International Journal of Educational Investigations Vol. 1, No. 1: 283-295, 2014, (December) Available online @ http://www.ijeionline.com Copyright © 2014 International Association of Academic Journals 283 Chess Training for Improving Executive Functions and Mathematics Performance of Students with Mathematics Disorders Razieh Khosrorad 1 , Sakineh Soltani Kouhbanani 2 *, Abolfazl Rahmani Sani 3 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1. Research Center on Social Determinants of Health, Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, Sabzevar, Iran. 2. Department of General Psychology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ilam, Iran. 3. Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, Sabzevar, Iran. * Corresponding Author: Dr. Sakineh Soltani Kouhbanani ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract The present research aimed to investigate the impact of chess training on executive functions and mathematic performance improvement in students with mathematics disorders. This research was a quasi-experimental one using a pre- and post-test design. The subjects involved were 20 students with and without mathematics disorder in grades four and five in Tehran. They were randomly assigned to a control and an experimental group. The subjects were administered Stroop Test (Stroop, 1935), Continuous Performance test (Rosvold et al., 1965), the computerized version of Tower of London Test (Morris et al., 1993), and Key math test (Connolly, 1988). In the next stage, the experimental group took chess lessons for a year: they were trained for two sessions a week, each lasting one hour. But the control group did not receive any training. Then, with an interval of a month a post-test was administered: in the post-test the executive functions and mathematics performance of both groups (i.e., control and experimental) were tested. The analysis of the data through independent samples t-test showed a significant difference (P= .05) with the experimental group outperforming the control group. Thus, it could be concluded that chess training had a significant impact on the mathematics performance of students with mathematics disorder. Keywords: executive functions, chess training, mathematics disorders ___________________________________________________________________________ I. INTRODUCTION Children with mathematics disorder have problems either in the field of mathematical calculation or in their mathematical reasoning ability. Due to disagreements in the definitions of learning disorders and disagreements in educational objectives in teaching these children, the estimated prevalence of the disorder varies from one to thirty. Many causes have been