Innovative School Program Teaches Kids To Think

by Daniella Ashkenazy

Three men in their twenties who were chess masters as adolescents founded Eshkolot Hashiva ("Scholarly Thinking") to do just that. This commercial enterprise offers kindergartens and elementary schools a special enrichment curriculum that helps children observe and interpret what goes on around them through games. The games become tools to analyze situations and produce solutions.

Almost all of Eshkolots "tool kit" is comprised of commercial table games some of them classic ones like checkers and chess; others old-time favorites like Strategy; still others relatively new on the market, like Rush Hour and Abalone. "Our goal is not to impart information, but rather to give children the tools to arrange and use information in the best and most effective way," says Danny Gendelman (27), one of the programs founders. "Children can develop thinking skills from an early age through learning and experiencing classic games. It helps them develop four basic skills deductive logic, inductive logic, strategy and memory."

For instance, one new game looks like a "tic-tac-toe" game, but with a 25-section game board played with 26 cubes marked on opposite sides by an O and an X. The play begins with a full board, with all the cubes face-down and thus unmarked. Each player in turn takes the free 26th "playing cube" and slides it, with an O or X facing up, into the game board from the side of the board, pushing the cube at the opposite end of the row off the game board to become the next "playing cube." Once the board is entirely filled with "marked" cubes, each player tries to create a row of five identical blocks to win. But during play, an entire row of cubes could change from O to X or back.

"Engaging in a game like this places the children in a situation where they must deal with a fluid reality, explains Gendelman. "Each time a player moves the "playing cube" into a row, the situation on the board changes that is, the reality changes and the player must readjust his thinking in order to succeed."

Each game mirrors a particular kind of "thinking situation" the children will encounter in real life decision-making in a changing reality; decision-making in a situation of uncertainty; decision-making reflecting the laws of probability and so forth. Eshkolot has matched each game to a class lesson in creative thinking that mirrors the same "thinking situation."

A typical lesson is divided into two parts. The first is a frontal learning situation designed to help the children understand how the game they will play applies to reality. Then, they go on to game-playing, one-on-one or in groups of two and three players.

One example is a lesson in understanding ones goals and choosing a decision from a number of alternatives. The instructor states that the problem at hand is crossing an intersection, and the goal is crossing the street safely. Together with the class, the instructor lists various ways one can "engineer" crossing an intersection a traditional crosswalk, with or without a traffic light; a diagonal crosswalk with a light; a pedestrian bridge; a pedestrian tunnel. The group will then discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each option for the pedestrian. If safety is the goal, the bridge or tunnel are optimal solutions. Then the instructor throws a twist into the question: What if it is Yom Kippur, when there is no traffic on the streets? Then the "safety element" is eliminated, and the most desirable solution becomes the quickest and easiest way of crossing the intersection the diagonal crossing. To arrive at this conclusion, the children are urged to apply their knowledge of geometry, for example. This kind of "lesson" is suitable for children between first and eighth grade.

"The games," Gendelman maintains, "simulate life situations. They teach us to determine a number of issues regarding any situation: Where are the difficulties? Where must we focus our attention? What are the principles at work? What is of primary importance, and what is marginal? And, how do we process information?"

The Eshkolot lessons are geared to develop building blocks for planning, decision-making, establishment of priorities, creativity and social interaction all exercises that help children deal with situations they will encounter throughout their lives, adds Gendelman.

The Eshkolot program is being employed not only as an extracurricular enrichment activity, but also among thousands of pupils at 100 elementary schools and kindergartens as a "subject" in the regular school day. "In the past it was assumed that children learned to think through the other disciplines they studied," claims Gendelman. "Weve transformed learning to think into a discipline in and of itself by linking learning to think to another tool games."