The CASTLE project
Alessandro Dominici
CASTLE
o C.A.S.T.L.E. : a Chess curriculum to Advance Students´ Thinking
and Learning skills in primary Education.
o Years: 2014/2017
o Evaluation points: 100/100
o Awards: «Best practice» by Italian Erasmus Agency (2017)
«Success Story» by European Commission (2018)
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The essential idea
o Train teachers on school chess teaching (45 primary school
classes in Italy, Spain and Germany)
o Put them in a position to bring the activities into the classroom
independently (900 pupils)
o Evaluating the impact of activities on pupils' learning (Turin
University)
o Evaluate if there has been a usefulness (at the end of the three
years of project), also under the professional profile of teachers
(Ministries of Education in Italy and Spain)
Partners
o Alfiere Bianco Società Sportiva (coordinator - Italy)
o Deutsche Schulschachstiftung (Munich)
o Club Deportivo Elemental 64 Villalba (Madrid)
o Regional School Office for Piedmont (Turin)
o Turin University (Turin)
o Dirección General de Mejora de la Calidad de la Enseñanza
(Madrid)
o Istituto Comprensivo «Bartolomeo Muzzone» (Racconigi)
o Grundschule Gärtnerplatz (Monaco di Baviera)
o CEIP San Miguel Arcangel (Villalba Madrid)
Stakeholders
o FIDE
o Piedmont Regional Committee of the Italian Chess
Federation
o Ten more schools in the three countries
Sponsor
www.scacco.it
Educational tools
o Psychomotricity on giant chessboard in the gym (first and
second classes) + video course (only for teachers - visible
free on eys.fide.com)
o Chess «on desk» (third, fourth and fifth classes)
o The WEB platform «Victor's chess house» (levels 1 and 2)
Experimentation
o 2014/2015 - 15 first classes, 15 second classes, 15 third classes
o 2015/2016 - 15 secondary classes, 15 third classes, 15 fourth
classes
o 2016/2017 - 15 third classes, 15 fourth classes, 10 fifth classes
(in Germany the primary ends in fourth)
o Every year, through the reports of each lesson provided by
the teachers and the meetings in the working groups, the
teaching has been reviewed, modified and proposed to the
new incoming classes.
Teacher training
o From November to the end of January each year (also
online)
o Every 15 days, during the school year (working groups)
o Class tutoring (2/6 hours per class, on request)
o On average, they received 14 hours of in presence training +
8 hours online each year
Activities and research
o For each class, during each school year, 15 hours of activity
o Pre test and post test in all classes (also in the control
classes) before and after the activities
or
o Observation grids for pupils (first and second classes only)
before and after activities (also in the control classes)
Research and evaluation
o Turin University (Prof. Roberto Trinchero, Prof.Daniela
Robasto, Dr. Alessio Tomassone)
Analysis of 4,800 tests and 2,400 observation grids
o USR Piedmont and USR Madrid (Dr. Paola Damiani and
Dr. Maria Angeles Heras Lazaro)
Evaluation of questionnaires for teachers (1,813 answers)
More than 9.000 evaluation tools analyzed in 3 years
Transnational meetings, final conferences
and intellectual outputs
o A meeting every year between the main partners
o Three final conferences: Turin, Madrid and Monaco
o Two psychomotricity on giant chessboard manuals (in four
languages)
o A manual of "Chess on desk" of 45 lessons (three languages)
o The second level of "Victor's chess house" (three languages)
o The final report produced by UNITO, USR Piemonte and USR
Madrid (three languages)
Research abstract
KNOWLEDGE PROBLEM: Does chess improve cognitive, metacognitive
and psychomotor enhancement?
ASSUMPTIONS:
o The game of chess improves logical-mathematical skills (aged 8-10
years)
o Chess improves metacognitive skills (aged 8-10 years)
o The activities on giant chessboard improve the psychomotor skills of
children (aged 5-7 years)
POPULATION: The Italian and Spanish elementary schools
SAMPLE: Not probabilistic to representative elements. 50 Classes I, II III,
IV, V of primary school:
Observation grids for psychomotricity
An analysis of the observation grids was performed, by statistical analysis of the
before-after differences.
