Inquiry Resources

Self-Confidence

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Goldberg, A. (2015) Self-confidence. Competitive Edge. Retrieved from https://www.competitivedge.com/self-confidence

Confidence is a difficult thing to build. It takes time and effort. Particularly effort. And lots of it. As a participant, there are many things you can do to build confidence and many credos surrounding it.

  • Nothing replaces hard work
  • Remind yourself of yourself
  • Don’t compare yourself to others – Focus on you
  • Focus on what you can control
  • Dwell on the positive
  • Catch yourself doing things right
  • Be a good coach to yourself

 

As an educator, something that has become increasingly obvious to me is the notion of no matter what you do, you’re impacting a student’s confidence. Every single interaction influences confidence; whether it’s a look, tone, comment, or your body language, the students are watching and they care what you do. This is so important to keep in mind in a classroom and isn’t limited to just competitive activities. Students self confidence can be extremely fragile and as the adult in the room, it lies on your shoulder to model how to have self confidence. This is a very difficult task as we as educators aren’t handed bag of self-confidence as a resource and told “go forth and spread the good worth of self-efficacy”, handing out confidence from our confidence bag to those in need. Tough as it is though to bring confidence into the classroom, it is necessary thing and I will refer back to the credos at the beginning for inspiration. They are solid principles to build self-confidence from and if you can, you will set your student sup for success in self-confidence as well. To relate this back to competition though, these credos are the definitions of a good competitor. Self-confidence will feed to positive elements of competition and thus will support further growth of confidence. It is a cycle that, if possible to implement, can have a tremendous influence on an individual’s life.

Confidence and Performance

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Skinner, B. R. (2013) The relationship between confidence and performance throughout a competitive season. All Graduate Plan B and other Reports. Paper 285. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1284&context=gradreports

 

When looking at sports, it is obvious immediately that sports is competitive. It’s working against others to achieve a task first. This is undeniable. Additionally, it has been discussed at length about how sports can be detrimental to an individual’s confidence. However, what is rarely discussed is how sports can have a hugely positive impact on a child’s confidence.

 

When looking at confidence’s influence in sports, it can be separated into two categories; traits confidence and state confidence. Traits confidence refers to a long-standing disposition that an athlete (or student) exhibits in a competitive task. This is more permanent character trait and make difficult to alter. A state confidence refers to the athlete or students mind frame “in the moment”. This can shift wildly and many influences can shift an athlete or student’s confidence during a task. A coach or teacher NEEDS to keep both of these in mind at all times as they impact the manner in which a student or athlete acts. Nonetheless, competition, and sports, can have a wonderfully positive influence on individuals. It acts as a source of personal accomplishments, is an avenue for verbal praise and motivation, and also plays a role in a positive psychological state with the proper framework. All of this however is depends on the facilitator. Under several studies, a coach or teacher’s confidence has a direct relationship to the participants under their care. A high confidence in the coach will result in a high confidence in their team.

 

Another key post to mention is the idea of resiliency. Sports and competition builds resiliency. While it may seem like high success and always winning would breed high confidence, it it actually incorrect. An athlete or student that faces failure and the succeeds, actually builds resiliency and a higher form of confidence. This “stumbling into confidence” method strengthens the student or athlete’s character and sets the student up for a greater deal of success in the future.

Supported Failure

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Lahey, J. (2015). The gift of failure: How to step back and let your child succeed. London, UK: Short Books Ltd. Edited extract retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/sep/05/parenting-tomorrow-why-should-let-children-fail

 

The idea of a trained fear of failure is a phenomenon that is prevalent among students these days. Students who are terrified of making a mistake and through this, are unwilling to ever take risks. But why is this the case? Parental and teacher intervention. As Jessica Lahey states in her 2015 book The Gift of Failure, “out of love and a desire to protect our children’s self-esteem, we have bulldozed every uncomfortable bump and obstacle out of their way, depriving our children of the most important lesson of childhood: that setbacks, mistakes and failures are the very experiences that will teach them how to be resourceful, persistent, innovative and resilient.”

