I am pretty competitive. It is a short list of things I won’t try to turn into some sort of contest. I don’t just like to run, I like to race. And while I like getting steps with my FitBit, I also really like seeing how I am doing against my friends who have the same device. I could easily go on, the list is long. And while I like winning, I really like the act of competing. I find it motivating.
Since I think competition is so great in so many areas, why am I so lukewarm on letter grades – particularly with our younger learners. And why have I written multiple posts criticizing the Fraser Institute and their use of school assessment data to rank schools? If my FitBit rankings encourage me to walk more, shouldn’t the Fraser Institute rankings encourage our students to perform better?
A recent conversation with Dean Shareski helped me bring some of this into focus. As I look at the competitions I like, they are all ones that I have voluntarily joined to participate. I think a key piece for me is this explicit commitment to participate.
All my favourite competitions are ones where those of us involved joined, not ones we were forced into. I am good with competitive team sports, with their scoring and winning as the participants knew what they signed up for. And for those who don’t want to compete, they don’t sign up. The way my brain is wired, I think everyone must want to compete about just about everything, but I do know this isn’t true. I was struck by a recent post by my colleague Maureen Lee who wrote that she found her FitBit was actually hurting her fitness so she has taken it off. I think it is crucial to recognize that competition is a motivator for some people in some instances but this is far from universal. And I realize it is not always healthy for motivation to be so extrinsic- I am the person who now doesn’t want to get off the couch when my FitBit is charging, thinking of any steps as wasted steps.
It is this volunteering piece that leads to some of my struggles with the Fraser Institute and our ranking and sorting in schools. The Fraser Institute has a narrow slice of criteria (a few province-wide assessments) and applies blanket rankings to all schools in the province on these results. The schools don’t sign up to participate. It is not that inner-city schools are saying, “this year let’s compete in our writing tests with some of the elite private schools in the province”. It takes no acknowledgement that different schools may have a different focus or goals, and are all starting from very different places.
Similarly, students working through learning their math or language arts are not asking to be put on a common scale with their age-similar peers and have their results posted in the class (I know this happens very rarely now) or stamped with a grade that says little about what they need to improve but says a lot about how they currently stack-up with others around them. This is particularly true at younger ages. I wonder how a 10 year-old bringing home a report card with C’s thinks – when did I sign up for this? We know better.
It is not easy to reconcile how we can both embrace and champion competition and also question its necessity. Perhaps we need to ask the hard question – why exactly are we competing in something that really is a personal journey? At least for now I am going to see how this new criteria fits – I am all for competition that I signed up for. And to all you FitBitt-ers on my Friends list – I am coming for you!
I wonder if the recent twitter posts about how some students hate PE classes https://twitter.com/pattibacchus/status/1091772388037939201?s=21 are also about the involuntary competitions that we impose on students. Instead of motivating some kids to be better, we might be reinforcing ideas that they aren’t good enough. What motivates each person is different for sure – if I ever put my Fitbit back on, I’ll never be adding “friends” to it!
I know from experience (I taught secondary PE) that an emphasis on competition, winning, in PE is off putting for many. However you cannot and should not avoid some level of competition in PE. I found that when the focus of team sports was working as a team – today it would be called: collaboration, communication, cognition and creativity, are the ‘stars’, most children and youth were ‘in’ because the game was about more than scoring a basket. If the focus of individual work is on setting personal goals, most are ‘in’. And kids will set personal goals in team sports as well.
The competitive athletes signed up for school teams.
The purpose of PE, in my opinion, is to experience the joy and fun of movement while learning life skills and acquiring knowledge for health and well being for self and community. I do not agree with written assignments or assessments in PE. Kids set their goals at the beginning of unit and measure their progress as they go (there are curriculum reference points to measure against). A grade, if it has to be done, represents the personal progress from Lesson 1 to Lesson… not about being a future olympian.
The entire PE conversation is such an interesting one – a future blog post for sure! But yes, it seems unnecessary we build a lot of team competition into PE classes (I know actually this is not done that much anymore) – when we could focus on physical literacy skills and allow those who want to turn this into competition have the opportunities through Intramurals, school teams and community teams.
Thank you for continuing to advocate for different forms of assessment for learners – yes, letter grades motivate some students, but far more are motivated by other intrinsic (many grade 6/7 students found the recent district-sponsored ‘future cities’ project so cool) and extrinsic factors (some students work hard to please their parents and teachers). I feel these other factors will carry students further in their pursuit of excellence and lifelong learning because it is more personal and builds connections that foster continued development.
