The WBF Teaching Program

During the WBF Congress held on Wednesday Morning, the President arranged for a demonstration of the teaching program being developed by the World Bridge Federation for use by teachers in NBOs all over the world. This material can be used for teaching bridge in schools or at bridge clubs or private classes.

This is a long term project, the first stage of which is to provide a program that can be used by teachers and aspiring teachers who need detailed information about how to teach bridge to young people. The initial program contains 25 lessons, each giving deals.

The program is based on the Minibridge System developed by the French Bridge Federation, and instructions are currently available in both French and English. It is intended that other languages should be added at a later date.

Each lesson is divided into its various components, with an overall view of the Lesson of the Day being given in each case, together with at least one Illustration Hand, some Advice of the Day, Definitions of bridge terms and any other information the teacher may need. In addition, material is provided that can be printed and given to the students and there is also test material for the students to use.

Development on the program is continuing and additional material will be added over the course of the next few months.

Once the first stage is completed, development of the second stage, which will be a program for the students, giving them the opportunity to learn more, will begin. It is also envisaged that material for teachers wishing to start more advanced classes will also be developed and provided.

The program is available to all NBOs free of charge on Internet in English and in French at the moment (full details are given below). The Colombian Bridge Federation has very generously offered to translate the material into Spanish, and we will also include this on the site as soon as it becomes available, together with translations into other languages.

If your NBO wishes to translate the material into your own language, we invite you to make it available to all other countries by sending the translation to us for inclusion on the web site.

New material will frequently appear on the web site, so please check back regularly to see what has been done. In due course the WBF will also arrange for CDs to be cut and distributed free to all NBOs.

The teaching program is currently available on Internet at: www.worldbridge.org/teaching.

For further information, please contact:

Anna Gudge,

The Old Railway Station

Long Melford, Sudbury, Suffolk, England C010 9HN

Tel: +44 1787 881920; fax: +44 1787 881339

Email: wbf@ecats.co.uk

Anna is also here and can be found in the WBF office, room 2.3 on the Promenade Floor if you wish to talk to her about this project. If you wish to be kept updated about the progress of the teaching program, please email Anna when you return home or ensure that you give her your email address and other contact details while you are here so that she can keep in touch with you on a regular basis.

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