 

Well put. The way in which we create a cocoon for our students, a protective shield against falling (and in this case failing), has made our students petrified of making a mistake. This fear comes from two sources. The desire for an idyllic childhood that parents and teacher so badly wish for their children, and the reality that to get our students on an easy road to success, we push them harder and harder to be the best. This may seem counter-intuitive, but it is the reality. These over-parented, over-taught, over-guided students are going to have a very tough time when they enter adult life. When they leave school, the braces will have to be removed and if they aren’t strong enough, they will crumble. So why does Jessica Lahey’s book appeal to my inquiry question? Competition. The sheltering process many educators have engaged in, removing competition completely, is a product of this style of parenting. How do you expect you students to learn how to lose if they’re never given the chance to do so? How will they learn sportsmanship or working as team, or resilience, if you remove a barrier for them to overcome as a group? Yes, competition can be negative. Yes, competition can be part of the high-stakes race for the top that Lahey describes in the pursuit of giving one’s child the bets possible lot in life. However, it doesn’t have to. Competition can be good and depending on framework, is good. With many things in life, all in moderation and with a proper framework.

What is Gamification?

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Savides, S. (2016, January 17). What is gamification? Bright Classroom Ideas [Web log post] Retrieved from http://brightclassroomideas.com/2016/01/17/what-is-gamification/?utm_content=buffer030ac&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer – more-317

 

To make things simple, gamification is “the use of elements of game-playing in another activity, usually in order to make that activity more interesting”. This seems like it would be something that your students would like yes? Gamification is an idea that is rooted deeply in how educators bring competition into their classroom. More often than not, it is gamification that is the platform for competition in the classroom and it is gamification that can act as a means to get our students engaged and active in content they might have not been otherwise. SO what are some key elements of gamification? As discussed in Savas Savides 2016 article on What is Gamification?, besides the winning or losing, students enjoy problem-solving, exploring, creating, imagining, collecting, role-playing, collaborating, or the simple relaxing atmosphere games can produce. These are elements that can permeate throughout your lessons and act to hook your students into the content. Therefore, I feel that incorporating elements of gamification into your class can serve as a motivation tool, in connection to competition, to engage student sin both an intrinsic and extrinsic way. Additionally, elements of gamification can be taken outside the context of an actual game and be worked into parts of your class to serves a specific motivational purpose. These can include learning progression, challenges, competition, cooperation, rewards, win states, achievements, badges, leaderboards, ssroteams. There are many possibilities for gamification in the classroom so take it engage with it, explore, and then extrapolate.

 

Positive Competition: A Business Perspective

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Draper, T. (2013, October 2). Tim Draper: Positive competition. [Video file]. Retrieved 3 March 2016 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYaWk6a8YMc&app=desktop

First off, let me state that this resource doesn’t have to do with education. It does not contain the words student, classroom, or teacher. However, it does outline several of the key ideas surrounding competition. These are values that bleed down from the business world into the classroom for one simple reason: it is the way the world works. Here are a few keys points highlighting this from Tim Draper’s talk on Positive Competition at an event the TEDxUNPlaza in 2013.

  • Competition is good
  • Keeps us on our toes
  • Creates innovators (in teaching entrepreneurs)
  • We we compete, we get the best results (people are motivated)

 

Now, as this is talk was directed towards venture capitalists and investors, what I feel is the pinnacle of competitiveness, he discussed a key point. Not only is “real life” competitive, but it is something that is a commonality around the world. Every example he gave highlighted the idea of countries competing for a place at the table, a stake or share, an opportunity. There are billions of people jockeying for position and through these example, a message became clear to me. If our students don’t understand this reality, if we shield them from how the world works, they are in for a rude awakening indeed. Now I am not saying that every students needs to have this venture capitalist mentality, elbowing their peers for a shot at the title, but what this showed me is that many people do think this way. I would argue most people in the “real world” think this way. Therefore, it would be doing our students a disservice if they are not prepared. We can do this through many of the methods share on previous posts but this video really highlighted that removing competition entirely is, in many ways, setting our students up for failure.