Faced with some child skills, the observer could report:
1 - Absent (ability not present);
2 - Base (ability present if the child is guided);
3 - Intermediate (present ability and autonomous response from the child);
4 - Advanced (present ability, autonomous response and manifested with particular
mastery).
The first 5 questions allow the identification of personal data. The grid fields from
question 6 to question 14 were compiled to the external observer, observing a specific
route taken in the gym.
The questions from question 15 to question 25 have been compiled by the class teacher:
these data concern the skills and abilities that the child demonstrates in the classroom.
Some results in psychomotricity
IN A MIXED ROUTE HE/SHE IS ORIENTED IN THE SPACE
Experimental classes 26.40% - Control classes 23.40%
MOVES IN A COORDINATED WAY
Experimental classes 35.40% - Control classes 28.60%
KNOW HOW TO USE THE BODY AND MOTOR LANGUAGE IN A PERSONAL WAY TO EXPRESS AND COMMUNICATE
HIS/HER SOUTH STATES, EMOTIONS AND FEELINGS
Experimental classes 45.80% - Control classes 22.10%
CAN COUNT OBJECTS OR EVENTS, WITH THE VOICE AND MENTALLY, IN A PROGRESSIVE AND REGRELTIVE SENSE
AND FOR JUMPS OF TWO, THREE
Experimental classes 26.80% - Control classes 13.60%
CAN USE THE TERMS CORRECTLY TO INDICATE AN OBJECT IN A DETERMINED POSITION
Experimental classes 43.10% - Control classes 15%
CAN PROVIDE CORRECT INDICATIONS TO ANOTHER PERSON TO PERFORM A SIMPLE ROUTE
Experimental classes 45.10% - Control classes 26.60%
Some results in chess
HYPOTHETIC REASONING AND SUBTRACTION (THIRD CLASSES)
Experimental classes 27.90% - Control classes 13.90%
CALCULATE DISTANCES - DIVISION (THIRD CLASSES)
Experimental classes 17.60% - Control classes 12.80%
CALCULATE NECESSARY BOXES FOR PAINTING - DIVISION (THIRD CLASSES)
Experimental classes 28% - Control classes 20.20%
LOGIC REASONING ON THE SPACE AVAILABLE IN A SHEET (FOURTH CLASSES)
Experimental classes 26.20% - Control classes 13.80%
YOU SHOULD CHOOSE THE SHORTEST RAILWAY ROUTE BY CONSULTING TIME WITH DIFFERENT
ALTERNATIVES
Experimental classes 34.40% - Control classes 16%
Synthesis of experimentation
The children in the experimental group improved their psychomotor
skills to a greater extent than the control group on all items detected with
an external observer.
In the logical-mathematical and metacognitive field there are
encouraging results but with a gap between experimental and control that
is not always so evident.
If you isolate 1 section of 1 school (I.C. Caramagna), you can see how in
this section the results of the experiments are clearly higher in all areas.
The working group
Roberto Trinchero
Daniela Robasto
Davide Della Rina
Alessio Tommassone
Maria Grazia Bergamo
Fabiola Cantore
Alessandro Dominici
Evaluation of Education Ministries
IDEA THAT THE PRACTICE OF THE ACTIVITIES PROVIDED BY THE
CASTLE PROJECT CAN PROMOTE THE LEARNING AND
PARTICIPATION OF ALL THE STUDENTS, EVEN THOSE WITH BES
(international literature)
MODIFYING AND IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF THE LEARNING
ENVIRONMENT
ALLOWING THE VALORISATION - TRANSFERABILITY OF THE
INCLUSIVE POTENTIALS OF THE CONTEXT (AT LEVEL OF ALL
SCHOOLS AND OTHER SCHOOLS)
Self-report questionnaire for teachers
(nameless)
Self-report questionnaire for teachers
The questionnaire provided for each question to be answered by choosing
between
1 = Fully (in blue on the graphs)
2 = Partially (in orange on the graphs)
3 = Sufficiently (in gray on the graphs)
4 = Not enough (in yellow in the graphs)
Some questions also contained the possibility of providing an open
answer. The questionnaires were administered in the three countries, the
data refer to 37 teachers.
