Academic Competition: Constructive or Cutthroat?
Elite schools breed success through the production of individuals suited with values and skills that enable them to claim or maintain elite positions in society. But through what means –and at what cost– is this accomplished? One important aspect that is integral to this question is the environment fostered between students at school. At Takau English School, an elite secondary school in Taiwan, students experience what they considered a competitive academic space, which requires some to “separate the friendships and school stuff”. But another interviewee at TES was grateful that even with its competitive grounds, their school’s environment of student relationships was still far from a rival institution’s where “it’s really ruining their friendships”. Based on these findings, I want to consider what drives academic competition, how competition can be productive in some cases, and when constructive competition crosses into territory that can be detrimental to student experiences.
https://media.giphy.com/media/j1gRinnZxmBESpNWrD/giphy.gif
Much of what drives academic competition amongst students is based on future educational and career attainment. Many students feel that admission into reputable post-secondary schools is the predominant means of ensuring successful futures. Especially in recent years as elite institutions become more and more selective, students feel required to achieve high marks in their classes, but even more importantly, distinguish themselves from their peers in doing so to allow them to stand out during admissions. Inherent in this idea of academic distinction is gaining separation from peers in terms of academic metrics, in which students must outperform their peers in their grades and standardized testing scores. Especially today, many schools’ frameworks support a culture that places more emphasis on these outcomes, which reflect well on a school’s image, than the process of learning and applying material to real-world problems. This test-centric focus, which originates from these metrics as a tool for establishing distinction, can perpetuate students’ needs to compete against peers for higher exam marks that enable them to win coveted seats at reputable institutions in higher education.
Yet even as we discuss competition in an academic setting, its presence is not inherently negative. Academic competition, whether through answering a question out loud, succeeding in a knowledge-associated game, or excelling on a quiz or test, can instill a social motivation for students to perform well in comparison to their friends and peers. Specifically, previous studies have demonstrated that competition can improve attention and dedication to learning in the classroom (1).
Speaking from personal experience, I know that I learn most effectively when in a smaller, closely-knit classroom that encourages me and my peers to challenge each other in our understanding of key concepts and their applications, which requires this heightened focus described above. Reflecting on my experiences, I find it important to recognize that this competition felt constructive because it was based more in challenging ideas and understandings that are shared rather than scores and metrics that are intended to stratify an individual’s performance. In these same classes, I was encouraged to collaborate with my peers in learning and applying key concepts, and in group project work, we would then compete against other groups in developing the best idea for a certain topic. Through these means, competition is intended only to promote deeper critical thinking and evaluation –and never to dissuade collaboration.
So, at what point does competition in the classroom become detrimental? In my mind, this is reached when competition is severely outcomes-based rather than process-based. Here, students cannot grasp competition as a means of improving group understanding and enabling collaboration through the process, and instead are hyper-fixated on it as a means of gaining distinction from peers in graded outcomes. Not only is this detrimental to developing collaborative skills that are critical for success in the workplace, but it also creates a toxic environment that raises serious mental health concerns. Especially in prestigious high schools and colleges across the nation, several high-profile incidents of suicide on campus have drawn attention to the prevalence of self-harm as a leading cause of death among students (2). Therefore, in addition to improving mental health services and resources at these institutions, addressing the culture surrounding expectations of academic achievement and the hyper-competitive environment that they can foster is also essential to mitigating negative experiences.
Works Cited:
- DiMenichi, B.C., Tricomi, E. (2015). The power of competition: Effects of social motivation on attention, sustained physical effort, and learning. Front Psychol. 6: 1282. doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01282
- Kella, S. (2021). The Imperfect Storm: College Students and Suicide. Harvard Political Review. https://harvardpolitics.com/the-imperfect-storm/