Competition as a Teaching Strategy

Alex Murray
Abstract

In this article, both the negative and positive roles of competition as a teaching strategy are
explored. By using the lenses of culture, gender, second language learners and different levels
of education, the strategy of competition is considered in terms of its component pieces in order
to find how best to use it. By adjusting the use of competition to include collaboration and being
mindful of competition’s effects, teachers can bring it back into the classroom for the benefit of
our students.

Competition played a central role in my own education, shaping my expectations of

teaching and learning. While competition was a motivating factor for me, this was not
necessarily true for others. For a handful of high-achieving students, competition stands as an
engagement tool, but for the rest of the students in the class, it can have the opposite effect. In
other cultures, this is reflected in the poisonous over-competition that cripples students in Asia.
Taken to extremes here in Canada, some teachers will engineer competition between genders
to help students; however, the opposite effect is more often true. The use of competition with
bilingual students and tutors shows how flawed the use of this teaching strategy is and how it is
linked to decreased learning of the curriculum. There are solutions to these problems, the first of
which involves purely eliminating competition as a teaching strategy from our repertoire.
Another way to strip the ineffectiveness of competition in the classroom is to modify the strategy
and create an element of collaboration in the games or competitions. We can also use the
strategy of class-versus-teacher, class-versus-class, or even school-versus-school to
incorporate the students who otherwise would have been left behind. There are ways to use
competition in the classroom, provided we are careful in our use of these strategies and keep
the needs of our students paramount when planning.

Negative Results of Competition in the Classroom

Competition motivates only high-achieving students in the class, but it is demotivating in

other cultures or when used with gender, and it decreases bilingual students’ learning potential.
The ability to engage the high-achieving students through competition in the classroom is
mitigated by the students in the classroom who see this strategy as a showcase of their lack of
ability. Elliot, Jury, and Murayama (2018) described the lower achieving students in the class
who avoid demonstrations of their ability because they think that they cannot compete at a
higher level, nullifying any positive effect in the class. By dropping the competition from the
classroom, Cohan and Honigsfeld (2010) found that the alternative is far better. They had no
issues with the students if they worked in a setting that was relaxed, without contrived
competitive situations. When competition for grades is considered by students, many will look to
see whether their grades will be on a curve or not and, if so, the students may decide to
disengage from collaboratively learning because they are worried their standing will be reduced
(Burleigh & Meegan, 2018). Finally, Raupp in 2018 pinpointed how competition can bring out
behaviours that we want to avoid in the classroom, such as students becoming upset and
unmotivated instead of creating a lesson or classroom that is engaging. The students who find
the class easy or competition engaging thrive, but the class members without that intrinsic drive
mitigate the success of their peers because it is the competition that gives a platform for their
lack of ability.
When taken to extremes in other cultures, the competition that we have traditionally thought
of as a motivating influence is even more detrimental to students’ success. In China, the drive to

BU Journal of Graduate Studies in Education, Volume 11, Issue 1, 2019 13

succeed, combined with parental pressure, leaves students in a position to succeed or
academically die. This death-ground competition idea illustrates that students at the middle
school level in these Asian cultures are under immense familial, peer, and parental pressure to
be the best in the class because of how competitive it is to be accepted by a prestigious high
school (Liu & Dervin, 2017). The numerous after-school programs and extra tutoring for these
students demonstrate how extreme this culture takes its education. This mentality can cause
issues with self-esteem and continuation of studies after high school. Those who do not win the
race to be first in this extremely competitive cultural environment find that it is detrimental to
their success.
The use of competition with bilingual students and tutors shows again how flawed the use
of this teaching strategy is and how it is linked to decreased learning of the curriculum. Hispanic
students were shown to be much more likely to be put in remedial classes than their non-
Hispanic peers (Madrid, Canas, & Ortega-Medina, 2007). The language divide in these students
was posited to be one of the reasons why they were not doing as well as their peers. When put
into randomized groups that used cooperative peer tutoring in contrast to a competitive
environment, the students who were in a cooperative group learned more authentically than
those in the competitive group. Again, we see that competition as a teaching strategy is linked
to decreased learning of the curriculum.
The gender divide provides an additional method for competition to damage students’
success when it is used in mixed classrooms and creates gendered methods and norms. In our
culture, the girls in our classes are more apt than our male students to avoid competition while
learning (John, 2017). Because most of our classes are mixed in terms of gender, this finding
that females are left behind when teachers use competition as a teaching strategy means that
fully half of our student body is not helped by this process at all. However, it is more than half,
because not all boys are motivated by this strategy, either. Classic girls-versus-boys scenarios
in physical education classes and other subjects preclude girls from trying their best and should
be dropped from teaching methods immediately. The damage that inter-gender and mixed
classroom competition causes to students’ success creates more gendered methods and social
norms. We can see through these data that competition motivates only the stronger students in
the class, but it demotivates when used across gender divides, in different cultures, and with
bilingual students.