Perceived liking / utility of the CASTLE project
Q4 Have the proposed activities been
interesting for you?
L1
L2
L3
L4
Perceived liking / utility of the CASTLE
project
Q7 Did the training strategies of
the trainers have been effective?
1
4
Perceived liking / utility of the CASTLE
project
5. How much do you feel motivated Lev 1: 20
to repeat the experience? Lev 2 : 12
Lev 3: 4
Lev 4: 1
6. Have the training activities for the Lev 1: 19
teachers been adequate? Lev 2 : 14
Lev 3: 4
Lev 4: 0
8. Do you feel capable of being a Lev 1: 8
trainer of your colleagues in the Lev 2 : 16
future? Lev 3: 9
Lev 4: 4
Inclusive dimensions: the look on the
student – Holistic vision
d16. Ritieni che l’attività svolta abbia favorito la
visione olistica delle competenze da sviluppare?
1
2
3
4
Inclusive dimensions: the look on the
student – A personal plan for inclusion
D 17 Ritieni che l’attività svolta abbia contribuito
a fornire adeguate/arricchite informazioni
(sull’alunno, sul percorso didattico della classe)
per elaborare un piano personale che favorisca
l’inclusione (PEI; PDP)?
1 2 3 4
Inclusive dimensions: the look on the
student - Questions between students
d33 Gli allievi si pongono reciproche
domande tra loro per aiutarsi
nell’apprendimento
1
2
3
4
Inclusive dimensions: the look on the
student – Collaboration between students
d35 Gli allievi con rendimento
differente collaborano tra di loro
1
2
3
4
Inclusive dimensions: the look on the
student – All students partecipated in
d42 Tutti gli allievi, a prescindere dal grado
di abilità o disabilità, partecipano alle
attività promosse
1
2
3
4
Inclusive dimensions: the look on the
student – Class climate
d44 Le attività effettuate con gli allievi
hanno contribuito rendere positivo il
clima di classe?
1
2
3
4
Inclusive dimensions: the look on the
student – Trasversal skills improvement
d48 Le attività effettuate con gli allievi
hanno favorito lo sviluppo di
competenze trasversali?
1
2
3
4
Attitude of the teachers – Involving of
support teachers
d41 Gli insegnanti di sostegno sono
coinvolti sistematicamente nella
progettazione e nella verifica delle attività
di apprendimento
1
2
3
4
Attitude of the teachers – Improving
inclusion processes
D 45. Le attività effettuate con gli allievi
hanno contribuito a migliorare i processi
di inclusione nella tua scuola?
1 2 3 4
Attitude of the teachers – Personal well
being
Le attività effettuate hanno contribuito al
benessere dei docenti a scuola?
1 2 3 4
Conclusions
Complete satisfaction for the CASTLE Project activities was highlighted.
The adequacy of the teachers in transferring the skills acquired to their
colleagues (in 88% of cases) and, above all, the perception of an
"advantage" for the students, related to the following dimensions, have
been highlighted : class climate; peer collaboration; participation and
involvement of all students, even those with difficulties.
The working group
Franco Calcagno
Paola Damiani
Maria Angeles Heras Lazaro
Vicente Alcaniz
Alessandro Dominici
CASTLE: WHAT IS IN CONCLUSION
o A close "cultural" exchange between chess instructors and teachers
o A complete educational tool, useful for the five years of Primary school,
to be used by Teachers and Instructors (also for teacher training)
o Project teachers can, if they wish, keep the project alive for years to
come
o The possibility of transferring information and experience, within the
school, from Teachers to other Teachers
o In a school where Teachers have adopted ”Chess", the Instructors have
the door wide open (tutoring, training, extra time activities, activities at
the chess club, growth of the youth sector)
o A model applicable in many European countries
THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION!
Useful links
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http://castleproject.eu
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