Aram Hajian, Ph.D. Member, Board of Directors Chess Academy of Armenia Dean, College of Science and Engineering American University of Armenia Educating a Nation through Chess: Armenia December 7-8, 2013 Chess 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 2 nd, 3 rd, 4 th 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

“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 21 st century

Thank you!