Step by Step Method

Discussions regarding the 70,000 Free Chess Sets for Schools in England.
William Stimpson
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Nov 02, 2008 7:29 pm

Re: Step by Step Method

Post by William Stimpson » Mon Feb 02, 2009 5:11 pm

I wonder whether the underlying reason why children at 100 are willing to improve is because they have positive feedback from their learning (i.e. winning games or not losing as many games) and the indicator of their success is the increase in their grade. This is a tangible outcome from the effort they put in which is not easy to put into place for learning.
Maybe a method of introducing a feedback loop is to have exercises to prove they understand an idea (e.g. how to draw a K vs K + P endgame) with them receiving a "score" for the correct answer then to put this up onto a chart on the wall. This would introduce competition into the learning process by them having something tangible to show for the effort. Peer pressure to suceed should I guess help this process as it is now competitive.

I remember that at school and university I measured myself against my peers and worked harder to be better than they were. I wonder whether this could be applied in some way to chess.

adam_hunt
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2008 1:23 pm

Re: Step by Step Method

Post by adam_hunt » Thu Feb 19, 2009 5:35 pm

My first post!

I have recently started using the step by step method and think that the teaching material is excellent (I purchased the course based on the information given in NIC Instructor 2009)The problem of course is the repetitive nature of the exercises (which is important to drill it in), and I think requires the teacher to come up with his/her own motivational tools to go along with the system. The books do go into this though and discuss the psychology of teaching chess/for how long to maintain interest etc.

I find that with the younger children I teach (Yrs 3-6 age 7-11) the keener ones want to learn/read to improve and I use the series by Jeff Coakley (which I read that you favour too Richard in NIC instructor), in particular the Red Winning Chess Puzzles for Kids book, which I would highly recommend. It reminds me a little of the books by John Walker which I used to read when improving where characters were brought into the stories.

Chess software has got to be the one of the most powerful tools in improving childrens chess. I am interested to know if anyone has used the American Think like a King software or a similar system. This one looks interesting as it has the chess club manager tool which sounds very good (monitoring rating changes/progress charts in different colours etc).

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