Presented and produced by Seán Delaney.
On this week's programme I bring you an interview with Liam Murray who is secretary of Ficheall, a network of teachers around Ireland who teach chess in primary school. Among the topics discussed and the resources mentioned are the following:
- Is chess a curricular or extra-curricular activity?
- What students learn from playing chess: developing their social, cognitive and mental fitness skills
- How he organises chess teaching in his own classroom, using the lesson plans on the website and adopting a “(mini-) game-based” approach
- Organising a school chess tournament
- Helping students lose and win gracefully
- Using a points system to decide who wins a game of chess with limited time to play
- Describing the game of chess (what is meant by checkmate and castling?)
- History of the game
- How chess compares to draughts
- How children respond to playing chess
- How Liam first became involved in teaching chess in schools when he was a student teaher
- How different children respond to learning or playing chess
- Playing face to face versus playing on apps or computers
- Children getting better at chess over time
- The “Masters” competition (for fifth and sixth class) and the “Budding Masters” competition (for third and fourth class).
- Children playing chess from first class onwards
- Why it’s good to play chess with players who are better than you (“If you’re not losing, you’re not learning”)
- Resources available on the Ficheall website
- The Ficheall network of teachers
- How inter-school chess tournaments are organised (the “Swiss System, ” timing games)
- The role of chess arbiters in inter-school tournaments
- Relationship of Ficheall to Moves for Life
- How Liam got interested in chess himself
- Follow-on opportunities for children to play chess
- Opportunities for playing chess in post primary schools (Leinster Schools Chess Association)
- The use of clocks in professional chess games
- What is school for/what are schools for
- Volunteering with Graham Jones and the Solas Project
- How he is inspired by the selfless dedication of teachers
- Evidence-Based Teachers’ Network
- Anseo podcasts
- Book Bounce by Matthew Syed.
- Book Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed.
- Book Bad Science by Ben Goldacre
