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.