El impacto de las clases de ajedrez sobre el rendimiento en las pruebas saber 3, 5 y 9 en Bogotá

Abstract

Development of soft and cognitive skills is key to capitalizing the knowledge economy. Certain hypotheses suggest that playing chess improves these skills and this has been successfully tested in some contexts. This paper sheds lights of these ideas for the case of the schools of Bogotá D.C. Implementing a difference in difference methodology, I find a positive and significant effect of chess’ classes on the performance of students in a standardized test on primary schools in the areas of mathematics and languages arts. The effects on mathematics 3 and languages 3 appear in 2016. One hypothesis is that the programs takes at least two years to show significant effects. With these results, I recommend extending the randomized controlled trials in order to improve the evidence and to implement a municipal policy to expand chess’ education.