculum (see
table). For example, as a weekly essay topic, I once asked students
to describe a time when they felt like a pawn.
Chess builds metacognition as students
learn to examine their own thinking.
As students play chess, they naturally engage in the process of
metacognition, asking themselves questions such as “Now, what led me
to move there?" “Why did my opponent make that move?” “How did she
put me in checkmate? And how can I avoid it next time?" This
constant reflection on causes and motives, as well as anticipation
of future actions, builds an important skill that students wilt use
in all aspects of their lives.
Chess integrates different types of
thinking.
Chess requires players to reflexively combine both creativity and
intuition (right-brain/hemisphere) and linear-logical thinking
(left-brain/hemisphere). Because hemispheric dominance can change
over time (Dunn, 1996), and growth and interaction of the brain
hemispheres develops with use (Sylwester, 1995), well-rounded
intelligence can be encouraged by activities that require various
kinds of thinking. Chess, a game tat rewards both analytic logic and
intuitive leaps, can be such an activity that helps to develop and
integrate both.
Chess challenges and expands our understanding
of intelligence.
When a student can beat a teacher or an administrator at chess, but
perhaps cannot read or do fractions, teachers are forced to
re-examine the questions “What does it mean to be smart?" and “How
do we educate different kinds of “intelligence”?" Even without
reviewing the different fields of learning theory, we are now too
aware of students” differences to settle for one teacher-directed
way to reach them all. In chess, a learning experience that is
co-created by the student, these differences in learning needs are
respected as each game progresses in its own form and time.
Widening our understanding of intelligence is especially important
as we attempt to break barriers that have hindered female, minority,
and underachieving students from doing well in mat, science, and
other curricular areas (Clewell, Anderson, & Thorpe, 1992; Cuevas,
1995; Hale-Benson, 1986; Kuykendall, 1992; Office of Technology
Assessment, 1989). Chess can help us challenge the outdated
assumptions that knowledge is fixed and unchanging, and that knowing
is merely rehearsing (National Research Council, 1989).
SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CLASSROOM USE OF CHESS
Sponge Activity
Allow students to play chess when they finish other tasks early.
Source of Themes for Thematic Units
Have students help choose unit themes based on the game (e.g., “Strategy and Tactics," “The Life of a Pawn," “Persistence When
you’re the Underdog".)
Formal Teaching Activity
Teach the whole class the rules of chess with the help of overhead
transparencies or a hanging team board (Woolum, 1997; Snyder, 1991;
Schmidt, 1982).
Extracurricular Activity
Organize intraclass, intramural, or league tournaments or teams, or
organize an after-school club loosely centered around chess (but
also where friendships are made and students are affirmed).
More than a game
Chess is an interactive, authentic, three-dimensional activity that
naturally encourages and supports marginalized students in successful
transitions toward expanding their vision of the world beyond their home
turf and toward academic proficiency and confidence. In addition, chess
can help educators gain a wider understanding of what it means to be,
and who is perceived to be, intelligent. These powerful benefits of
introducing chess into schools and other youth settings make it clear
that chess in the classroom can be much more than just a game.
Widening our understanding of intelligence is especially important as we attempt to break barriers that have hindered female, minority and under-achieving students form doing well in math, science, and other curricular areas.
References
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Clewell, B., Anderson, B., & Thorpe, M. (1992). Breaking the barriers: Helping female and minority students succeed in mathematics and science, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Cuevas, G. (1995). Empowering all students to learn mathematics. In T. M. Carl (Ed.), Prospects for school mathematics (pp. 62–77). Reston, VA: The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Inc.
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This feature: Kennedy, Mark(1998) More Than a Game, Eight Transition Lesssons Chess Teaches. Reaching Today's Youth Vol.2 No. 4, pp. 17-19
