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