Abstract
In 2014 the University of Johannesburg undertook a study into the role that chess plays in the learning of Mathematics. According to authors’ knowledge, it is one of the biggest studies undertaken which involved 10 teachers and about 1800 learners. The study although it was predominantly exploratory, it is also to some extent confirmatory as it involved also some control schools as well as comparative as it also involved an Ugandan school. The uniqueness of the South African situation which lies between a First World and a Third World country offers some new insights into the role that chess plays in the teaching and learning of mathematics. Preliminary results show that there is a correlation between playing chess and the learning of Mathematics.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Tsongo Sun and Moves for Life and Minichess for financing this project and supplying the MiniChess materials and trainers.
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© 2016 ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering
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Kakoma, L., Giannakopoulos, A.(. (2016). Chess Playing and Mathematics: An Exploratory Study in the South African Context. In: Vaz de Carvalho, C., Escudeiro, P., Coelho, A. (eds) Serious Games, Interaction, and Simulation. 2015. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 161. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29060-7_11
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