Collaborative Competition: A Time and Place For Both

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The world is inherently competitive. That is an argument expressed by many who are proponents of the model of winners and losers, victories and defeats. Due to this viewpoint (as it has been one that has reigned supreme for centuries), when it comes to competition, it is a phenomenon that inspires extremely powerful emotions from people who exist on either side of the debate on whether it is a “healthy” thing. It has been extraordinarily interesting to hear people’s responses to the idea of involving competition in a classroom. The responses are varied and full of passion, as most people have, in their lives (both educational and otherwise), when they’ve had a strong relationship with competition. When we think about the role competition plays in social relationships, it is often remarked how competition creates divides and alienates students who don’t fit into the system. Now we have discussed this previously, so that isn’t the point of this reflection, but what is, is that competition also acts in the inverse of this alienation. It can bond, solidify, and bring people together. The connections that competitions breads are incredible and are links that can last for decades.

 

So here I am. At the same impasse I was at a few weeks ago. My path towards collaborative competition has led me to a new place. A place I couldn’t have predicted when I started this exploration. Collaborative Competition. Now again, as I have previously stated, this could change my inquiry question, but it doesn’t. It is a means to an end. What is one way we can engage our students in positive competition in the classroom? Collaborative competition. So if this is a viable solution, let’s look at some interactions, albeit they are fairly limited still, that some educators have had with collaborative competition.

 

Bevacqua, J. (2013). Collaboration and competition. Connected Principals. [Web log post] Retrieved from http://connectedprincipals.com/archives/8186

 

On the blog Connected Principals, Johnny Bevacqua explore the concept of collaborative competition. He highlights some key concepts that I have discussed in previous blog posts but are nonetheless worthy of repetition. In terms of the downsides to competition he states “Competition without collaboration promotes closed systems.  It closes classroom doors and prevents innovation and new ideas.” This summarize a negative feature of competition we have all witnessed. But as he states this isn’t the be-all-and-end-all. The two can intermingle and support each other. In truly elegant fashion he states:

 

There is a place and a time for both.  My nuanced take on this “dance” is that to be competitive in today’s world you must find ways to effectively collaborative.  In other words, to be competitive, you must be collaborative.

 

Competition encourages time efficiency. Cooperation encourages accuracy. To be successful you must find a way to foster both. What was particularly interesting is that, in a study referenced by Bevacqua from ZeitNews, is that student associate self-esteem with the system they exist in. If they exist within a system of competition, then competition raises self-esteem. The inverse is also true with cooperation.  If they exist within a system of cooperation, then cooperation raises self-esteem. Therefore, through magnificent logic, if we instilled a system of collaborative competition in our classrooms, wouldn’t our student associate collaborative competition with self-esteem? An idea to ponder.

Collaborative Competition: A TEDxMuskegon Talk by Todd Conrad

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Conrad, T. (2013, November 14). Todd Conrad: Collaborative competition. [Video file]. Retrieved 21 February 2016 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN_r0DjF8Ls

This talk, given by Todd Conrad at a TEDx event in Muskegon, Michigan, puts forth a few ideas that points out some flaws in the concept of using competition to motivate. The first being the historical fallacy of “the most effective way to get the most of people is to have them compete against one another.” This hyper-competitive state that Conrad discusses is what we view as the negative incarnation of competition casing all the negative emotions associated with the competitive spirit. This marginalizes the “others” through isolation by searching for external validation through putting oneself ahead. This “social competition” that is a product of this environment and ultimately does not result in an outcome that is beneficial to anyone. The cyclical nature of such a system will result in those who were marginalized to continue to be so, pushing these individuals further and further to the peripheries, never being able to succeed. Is it any wonder we have seen such a blowback against having competition exist in our classrooms? The historical reality is that this hyper-competitive, alienating system has been at the forefront of our classrooms for over a hundred years so it is no surprise that many have looked at it and said to competition “never again”.