Another observation I’ve made is that some learners are interested in learning for learning’s sake, regardless of whether or not it’s being graded. And the great teachers I’ve seen have an ability to make most of their topic interesting, with an adaptable entry level. The same can be true for people who join sports ‘just to participate’. No ‘competition’ is needed, just a bunch of kids with a ball and a goal. I believe that some people care less about the ‘score’ but whether or not they had fun, connected with someone, learned….
PS – Thanks for pointing us to Maureen’s post, it was a great read!
Thanks Doni. The Future Cities project is a great case study. What I saw were students who were absolutely motivated by the work. There was a competitive element to the process but that was not the driver for the students. I think it is interesting when there are “competitions” in school, that students have the option whether to participate or not. Having students choose to enter the competitive stream is a strategy I have seen some classes use very effectively. It creates that student ownership over the competition.
Me too; I love competition – both what I sign up for and watching others who have signed up for games, music….
But, as you point out, kids do not sign up for schooling and as you imply, schooling – learning – is not a spectator sport. Letter grades and the Fraser Institute do not understand assessment (or evaluation). The FI borders on emotional abuse of children and youth and their teachers.
Assessment is not letter grades nor is it a competition. It is feedback, a key ‘ingredient’ for deep, meaningful learning. A letter grade is some arbitrary evaluative symbol devised by someone who did not/does not understand learning and in particular the role of assessment in the learning process. I put the Fraser Institute in the category of “does not understand learning and the role of assessment’.
Learning, biologically speaking, is what we humans do. There is innate intrinsic motivation to learn. Losing our intrinsic desire to learn leaves us vulnerable to the whims of others. I agree that extrinsic motivation plays an important role but it that ‘inner self’ must take the lead. This is true of sport, music, arts and academics.
Thanks Susan – absolutely. It is absolutely possible to love competition (as you point out as a participant or spectator) and also understand that learning and improvement are best done through the inner working of intrinsic motivation.
This is great Chris!
I also wonder about what is being measured when it comes to things like the Fraser Institute ranking. How seriously would you take the ‘competition’ if your Fitbit performance was only measured one day in the month or year? What would that do to motivate you on the other days?
I am very externally motivated and just recently shared January results of my fitness/healthy living goals on my blog because I need to express to others what I’m wanting to accomplish in order to ensure that I will follow through… and yet grades never motivated me. Not ever in school as a young student and not in over 9 years of post secondary schooling either. Learning for me is a journey and I’ve enjoyed that journey at the expense of marks time and again… doing things like ignoring criteria on an assignment because I wanted to take a different approach or making something longer than the teacher wanted because I wanted to share more. The letter never meant much but the written feedback always did.
Thanks Dave for the comment. I do wonder if the fact I am being every second of every day by my FitBit – is that really a good thing? Of course, if the goal is improved fitness and health, it is not as though steps in a day is a very good measure for that. And now once I have become “hooked” on my step-count how do I ever give it up. I have had 10,000 steps a day for over five years. I am not really sure how this ends – or does it ever end? Will I one day just take it off and never put it on again? It is one of the challenges of measurement and competition – we become so addicted to it, we don’t know how to get out of it.
Nature will eventually take care of that decision Chris:))
We all think and practice varying levels of “inclusiveness” in classrooms and schools. This post recognizes that we know some students are motivated by competition. How will children learn they are motivated by competition if they don’t experience competition in schools? The value of competition has to be realized in a larger context than the gym. Is there a connection among the facts that girls are outperforming boys in all aspects of school life; boys are more likely to embrace competition; and, schools are rapidly de-emphasizing competition?
I am not advocating for unhealthy competitive practices. Jonathan Haidt suggests that levels of stress in childhood that our youth can resolve on their own, act as an inoculation against life stresses later in life. He suggests that over protective parenting practices (I would suggest over protective school practices as well) protect our children from this innoculation. Thus, the increase in student mental health issues that we all concern ourselves with these days.
The Fraser Institute practices damaged BC education!!
Thanks Cyril. This is a great addition to the conversation. I think you are right when we think about competition, we quickly turn to the sports, but there are other ways to build in competition opportunities that can be real motivators for some students. I think we struggle to identify what are examples of healthy competition and are worried that when we add competition we are doing more damage that good.
I am finding that many students love some of the online math experiences which are somewhat like video games, that have levels etc. to work through.
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