Competition-based learning

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Competition-based learning (CBL) is a student-centered pedagogy that combines Project-based learning and competitions. [1] This can sometimes be referred to as game-based learning as well, which is different than gamification.[ citation needed ] CBL also utilizes Team-based learning (or Active Collaborative Learning, ACL) and Problem-based learning paradigms. Competition-based learning involves a team of students in an open-ended assignments or projects that resembles some problems students may face at the work place or in the real-world. However, the performance is being evaluated on the final completion of the project or task assigned in the course as a comparison to other groups. The aspiration is to create motivation in the students to come up with the best overall project. CBL learning relies on the competition results. Furthermore, CBL implements a reward system upon the completion of the task assigned to reinforce desired behaviors in learning environments. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Background and advantages

The real-world is competitive and competition has been used in teaching and learning throughout the human history around the world. Countries such as England, Singapore, and South Korea have special education programs which cater for specialist students, prompting charges of academic elitism. Currently, academic competitions are popular. According to The Institute of Competition Sciences retrieved on May 30, 2020, over 4,000,000 students participate in educational competitions in over 500 competitions across all academic subject they monitor in their network.

Many practitioners in education claim that CBL can enhance students' motivation to work harder and the learning outcomes since they are more excited about the project and potential rewards. [5] [6] [7] [8] Competition is good in the sense that it discourages complacency and raises students' consciousness of the value of good outcomes. As a result, the keener the competition, the higher the output among students. This is manifested not only in high individual averages, but in overall high class averages. It is, therefore, a very effective tool to keep your high achievers achieving. [9] Other benefits of CBL include the enhancement of problem-solving, creative thinking, and teamwork skills. [10]

Examples

Some articles reporting competitions in across various academic subjects include

Here is a comprehensive list of competitions that can be used for classes or after-school extracurricular programs. Hackathons can be examples of CBL. The purpose of a hackathon is a for a group of software developers to work together on a collaborative project. Most hackathons are competitions where several teams are competing to create prototypes that innovate on a theme or improve upon an existing project.

Criticism

Some people think in class competition is not good, since it is discouraging when others always seem to do better than you. Critics of competition as a motivating factor in education systems, such as Alfie Kohn, argue that competition actually has a net negative influence on the achievement levels of students. [11] Competition can easily lead to stress, anxiety and disappointment, especially if it promotes academic competition between "individual" students. [12] This stress can force students to push back other interests and extracurricular activities, leading to an unbalanced school life. A poor competition result may affect students' emotions or hurt their confidence. If a competition does not provide students with a goal that is attainable for nearly everyone, the activity becomes unbalanced, with some jumping ahead and others ending up left in the dust. This is the kind of competition that will lead to a diminished desire to participate in related activities or subject fields. An unhealthy competition may be one that is focused on winning instead of moving toward on learning a new skill or working as a team. [13] Therefore, the design of CBL methodologies needs to focus on driving students to collaboratively achieve learning outcomes, not just winning the competition.

Related Research Articles

Progressive education, or educational progressivism, is a pedagogical movement that began in the late 19th century and has persisted in various forms to the present. In Europe, progressive education took the form of the New Education Movement. The term progressive was engaged to distinguish this education from the traditional curricula of the 19th century, which was rooted in classical preparation for the early-industrial university and strongly differentiated by social class. By contrast, progressive education finds its roots in modern, post-industrial experience. Most progressive education programs have these qualities in common:

Educational psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of human learning. The study of learning processes, from both cognitive and behavioral perspectives, allows researchers to understand individual differences in intelligence, cognitive development, affect, motivation, self-regulation, and self-concept, as well as their role in learning. The field of educational psychology relies heavily on quantitative methods, including testing and measurement, to enhance educational activities related to instructional design, classroom management, and assessment, which serve to facilitate learning processes in various educational settings across the lifespan.

A teaching method is a set of principles and methods used by teachers to enable student learning. These strategies are determined partly by the subject matter to be taught, partly by the relative expertise of the learners, and partly by constraints caused by the learning environment. For a particular teaching method to be appropriate and efficient it has to take into account the learner, the nature of the subject matter, and the type of learning it is supposed to bring about.

Educational games are games explicitly designed with educational purposes, or which have incidental or secondary educational value. All types of games may be used in an educational environment, however educational games are games that are designed to help people learn about certain subjects, expand concepts, reinforce development, understand a historical event or culture, or assist them in learning a skill as they play. Game types include board, card, and video games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Problem-based learning</span> Learner centric pedagogy

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a teaching method in which students learn about a subject through the experience of solving an open-ended problem found in trigger material. The PBL process does not focus on problem solving with a defined solution, but it allows for the development of other desirable skills and attributes. This includes knowledge acquisition, enhanced group collaboration and communication.

Bottega University is a for-profit, accredited distance learning university headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Extracurricular activity</span> Activity outside regular education

An extracurricular activity (ECA) or extra academic activity (EAA) or cultural activities is an activity, performed by students, that falls outside the realm of the normal curriculum of school, college or university education. Such activities are generally voluntary (as opposed to mandatory), social, philanthropic, and often involve others of the same age. Students and staff direct these activities under faculty sponsorship, although student-led initiatives, such as independent newspapers, are very common. However, sometimes the school principals and teachers also bring in these activities in the school among the students.

