The Problem with Competition

Classrooms are microcosms of society, and the stage upon which students practice becoming adults. This is where adolescents hone the skills they will use in their future careers and as future members of society. Rather than teaching students to compete against each other, putting their own advancement and interests before anyone else's, educators can cultivate collaborative skills in the classroom, preparing our future leaders to coexist and cooperate with leaders around the world. Creating a collaborative future society is necessary if we want to address the many crises humanity faces today such as environmental degradation, global hunger, gun violence, racial inequality, political divisiveness, and a world-wide lack of access to education and affordable medicine. If these are problems we want to solve in the future, it is crucial that schools begin to develop collaborative skills in their students today.

Teachers can teach the benefits of collaboration by showing students that the best learning takes place in positive cooperation with peers. When competition dominates the classroom, students feel inward tension to rush to solutions and withhold their achievements from others. This inner tension creates outward conflict in the social fabric of the class. A dynamic that has a detrimental impact on students’ mental health and impedes optimal learning. But the harmful effects of competition in the classroom go beyond the immediate negative impact to class culture and individual mental health. Teaching competition rather than collaboration has negative consequences on students’ moral development (Yayla & Cevik, 2022).

Teaching children that they must achieve faster and better than their peers, as is the case with competitive games, quizzes, and activities, designed to motivate students to get quick and accurate answers to questions before anyone else, demonstrates that achievement is a zero-sum game with winners and losers. Students would benefit academically, socially, emotionally, and morally if rather than being praised for individual achievement, they were encouraged to collaborate with their peers to bring about optimal learning. This model creates a rich, vibrant education, increases student engagement, and improves overall achievement and comprehension.

Cooperative learning has a long history of success. A 1987 publication in the Journal of Educational Leadership stated, “The age of cooperation is approaching. From Alaska to California, to Florida, to New York, from Australia to Britain, to Norway, to Israel, teachers and administrators are discovering an untapped resource for accelerating student achievement: the students themselves. There is now substantial evidence that students working in small cooperative groups can master content presented by the teacher better than can students working on their own.”

Despite its well-established benefits, a 2017 study found that cooperative learning fell out of favor with teachers, likely due to the fact that it is difficult to implement (Buchs et al., 2017). Teaching through cooperative learning groups does require forethought and planning. Groups must be artfully formed, and activities designed to be experienced in groups or pairs rather than individually. However, the short-term and long-term benefits of collaboration make this small amount of extra effort more than worth it. In fact, as students become better at working collaboratively, the teacher’s job becomes easier. This is because students who are good at working together can rely on each other for guidance rather than continually going to the teacher for support.

Despite the proven benefits of cooperative learning, throughout the early 2000’s, collaboration gave way to traditional methods of measuring achievement such as individual tests, quizzes, projects, and papers. These methods of measuring student achievement give teachers a straight-forward way to see who is achieving, and who is falling behind. But simply noting achievement falls short of an effective and equitable education.

Teachers should strive to elevate all students' achievements through an equitable education that recognizes each student's unique gifts and meets all of their individual needs. When teachers teach equitably, they teach more than academic skills, they teach students that they are inherently valued and have important gifts to offer the class community. Such an education cultivates compassion, cooperation, motivation, and engagement, supporting moral development as well as academic achievement.

Recent scholarship found that competition in the classroom disrupts moral development because it elevates one student over another, preventing a sense of belonging to the class community (Yayla & Cevik, 2022). Competition creates a paradigm of winners and losers. The competing child learns not to share information with their classmates lest their friends get ahead, and their own achievements be perceived as less valuable. Competition teaches that there is only a finite amount of success to be had. Under this model, students hoard their knowledge and discoveries as commodities only valuable when kept out of reach of others.

The harmful effects of a win-at-all-costs mentality extends beyond the classroom. Competition in the global economy harms the environment, the economy, and society. Kopparam (2021) exposed the myth that competition is good for society pointing out that competition encourages businesses to exploit regulatory loopholes. Moreover, competition amongst businesses perpetuates market power harming workers, new businesses, consumers, and, more broadly, humanity and our planet.

Promoting collaboration amongst big businesses could elevate the quality of products, improve worker conditions, lower consumer prices, and accelerate advancement in environmental restoration by eliminating the ongoing “race to the bottom” (Chen, 2023), in which businesses attempt to undercut each other by sacrificing quality standards, environmental safety, or worker safety.

Competition not only brings about the lowest moral bar amongst global economies and businesses, but it also brings out the worst in student behavior. Competing students focus only on winning, not on the wellbeing of their classmates, or their own moral integrity. A class community that is focused on winning rather than wellbeing, breeds negative emotions in students such as anxiety, jealousy, anger, and resentment. Slower, more cautious students repeatedly fall short of first place and resentment can easily develop into aggression towards students who are repeatedly the “winners.” But teachers can reverse this negative trend in classrooms where competition rules, by promoting cooperation instead. When students are praised and rewarded for collaborating, sharing ideas, and offering support and guidance to slower, or struggling peers, they learn more than academic skills, they learn goodness.

The divisive climate we see in the world today may be rooted in a lack of collaborative practices in the classroom. Teachers and parents must ask themselves: what habits, values, and ideas do we want to instill in our future leaders? Do we want to teach our burgeoning young adults to prize secrecy and individualism, breeding callousness to the greater needs of society, or do we want the leaders of tomorrow to have experienced and been trained in the positive outcomes of collaboration, compassion, and cooperation?

We need a more compassionate society. When teachers prioritize collaboration over competition, optimal learning flourishes and a healthy moral compass is instilled in the developing consciousness of children and adolescence. Using collaboration as a teaching tool is just as quick, simple, and fun, as using competitive games and teams. See my article, Collaborative Learning in the Classroom for more on how to implement cooperative learning today.

When executed thoughtfully, compassionately, and with intention, using collaborative learning groups in the classroom allow each student to shine with their unique gifts and temperaments, while learning valuable skills for later in life. Learning through collaboration gives students skills they will use all through their educational journey, in their first jobs, in friendships, and in romantic relationships. And the skills developed through collaborative learning will take root and continue to grow within young adults as they step into the world as global leaders and begin to tackle the many problems that loom large in the landscape of our future.

If we want to see our climate brought back into balance, our oceans restored to health, peace and cooperation flourish between nations, and food, medicine, and education made accessible to all people, we will have to work together. Achievement, knowledge, and success grow exponentially when shared. Our classrooms must reflect this important reality.