Playing chess does not make children cleverer, study finds
Glagoli, ki se končajo na –ing/-ed: izmed oblik v oklepaju izberi pravilen odgovor.
Researchers who studied the academic performance of 3,000 primary school children who took part in extracurricular chess classes were _______________ (1 SURPRISING/SURPRISED) to find their maths grades in particular failed to improve as a result.
The pupils _______________ (2 INVOLVING/INVOLVED), aged 9 and 10, received 30 hours of chess lessons over one school year, ____________________ (3 FOLLOWING/FOLLOWED) a standard chess class timetable with _______________ (4 TRAINING/TRAINED) chess tutors.
While the majority of students said they enjoyed the classes, particularly the experience of playing with friends and learning about the theory of the game, the lessons appeared to have no impact on their key stage 2 exams _______________ (5 COMPARING/COMPARED) to those who did not receive the chess tuition.
Christopher McGovern, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said the results should be “a wake up call for pushy parents who can make their life a misery by a naïve belief in educational miracles”.
He told The Telegraph: “Chess may develop and nourish innate intelligence but will not bestow ability.”
“Children should play chess and listen to Mozart for pleasure and as an antidote to the widespread addiction to digital technology and social media sites,” he added.
There has long been an _______________ (6 ASSUMING/ASSUMED) link between intelligence and playing chess, with previous research _______________ (7 SUGGESTING/SUGGESTED) the game could help increase academic attainment.
Famous composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who created scores from the age of three, was _______________ (8 KNOWING/KNOWN) to be a keen chess player, and a number of champion chess players including English Grandmaster Jon Speelman hold PHDs in Mathematics.
The study, _______________ (9 CARRYING/CARRIED) out by The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), is the first of its kind in England, the full results of which are due to be published on Friday July 15.
Despite the complex game not _______________ (10 HELPING/HELPED) to improve the children’s grades, more than a third (39 per cent) of pupils involved enjoyed the game enough to carry on playing after the trial period had ended.
Before the intervention more than half (57 per cent) of the pupils said they had never played the game before, but seven months on, nearly a third of pupils were still playing chess as much as once a week.
Sir Kevan Collins, chief executive of the EEF, said: “It’s _______________ (11 SURPRISING/SURPRISED) to find that the link between chess and maths results is not as strong as we might like it to be. But the school curriculum is not just about attainment.”
“Whilst schools should be cautious about introducing chess as a means to raise attainment, they should absolutely not be _______________ (12 DISCOURAGING/DISCOURAGED) from ensuring it’s offered to pupils as part of an enriched curriculum.”
“Teach chess for its own sake – for its intrinsic value and the enjoyment pupils gain from it.”
(Adapted from independent.co.uk on 13 July 2016)