Cooperative learning is an educational approach which aims to organize classroom activities into academic and social learning experiences. There is much more to cooperative learning than merely arranging students into groups, and it has been described as "structuring positive interdependence." Students must work in groups to complete tasks collectively toward academic goals. Unlike individual learning, which can be competitive in nature, students learning cooperatively can capitalize on one another's resources and skills. Furthermore, the teacher's role changes from giving information to facilitating students' learning. Everyone succeeds when the group succeeds. Ross and Smyth (1995) describe successful cooperative learning tasks as intellectually demanding, creative, open-ended, and involve higher-order thinking tasks. Cooperative learning has also been linked to increased levels of student satisfaction.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Formative assessment</span> Method in education

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Educational video game</span> Video game genre

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zoltán Dörnyei</span> Hungarian-born British linguist (1960–2022)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gamification of learning</span> Educational approach aiming to promote learning by using video game design and game elements

The gamification of learning is an educational approach that seeks to motivate students by using video game design and game elements in learning environments. The goal is to maximize enjoyment and engagement by capturing the interest of learners and inspiring them to continue learning. Gamification, broadly defined, is the process of defining the elements which comprise games, make those games fun, and motivate players to continue playing, then using those same elements in a non-game context to influence behavior. In other words, gamification is the introduction of game elements into a traditionally non-game situation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kahoot!</span> Norwegian online educational quiz game

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Games and learning is a field of education research that studies what is learned by playing video games, and how the design principles, data and communities of video game play can be used to develop new learning environments. Video games create new social and cultural worlds – worlds that help people learn by integrating thinking, social interaction, and technology, all in service of doing things they care about. Computers and other technologies have already changed the way students learn. Integrating games into education has the potential to create new and more powerful ways to learn in schools, communities and workplaces. Games and learning researchers study how the social and collaborative aspects of video gameplay can create new kinds of learning communities. Researchers also study how the data generated by gameplay can be used to design the next generation of learning assessments.

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References

  1. Burguillo, Juan C. (2010-09-01). "Using game theory and Competition-based Learning to stimulate student motivation and performance". Computers & Education. 55 (2): 566–575. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2010.02.018. ISSN   0360-1315.
  2. Ridderinkhof, K. Richard; van den Wildenberg, Wery P. M.; Segalowitz, Sidney J.; Carter, Cameron S. (2004-11-01). "Neurocognitive mechanisms of cognitive control: The role of prefrontal cortex in action selection, response inhibition, performance monitoring, and reward-based learning". Brain and Cognition. 56 (2): 129–140. doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2004.09.016. ISSN   0278-2626. PMID   15518930. S2CID   16820592.
  3. Arias-Carrión, Ó.; Pöppel, E. (2007). "Dopamine, learning, and reward-seeking behavior". Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis. 67 (4): 481–488. doi: 10.55782/ane-2007-1664 . PMID   18320725.
  4. Malone, Thomas W.; Lepper, Mark R. (2021), "Making Learning Fun: A Taxonomy of Intrinsic Motivations for Learning", in Snow, Richard E; Farr, Marshall J (eds.), Aptitude, Learning, and Instruction, doi:10.4324/9781003163244, ISBN   9781000392050 , retrieved 2022-06-27
  5. Burguillo, Juan C. (26 February 2010), "Using game theory and Competition-based Learning to stimulate student motivation and performance", Computers & Education, 55 (2): 566–575, doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2010.02.018
  6. Carroll, Chris (June 23–26, 2013). Competition Based Learning in the Classroom (PDF). 120th ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition organized by American Society for Engineering Education, 2013. Atlanta, GA. 6233.
  7. Alyazeedi, Basma; Berry, Diane C. (2018-03-08). Competition-Based Learning (CBL) in Nursing Education (PDF). Nursing Education Research Conference 2018: Generating and Translating Evidence for Teaching Practice organized by Sigma Theta Tau International, the Honor Society of Nursing. Washington, DC.
  8. Cantador, Iván; Conde, José M. (26 July 2010). EFFECTS OF COMPETITION IN EDUCATION: A CASE STUDY IN AN E-LEARNING ENVIRONMENT (PDF). IADIS International Conference e-Learning co-organized by Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. Freiburg, Germany.
  9. The Value of Competition in the Classroom
  10. Sukiman, S.A.; Yusop, H.; Mokhtar, R.; Jaafar, N. H. (2016). "Competition-Based Learning: Determining the Strongest Skill that Can be Achieved Among Higher Education Learners". In Abdullah, M.; Yahya, W.; Ramli, N.; Mohamed, S.; Ahmad, B. (eds.). Regional Conference on Science, Technology and Social Sciences (RCSTSS 2014). Singapore: Springer. pp. 505–516. doi:10.1007/978-981-10-1458-1_47. ISBN   978-981-10-1456-7.
  11. Kohn, Alfie (1986). No Contest The Case Against Competition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN   978-0395631256.
  12. Classroom Competition by Will English, Retrieved on May 31, 2020
  13. Disadvantages of competition in education process, Retrieved on May 31, 2020