Is competition a good thing in the classroom? This blog is jointly written by a psychologist and a teacher. It gives a brief overview of one of the most famous studies in this area, a practical example of the use of competition within lessons, as well as tips on how to best manage it.

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The Psychologist

Bradley Busch is a Chartered psychologist and director of InnerDrive
One of the most famous studies into group cohesion, conflict and competition was conducted by researcher Muzafer Sherif Camiseta Racing Club de Avellaneda in his ‘Robbers Cave’ study. This study divided 22 young boys in two groups. all of the boys in the study were the same age, came from white middle class backgrounds, were protestant and lived with both their parents. In essence, they were as similar to each other as possible.

The boys were assigned into the two groups at random. They were told to give their group a name (they chose ‘The Eagles’ and ‘The Rattlers’), design their own flag and make their own uniforms. The power of being part of a group was evident very early on. The boys in each group quickly bonded as they had a number of shared experiences, such as group hikes or swimming parties. The children were very engaged with the tasks they did and were motivated to actively participate.

However, the researchers then had the two groups meet up with each other. The two groups competed against one another for limited resources. Without an adult to guide their behaviour, this suddenly created a lot of tension between them. The researchers were actually surprised by how much animosity existed between the two groups. For example, during a training session before a sports match, the Rattlers even refused to let the Eagles on to the pitch to practice.

Despite coming from identical backgrounds and being divided into two groups at random, they found that just being a member of a group had a very powerful force on each boys’ behaviour.

What is clear from this study, is that creating a group culture can help children bond, learn and strive for excellence. This is reinforced by the creating of group norms and subculture. competition and being part of a group can be good. It can motivate and inspire and can be fun.

In the first part of this study, the boys were focused on mastery rather than performance. However, left unchecked, without adult supervision and when competing for limited resources, competition can do more harm than good. In the second part of the study, the focus went away from developing their own skills within the team to trying to hinder the opposition team. as with most things, it is not what the intervention is, but how it is delivered that matters.

To summarise, competition can be good if it focuses on:

Skill development – focusing more on skill rather than just outcomes

Self-referenced – is focused on individual development rather than comparison

Supported – challenge without support results in stress

The tasks are challenging but realistic

 

The Teacher

Dave Marsham is a teacher of seven years. He currently teaches Maths and history at Bedford Academy:
Competition is something that comes naturally to me – I’ve always grown up an avid football fan. I’m not gifted as a player, and I never have been, and Camiseta PSV Eindhoven so it was never a case of growing up competitively in sports. also I support West Ham United so it certainly wasn’t Camiseta Selección de fútbol de Gales ever a case of growing up enjoying the feeling of winning.

However, I have always found that the sense of competition gets the best out of me and that has then affected how I teach and I’d certainly implement a sense of competition in to all of my lessons and all of my classes where I have seen frequent positive responses. As long as competition contains a sense of respect, is sustainable and the students don’t feel that they are being bribed into good behaviour, then it should work if my experience is anything to go by.  My version of using competition is very simple and has worked effectively year after year, class after class.

Firstly, this concept has to be bought into. You have to embed it into everything the students do for it to work – behaviour, presentation, achievement, punctuality – everything. I tell my students about it from day one and typically they don’t care tremendously about it in that first lesson. This is where others might abandon it, but I continue anyway as I have found it works better and better the more they understand how the competition works and the more it becomes embedded practice. Every lesson needs to have opportunities for both teams to earn points (and definitely not for one team to earn points at the expense of the other as this leads to conflict).

In the first lesson I do my homework; I find out about the students’ behaviour records, their reputations amongst staff, their previous grades and progress. then I split the class into two and that forms my seating plan. I mix up the students equally between those witnull