 

But does this make competition inherently bad? I say with fervor, NO! As Conrad states, such a system is a product of the environment. If the environment is aggressive and hyper-competitive, then it makes sense that the students who participate in the system will mirror these traits. However, as he discusses, what if we make that competitive model more reflective of collaborative practices? Would our students reflect those traits as well? Communication, motivation, engagement, trust, a drive to succeed would all exist if the environment supports it. This model focuses on the process, not the result. It takes away the dependency the participants have on striving to win, but in its place it pushes them to drive for success, in whatever form that takes. Additionally, it replaces the traditional concept of “us vs. them”, with a model that makes your opponent’s allies, and tools to learn from. The motivation comes from within and the participants strive for excellence not for others, but for themselves. Without competition we fall into the participation ribbon syndrome, which takes away meaning for putting in your best, your hardest work. But without collaboration, we fall back into the historical model of aggressive hyper-competitiveness. Therefore, through collaborative competition we accomplish the desired result of blended system, taking the best of both concepts and molding it into a system that stresses both the drive to achieve the goal, but also the process it took to get there.

The Difference Between Winning and Succeeding: A TED Talk by John Wooden

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Wooden, J. (2001, January). John Wooden: The difference between winning and succeeding. [Video file]. Retrieved 21 February 2016 from https://www.ted.com/talks/john_wooden_on_the_difference_between_winning_and_success?language=en

Something that resonated with me in this talk, which was given by an incredibly successful coach who spent years teaching, coaching, and educating students and athletes, was about how when you are competing for a goal, what that goal actually is changes how you “play the game”. And what is significant is that this goal, whether it be in academics or athletics, is determined or framed by the facilitators. Achievement of that goal or “success” in the given task and the worth that people surrounding the participants place on this success varies. The idea that John Wooden brings forth of “Never try to be better than someone else, always learn from others. Never cease trying to be the best you can be — that’s under your control” is a concept that isn’t always in line with what we witness in competitive scenarios. The idea of measuring success in this format, of whether you achieved the best you could, regardless of others, is in line with intrinsic competition. This is directly linked to the question of “How do we make competition positive?” and “How do we make it a situation of learning and growth for all participants?” We could argue that this is the case all the time and that we strive for this in any competition. Well that is false. Whether it is caches, parents, spectators, or other participants, more often than not a certain expectation to win is placed upon them. Not succeed. Win. The framework of us vs. them, me vs. you, winners vs. losers, is the reason many people have such negative feelings towards competition. This baggage has stuck with them and they never had competition framed for them in a way that set them up to be successful. Not necessarily winners, but successful nonetheless. The ability to see yourself as achieving a goal, regardless of the outcome is an essential skill that needs to be taught, and yes it most certainly is not something that comes naturally. We as educators have a responsibility to teach our students this skill and competition can support that learning and growth. When they leave school and enter the “real world”, employers, administrators, and all sorts of people will be looking for individuals that can exhibit this kind of success, and again that doesn’t mean winning. John Wooden summarized it in an excellent way about what he looked for in a player that he would call a “perfect player”:

 

“Well, I’d want one that knew why he was at UCLA: to get an education, he was a good student, really knew why he was there in the first place. But I’d want one that could play, too. I’d want one to realize that defense usually wins championships, and who would work hard on defense. But I’d want one who would play offense, too. I’d want him to be unselfish, and look for the pass first and not shoot all the time. And I’d want one that could pass and would pass.”

 

These qualities translate off the basketball court, off the football field, off the ice rink, and directly into our classrooms. They are qualities and skills that stick with our students and will be essential for the rest of their lives.

Competition and Collaboration: The New Odd Couple

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So I have come to an impasse in my inquiry process. The more and more I work to investigate how I can include competition in a positive way in my future classroom, the more and more I realize that to do so is going to require a great deal of careful framing. This framing is going to come in the brand new form of a specific component of competition that I have uncovered, through research, observation, and reflection. I am going to coin this term “collaborative competition”. I have briefly examined the relationship between the two seemingly dissimilar concepts in a previous blog post (see: Competition and Social Relationships), so from here I will look to deepen my investigation of their relationship. So I now pose two questions that hopefully will serve to further my understanding of how the two are interconnected:

  • How can we bridge the gap that exists between competition and collaboration?
  • In what situations, scenarios, activities, or environments will a collaborative competition serve to motivate and engage students?

