Competition in the classroom

In my schooling I often had a competitive aspect to my learning and desire to achieve. I was, and continue to be grade-motivated, though I am now more interested in the knowledge acquired than I ever was previously. But going back to the competitive drive - is that a good motivation for the classroom? This concept was discussed some last year in a graduate level education class I was in and it was a tangental point raised in a podcast I just listened to, concerning culturally responsive instruction.

In the podcast, Kathy Au tells us of her experience teaching K-2 students who were almost all of native Hawaiian ancestry. As a part of their culture, they were taught by their families to highly value cooperation. These children had struggles being in competitive classroom situations in which students were expected to show their superior intelligence by answering a question first. Kathy Au uses this point to explain that as a part of culturally responsive instruction, a teacher needs to create classroom situations that take advantage of the cooperative abilities and values that the students already bring to the classroom.

In my previous discussions on this topic, and in my own pondering, I wonder if there is a place for competition in the classroom. It is a classic tale of elementary school mathematics that students reflect in horror upon "mad minute math." I am one of the few that enjoyed it, which basically means I was good at math. Otherwise, it was a stressful activity that doubtfully improved anyone's ability or enjoyment of mathematics. If competition in class serves so few students and is despised by the rest, it is pretty clear that it probably shouldn't be included in curriculum.

The goal of any particular lesson is for the student to learn the information and/or process being taught. While there is the need for individual assessment of whether a students did indeed learn the material, why would it matter if that learning was done cooperatively. Additionally, as brought up in a discussion last year - what if a subject finally clicked for a student right after the test? What if at that point, it finally made sense? Should they receive a bad grade if that is what their test reflects? With learning as the goal, I would think not.

What of students though whose primary motivation is competition? Perhaps, they can find their own areas in which to compete even if a teacher isn't providing them. I'm sure some could argue that the world is a competitive place and we should prepare our children for it. However, I don't think that there will be any lack of informal instruction on competition in our students' lives, even if it is removed from the classroom. Though, removing competition from the classroom is easier said than done as it can factor into many areas, such as behavioral management. It is not uncommon to see clusters of students competing with other clusters for points, and thus awards, for exhibiting good behavior. Creating a pervasive environment of cooperation would likely require some in-depth reflection on one's own classroom and practice.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As an aside, Kathy Au also spoke of pair share and quick share as techniques of culturally responsive instruction. In pair share, students respond to each other about a class prompt before one of them is responsible for sharing it with the class. The next time, the other partner shares. This helps students practice what they want to say in a more comfortable setting and is beneficial for English Language Learners. In the quick share, every student has the opportunity to share very briefly, ensuring that all students have a voice and are not left out or allowed to disengage. I'm particularly interested in the pair share as it allows all students to share their ideas, even if they are not with the entire class.