Modifying Competition With Collaboration

There are numerous solutions to these problems, such as eliminating competition, using
competition in high-level learning groups, or using it in concert with collaboration. The first
method of modification involves purely eliminating competition from our repertoire of teaching
strategies. Researchers in Taiwan discovered that when students are given the opportunity to
learn in a context without competition, they absorb far more information as compared to their
peers in a separate group doing the same learning but competing against each other (Chen,
Liu, & Shou, 2018). Chen et al. (2018) used the same assessment of the knowledge gained
during the activity in a digital STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) learning
environment. The group that did the most authentic learning and performed better on the
assessment was the group that did not compete or rank against each other. This strategy is
doubly effective if the content the students are learning is engaging or presented in an engaging
way that activates their curiosity. It has been my experience that students learning for learning’s
sake is a far longer lasting method to imbue them with knowledge, and one way it can happen is
if we eliminate competition from our repertoire of teaching strategies.
The only time that student competition seems to have a positive effect in a learning
environment is either in medical school where students are already academically inclined and
have been successful, or in a debate context for the same reasons. Competition for acceptance
to a medical program is implicitly part of the process. By adding another element of competition

14 BU Journal of Graduate Studies in Education, Volume 11, Issue 1, 2019

as a teaching strategy in medical school, a teacher can engage the students better and motivate
them to keep their morale up (Corell, Regueras, Verdú, Verdú, & de Castro, 2018). In another
study, Mosley-Jensen (2011) illustrated the necessary aspects of using competition in the
classroom as a teaching strategy by looking at debate as a subject. The preparation and
procedural aspects of the debate structure raised the level of knowledge and education in the
high-achieving students who flourish in this situation (Mosley-Jensen, 2011). Medical students
and students of debate, who are naturally inclined toward academics, thrive in a competitive
environment; these students become more successful when competition is explicitly used in the
classroom.
Another way to strip ineffectiveness from competition is to modify the strategy by adding
collaboration to class games. Instead of taking competition out of the classroom, a high school
mathematics teacher joined the competition aspects of games with collaboration (DiNapoli,
2018). The students competed against each other in mixed groups and had the same chance to
excel and win because the students were motivated to work as a team. In my own teaching
practice, this collaboration by students occurs when I challenge the students to a class-versus-
teacher game, or a class-versus-class game or competition. When they can work as a team, the
students who feel that they cannot rise to the level of the superstars are willing to demonstrate
their skills. In a much larger context, school to school, it works even better when the students of
a school compete, as detailed in a study out of the Netherlands (Cabus & Cornelisz, 2017). The
collaborative competition then makes it much easier to assess students who otherwise might
never have been able to participate. By adding an element of collaboration to the competition,
teachers can bring back the students who would have fallen through the cracks and thereby
ensure significantly more learning for our students. Eliminating competition, using competition in
high-level learning groups, or using it in concert with collaboration are ways that we can use
competition as an effective teaching strategy.

Conclusion

Despite competition being used in classrooms during my early and middle years’ education,
it leaves a lot to be desired as a learning and teaching strategy. There are teaching methods
that can use competition effectively if care is taken, but not in the traditional sense. High levels
of student-versus-student competition are detrimental to student success, especially in cultures
wherein egregious pressure is put on the students. The students who thrive when competition is
used in class are the high-achievers who would have done well anyway. The use of competition
with bilingual students and tutors shows again how flawed the use of this teaching strategy is.
When used to reinforce gender lines, competition can also damage the learning of boys and
girls in different contexts. However, students learning for learning’s sake obtain a more
permanent grasp of the material, and doubly so if the content is adapted to be engaging. By
adding an element of collaboration to competition, teachers can ensure that every student has a
chance to participate and achieve the same level of learning as the high-achieving students.
However, collaboration will not work if the students are graded on a curve and are looking out
for their self-interests. Modifying competition and keeping the needs of our students in mind are
recommended methods to use competition as a teaching strategy.

References

Burleigh, T. J., & Meegan, D. V. (2018). Risky prospects and risk aversion tendencies: Does
competition in the classroom depend on grading practices and knowledge of peer-status?
Social Psychology of Education: An International Journal, 21(2), 323-335.
doi:10.1007/s11218-017-9414-x

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Chen, C.-H., Liu, J.-H., & Shou, W.-C. (2018). How competition in a game-based science
learning environment influences students’ learning achievement, flow experience, and
learning behavioral patterns. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 21(2), 164-176.
Cohan, A., & Honigsfeld, A. (2010). Breaking the mold of education [Google Books version].
Plymouth, United Kingdom: Rowman and Littlefield Education.
Corell, A., Regueras, L. M., Verdú, E., Verdú, M. J., & de Castro, J. P. (2018). Effects of
competitive learning tools on medical students: A case study. PLoS ONE, 13(3), 1-12.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0194096
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About the Author

After completing his bachelor’s degree, Alex Murray spent two years teaching ESL in China. It
was this experience that led him to pursue an after-degree in Education. He is a first-year
Master of Education student at Brandon University and a teacher in the Brandon School
Division.

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