TY - JOUR
T1 - Chess training and mathematical problem-solving
T2 - The role of teaching heuristics in transfer of learning
AU - Trinchero, Roberto
AU - Sala, Giovanni
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 by iSER, International Society of Educational Research.
Copyright:
Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Recently, chess in school activities has attracted the attention of policy makers, teachers and researchers. Chess has been claimed to be an effective tool to enhance children's mathematical skills. In this study, 931 primary school pupils were recruited and then assigned to two treatment groups attending chess lessons, or to a control group, and were tested on their mathematical problem-solving abilities. The two treatment groups differed from each other on the teaching method adopted: The trainers of one group taught the pupils heuristics to solve chess problems, whereas the trainers of the other treatment group did not teach any chess-specific problem-solving heuristic. Results showed that the former group outperformed the other two groups. These results foster the hypothesis that a specific type of chess training does improve children's mathematical skills, and uphold the idea that teaching general heuristics can be an effective way to promote transfer of learning.
AB - Recently, chess in school activities has attracted the attention of policy makers, teachers and researchers. Chess has been claimed to be an effective tool to enhance children's mathematical skills. In this study, 931 primary school pupils were recruited and then assigned to two treatment groups attending chess lessons, or to a control group, and were tested on their mathematical problem-solving abilities. The two treatment groups differed from each other on the teaching method adopted: The trainers of one group taught the pupils heuristics to solve chess problems, whereas the trainers of the other treatment group did not teach any chess-specific problem-solving heuristic. Results showed that the former group outperformed the other two groups. These results foster the hypothesis that a specific type of chess training does improve children's mathematical skills, and uphold the idea that teaching general heuristics can be an effective way to promote transfer of learning.
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U2 - 10.12973/eurasia.2016.1255a
DO - 10.12973/eurasia.2016.1255a
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84960121411
VL - 12
SP - 655
EP - 668
JO - Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education
JF - Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education
SN - 1305-8215
IS - 3
ER -