Now I can hear voices screaming out “Does this mean you’re changing your inquiry topic?” No. My question remains “How can you implement positive competition in classroom?” Collaborative competition is simply an avenue that I have discovered possible can answer my inquiry question. Therefore, to truly understand how a relationship can be built between collaboration and competition, I need to examine the elements of collaboration that will work to serve this purpose.

 

Below is a link to  an infographic that was created with the purpose of demonstrating some of the impacts of a collaborative work environment in the business world.

PGI., (2015). From Me to We: Teams drive innovation, productivity and growth [infographic]. Retrieved 21 February 2016, from http://blog.pgi.com/2015/03/infographic-benefits-of-teamwork-collaboration/

Now these statistics may seem non-applicable to an elementary school classroom, but the essential elements of collaboration are exhibited and the importance of collaboration is also shown. It also shows some key areas that are connected to my fancy, new (but probably not) idea of collaborative competition.

  • The benefits of a collaborative work environment include better productivity, an expansion of ideas through innovation, and an increase in morale.
  • Technology plays, and will continue to play, a huge role in how people (and in this case, students) engage with their peers and communicate ideas.
  • The rising trend of collaboration OVER competition.

 

So how does competition relate to these ideas? Well I will be exploring each one in depth over the next few posts in an attempt to connect these trends in collaborative work to a motivating, positive, engaging competitive environment.

Competition and Social Relationships

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When we think about the role competition plays in social relationships, it is often remarked how competition creates divides and alienates students who don’t fit into the system. Now we have discussed this previously, so that isn’t the point of this reflection, but what is, is that competition also acts in the inverse of this alienation. It can bond, solidify, and bring people together. The connections that competition creates are incredible and are links that can last for decades. That is the power of teamwork. It works to teach people the skills they will need to engage in competition, cooperation, and collaboration. Three essential skills, all different, but all important nonetheless.

If we looks at the nature of our world, the reality is that we live in a society that is overtly competitive. To study to be the best, and to work towards that is an essential skill. I truly believe that this passion can push students to achieve their best and is the reality they will be facing when they enter the real world. Getting a job, being selected for a promotion, or even getting into an university program such as UBC’s Teacher Education program, you will be competing for those spots, so providing some scenarios where students need to reach high is essential.

Additionally, while competition may seem contradictory to cooperation, it’s is actually intrinsically linked. Cooperation is one aspect of teamwork and competition breeds teamwork. As stated above, it, brings people together to complete a task. This can involve competitive spirit, in that it brings people together against another team, and that this “versus” atmosphere pushes people to do their best for their team. Additionally, it can work towards a differentiation of instruction to best complete the task. This specialization draws on the strength of the individuals while still working together. This advanced organizational structure is one that is fostered by competitive spirit and a skill that students can rely on after the exit school. Finally, collaboration is a concept that is seemingly placed on another level aside from both competition and cooperation. It is stated that cooperation, while working together, still is motivated by extrinsic forces. It is still self-serving, similar to competition. Collaboration is said to remove those barriers and work together in an intrinsically motivated, selfless system of free information and skills exchange. This is an ideal scenario and one that is very attractive. I will say that for many activities this system is the goal. But I will conclude here with a question, or a few, for collaboration (yes I am asking a question to a metaphysical concept): Can you not achieve collaboration within a team, while still existing in a competitive environment? Are the two mutually exclusive and by introducing competition, do we remove all chance of collaboration within a team? Is it destined to be self-serving? I don’t have the answer to this and I will leave my musings on this for another post but I will conclude with these two points/questions:

  • Is there ever a situation where collaboration, true collaboration, takes place or is it just an unachievable dream?
  • In a situation where a sports team that “clicks” down to the point where they instinctively understand each other and can work together, sometimes no verbally and simply reacting on feeling alone, is that not collaboration in a competitive environment?

 

Ideas inspired by:

Snow, C. C. (2015). Organizing in the age of competition, cooperation, and collaboration. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 22(4), 433. http://jlo.sagepub.com/content/22/4/433.full.pdf