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Training Course for teachers, chess tutors/coaches

How to connect chess to the curriculum or to emphasise critical thinking skills

Course Overview:

Prerequisites: Basic Knowledge of Chess

Course Content: Connections between Chess and Critical Thinking Skill Development

Chess naturally engages students. Teachers can build on that engagement by using chess-related activities to introduce and reinforce critical thinking skills.

This interactive one-day course helps teachers discover how to connect chess to critical thinking. Participants will engage with chess-related activities designed to incorporate the game as a means of introducing and/or reinforcing critical thinking skill development. These examples provide the basis for the ongoing development of similar activities by the teacher to apply these skills to real life situations. Certification will be given upon the successful completion of the course assessment.

Learning Outcomes

Participants will:

  • Learn how chess thinking involves critical thinking through interactive lectures, small and large group discussions, and chess-related hands-on activities.
  • Learn how to use chess and chess-related activities to introduce and reinforce critical thinking skills through small and large group discussions, and chess-related hands-on activities.
  • Learn examples of “Beyond the Board” applications for chess activities as part of chess-related hands-on activities.
  • Participate in exercises that promote critical thinking and differentiate for skill levels.
  • Learn about Higher Order Thinking (HOT) skills through interactive lectures, small and large group discussions, and chess-related hands-on activities.
  • Solve chess problems and that encourage the use of HOT skills.

Assessment

Participants will:

  • Participate in interactive lectures, small and large group discussions, and chess-related hands-on activities.
  • Complete an online assessment test of 30 questions at the end of the course.
  • Participate in an online feedback questionnaire about the course.

Content Outline

Activities are based on Critical Thinking skills. Each activity includes a “Beyond the Board” connection to real-world applications of the critical thinking skills.

  • Introduction
  • Activity One: Observation – Pattern Recognition
  • Activity Two: Evaluation – Piece Value and Sacrifice
  • Activity Three: Analysis and Decision Making – Modelling the Process
  • Activity Four: Higher Order Thinking (HOT) – Prediction Activity
  • Activity Five: Perspective – Point of View
  • Activity Six: Similar and Different Positions & Dream Positions as HOT Activities
  • Assessment

Course developer and trainer: Jerry Nash

National Chess Education Consultant Jerry Nash believes in the power of chess to empower student success.

This conviction stems from personal experience. Playing chess provided the decision-making, problem-solving, and time management skills he needed to succeed as a teacher, campus minister, and office administrator. This belief is reinforced by the evidence gathered from the many testimonies of the teachers he has trained to use chess as an educational tool.

During almost 20 years as a campus minister, Mr. Nash saw the effect of poor decision-making among university students. When he started coaching chess with 4th and 5th graders in southwest Louisiana, he saw the immediate improvement in critical thinking skills among those students and realized the possibilities of the game for educators. He also understood the need for students to develop these skills long before they graduated from high school. This realization led him to become an advocate for chess in education.

Mr. Nash has emerged as a leader in the growing international Chess in Education movement. In 2015, he was named National Chess Educator of the Year by the University of Texas at Dallas. In 2019, he was appointed to the FIDE – EDU (World Chess Federation Education Commission) Workgroup: High Quality Standards for Chess Education. In 2020, he was appointed Secretary of the Survey Group for a worldwide chess in schools survey organized by FIDE and the ECU (European Chess Union).

His international presentations include conferences in St. Lucia, Uruguay, and Poland. Jerry Nash is a ChessPlus trainer having been a regular contributor at the annual London Chess in Education Conferences. He currently serves as the National Chess Education Consultant for Chess in Schools. His blog posts on chess in education can be found at ChessinEducation.org.

His experience as a trainer has provided ample evidence that when teachers introduce chess to students, they create the opportunity for students to develop the skills they need to be successful. Teachers consistently report improvements in student behavior and positive changes in the school culture. When teachers learn how to teach chess, they can better achieve their calling to make a difference in their community and beyond.

Over the past twenty years, Mr. Nash has trained teachers across the United States and shared the benefits of chess at literacy, math, and gifted conferences. As a former high school and university teacher, and the husband of an elementary school teacher, he finds satisfaction in helping educators to discover a new way to accomplish the dream that led them to the classroom in the first place.


Click here to see the upcoming Training Courses