CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
4.4 DESCRIPTION OF PARTICIPANTS
In addition to the above quantitative analysis, all learners who participated in this study answered questions relating to their playing habits and their perceptions about the game of chess. Learners that used to play provided additional information about their reasons to stop playing chess. Summarised results will be presented, highlighting similarities and differences between the groups as well as possible similarities and differences between the two schools.
4.4.1 Active Chess Players
In the following sections, answers to questions C3, C4, C5 and C6 (Appendix B) were
analysed. The analysis was done for each of the participating schools (within the school) and a comparison has been drawn between the two schools. The two active chess players from South Senior Primary that were excluded from the Matched Pair analysis sections due to lack of mandatory data, were included in this part of the analysis.
How often do you play?
The frequency of playing chess for learners of both schools is presented in Table 4-12. The majority of chess players at both schools played chess more than once a week.
Table 4-12 East and South Senior Primary Schools: Frequency of playing chess
School
East Senior Primary
South Senior Primary
Grade
5 6 7 6 7
Number of Learners
42 22 12 8 8
Play Every Day
4 1 1 1 3
Few times a week
30 12 6 7 5
Once a week
6 3 4 0 0
Less than once a
week 2 6 1 0 0
As further illustrated in Figure 4-5, while all chess players at South Senior primary school played a few times a week and 25% of them played every day, 29% of the players at East Senior Primary seemed to be less committed as they played once a week or less.
South Senio r P rimary • F requency of playing
Once a week
0% x
Fewtimes a week
75%
Less
\ 0 % Every Day 25%
East Senior Primary Less
v%\
Once a J-i week / \
v% W.
- Frequency of playing
Every Day 8%
Fewtimes a week
63%
Figure 4-5 - Comparison between learners' frequency of playing between East and South Senior Primary Schools
Where do you play?
Table 4-13 provides a summary of playing venues for players of East and South Senior Primary
Schools. The majority of chess players from both schools play mainly at school and at home. Only few of the East Senior Primary players play at clubs but none of the South Senior Primary players played at a club. The main differences can be noted in Grade 7 players' participation in tournaments. While all players from South Senior Primary School played in tournaments, only 33% of the Grade 7 chess players from East Senior Primary played in tournaments. Additional general information, which was obtained from the teachers during their interviews regarding the way the chess school activities operated, provided a possible explanation to the differences between the schools.
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Table 4.13 East and South Senior Primary Schools: Playing venues School
East Senior Primary
South Senior Primary
Grade 5 6 7 6 7
Number of Players
42 22 12 8 8
Play at School
36 20 12 8 8
Play at Home
39 20 11 5 8
Play at Clubs
3 1 0 0 0
Play at Tournaments
16 10 4 2 8
Most tournaments took place during the weekends, in the greater Durban area. While the East Senior Primary players have to arrange their own transport and rely on family to drive them to the venue, John has been providing the transport for players from South Senior Primary that wished to participate. Grade 7 learners being better and more experienced players had priority.
This was also a possible explanation to the fact that only two Grade 6 learners played in tournaments.
Who do you play with?
The following table provides a summary for players from both schools regarding their playing companions. The term 'School Mates' was consistently used by most of Grade 7 players at the South Senior Primary School and it referred to learners from other schools that they play against in tournaments and were not necessarily their friends.
Table 4-14 East and South Senior Primary Schools: Playing companions
School East Senior Primary
South Senior Primary
Grade 5 6 7 6 7
Number of Learners
42 22 12 8 8
Play with Family
38 20 9 5 1
Friends 41 21 12 7 8
Computer 16
6 6 0 0
School Mates
0 0 0 1 7
Learners from both schools played mainly with friends. However, while the majority of learners at East Senior Primary played also with family (88.2%), not so at South Senior Primary School.
While 62.5% of Grade 6 learners played with family, only 12.5% of the chess players at Grade 7 (one learner) played with family. The main difference between the schools was playing against the computer. None of the South Senior Primary learners played the computer while the use of the computer as a playing companion for the East Senior Primary chess players was 38.1% at Grade 5, 27.3% at Grade 6 and 50.0% at Grade 7.
Do you think that playing chess helped you in any way with your school work?
In addition to a Yes/No choice, the players were asked to give an explanation to their answer in an open-ended format. While not all players answered this question, some of the players who responded positively, added explanations. These explanations were written in a free format yet all revolved around three main categories; mathematics, concentration and faster thinking. The majority of players from both schools (71.1% at East Senior Primary and 100% at South Senior Primary) believed that chess helped them with their schoolwork. At East Senior Primary only
19.6% of the players mentioned Mathematics as the area where chess helped most while the majority (80.4%) were not subject specific referring to concentration and thinking in general.
At South Senior Primary all Grade 7 players believed that playing chess helped their mathematics while the Grade 6 learners split their votes between the three categories. The following table summarizes the answers for learners from both schools:
Table 4-15 East and South Senior Primary Schools: Learners' views - contribution of chess to their school work
School
East Senior Primary
South Senior Primary
Grade
5 6 7 6 7
Number of Learners
42 22 12 8 8
Chess helped in school work
Yes 29 13 12 8 8
No 8 8 0 0 0
No reply
5 1 0 0 0
Area in which chess helped Maths
6 3 1 4 8
Concentration 15
1 4 5 1
Thinking 8 5 8 4 2
4b
Learners were asked to add their comments. Only eight players from East Senior Primary (all from Grades 5 and 6) wrote any comments mostly describing the game as 'fun' and 'cool'. At South Senior Primary Grade 6 players gave no comments yet all Grade 7 learners wrote comments relating to the game being educational and of possible help to their future.
4.4.2 Non-Players
The learners, who did not play chess, were provided with a list of possible reasons for not playing and an option to add their own reasons. Many of the East Senior Primary learners just marked themselves as non-players without providing a reason. A few gave several reasons.
Most of South Senior Primary gave reasons for not playing. A summary of all answers is presented in Table 4-16.
Table 4-16 East and South Senior Primary Schools: Reasons for not playing chess Reasons for not playing chess
I think it is boring so I never learnt I found it difficult to learn
I was too busy with other sports /activities I tried but was no good *
I just never tried *
East Senior Primary 7
5 8 1 5
South Senior Primary 2
7 7 1 0
* were added to the list of reasons, based on additional answers provided by learners
Out of those who gave reasons for not playing chess, 31% at East Senior Primary and 41% at South Primary School gave the reason for not playing as 'being too busy with other
sports/activities'. While this reason can be identified as a priority choice - the learner chose to play / do other sports / activities, the other reasons are more 'perception' related. Many learners possibly perceived the game of chess as 'boring' and / or 'difficult'. However the data collected was limited since this was not the main focus of the study and did not provide sufficient
information for further assumptions.
4.4.3 Past Players
It was of interest to find out why did learners that used to play, stopped playing. Since only one past player was identified at the South Senior Primary Table 4-17 is a summary of data for the East Senior Primary Past players only.
Table 4-17 East Senior Primary School: Reasons to stop playing chess Reason given by learner
I thought it was boring I found it difficult to play
I was too busy with other sports / activities I was never winning
I had no one to play at home
Number of answei 4
1 12
2 4
The main reason provided by learners was 'being busy with other sports / activities'. Since learners had to choose between the various sports as per the school's timetable, chess was possibly losing out to more popular sports.