Tag Archives: collaboration

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.

Play Ball: Collaborative Competition In Action

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When I view the relationship of competition in schools to collaboration among students, something that stands out in the forefront for me is how collaboration can permeate through team sports. This may seem like a contradiction and that many would argue that the two are mutually exclusive, however in the experience witnessing how some amazing educators have worked tirelessly to create a sense of collaborative competitiveness, I believe that it is possible. I believe it is completely dependent on the framework and presentation of the competition, and if it is done correctly can lead to an amazing atmosphere; one of enthusiasm, motivation, encouragement, growth, comfort, and a consideration of the feelings of the participants.

 

The scenario where I have witnessed this the most is during my practicum in the basketball program led by teachers and coaches from around the district. The structure for this is that the students are learning, and let me stress that they are LEARNING, how to play the sport. Inherit in this is competition as it is indeed a sport, however there are many other aspects to it that cross over with competition, most noticeably is the idea of cooperation. They are acting together as a team, communicating with peers, and working towards achieving a goal (winning the game). This is the definition of cooperation and one that is prevalent throughout team sports. However, more rare than this is collaboration within team sports. This is a much loftier goal as it requires collaboration among all participants, not just “your team”. Communication, working towards a goal, and trust are all elements that need to be shared between your team, your coaches, the other team, the other coaches, the referees, the spectators, everyone! Now how could this possible exist in such a competitive, no-holds-barred, free-for-all world like elementary basketball? Well it can, and here’s how. In watching the students engage in the sport, the coaches/referees conducted the game in a very unique way and one that didn’t reflect the “traditional” nature of competition. During the play, whenever there was a foul, the coaches/referees called the foul but didn’t simply continue on with the game. They stopped, drew all the players in regardless of which team they were associated with, and took the time to explain the play, what went wrong, and how to correct it next time. They demonstrated the concept and checked for comprehension with all the players. They then restarted the game and play continued with the coaches/referees continuing this trend of stop, collaborate, start, compete. This is a system that the students really responded to. It allowed them to participate in the traditional, competitive environment, however still leaving room for collaborative reinforcement of areas to improve on. Through this, you could really see the impact collaborative competition can have on the students. They were engaged yet exhibited sportsmanship, motivated to do their best yet respectful, honoured the process but showed that drive to succeed.

 

So can collaborative competition work? Absolutely! Is it effective? You betcha! Is it dependent on the framework you set up at the beginning of the activity and a prerequisites of skills the participants need to have before starting? Also yes. Regardless, it is a system that incorporates the best of both worlds and one certainly worth of exploring.

 

(Side Note: I know “play ball” is most often associated with baseball and this reflection was on basketball, but the title was too good to pass up)

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.

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

Competition, Cooperation, and Collaboration: A Lesson Debrief

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In reflection of my mini-lesson given on the topic of competition cooperation, and collaboration, it was extremely interesting to see how people related to the different terms I presented. It is striking to see that, yes indeed a significant amount of people have extraordinarily negative emotions connected to competition and some pretty idealistic association when it comes to cooperation and collaboration. This can be seen below.

 

IMG_0153

In a debrief of the actual lesson, overall I thought it went extremely well. A lot of new ideas brought up, some of my assumptions confirmed, and a few debunked. Here are a few highlights for my to take forward into more exploration of my inquiry topic.

The fact one group gave up when the other group finished first. The helplessness when they lost was evident and I can see how people could feel this way when they lose. This was unplanned as they were supposed to finish the task but gave up, and provided insight into this phenomena.

  • In discussion after the lesson with some colleagues, we talked about the prerequisites that competition requires to be successful. Sports really shows this in that there exists a non written “ethical code of sportsmanship” within each sports and it is really evident when players don’t abide by it. In cases like this, the player didn’t receive (or comprehend) this code in their education of the sport or competition in general.
  • Additionally, few of my assumptions were confirmed. The Word Wall on Padlet showed that when people think about competition, their thirst are primarily negative. Words like hopelessness, disheartening, bullying, sabotage all were present and showed that people have had very negative experiences with competition in the past, an issue I think has to do with framing how competition should exists.
  • Finally, it took longer to complete the task in a collaborative- competitive environment than in a teamwork-cooperation environment. This confirmed my suspicion that collaboration, while beneficial to an open sharing, trusting exchange of ideas, it is less effective for task completion. I think there are times when collaboration is appropriate and others where cooperation works better to complete the task.

Moving forward, I am excited to explore a few more of these ideas, particularly in relation to the link between competition and collaboration. It should prove interesting to see if we can find a way to connect these two seemingly exclusive concepts.

How Competition and Heterogeneous Collaboration Interact in Prevocational game-based mathematics education

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ter Vrugte, J., de Jong, T., Vandercruysse, S., Wouters, P., van Oostendorp, H., & Elen, J. (2015). How competition and heterogeneous collaboration interact in prevocational game-based mathematics education. Computers & Education, 89, 42-52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2015.08.010

 

One of the most striking examples of competition in the classroom is when gameification is introduced into lessons. Gameification is prevalent throughout education as it is a powerful motivator, however, how it is integrated is dependent on whether the teacher favours collaboration or competition, but the two are not mutually exclusive. When we visualize or conceptualize the subject matter (in the context of this article; mathematics) through gameification, we see an increase in performance. However, the competition vs. collaboration debate remains. The balance between the excitement, engagement, and challenge that we achieve through competition (either against a system, oneself, or others) and the elongation of frustration through a support network and teamwork that we get with collaboration, can be achieved through a few systems.

 

Student-Team-Acheivemnt-Division or STAD design is as follows: “Students complete an individual assessment, students receive instructional content, teams work together on a collaborative task and try to maximize each individuals knowledge during this task, students complete an individual assessment. Individual scores (progress in performance on individual assessment) and team score (performance on collaborative task) will be summed up to a total team score. Team scores are compared.”

 

The Teams-Games-Tournament model or TGT design is comprised of “Teams receive instructional content, work together to maximize each individuals knowledge, and play individually during an instructional tournament. Individual scores will be summed up to a total team score. Team scores are compared.”

 

Both models have shown the through group competition, there exists an interaction between the high achieving and lower achieving students in the groups. However, it is possible and has been recorded that the above average students can dominate the discourse within groups. Therefore, with both models, it is vital to keep this in mind when introducing competition in the classroom.