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Session 4. Competition, Collaboration and the Limits of Points
Objective. Balance competition and collaboration, use points to inform rather than control, and redesign a points or reward system so that every pupil keeps a reason to think.
Competition gives a game energy, but it also creates losers, and in a classroom the same pupils tend to lose. Points can show progress, but they can also teach pupils to work for the points. This lesson helps you decide how much competition and how much collaboration to build into a game, and how to use points so that they inform rather than control. It connects directly with course 8.9 Student Motivation.
Key ideas
Four ways to organise a game
- Teams against each other; each pupil against their own last score; everyone together against the clock or a target; or full cooperation on a shared puzzle.
- None is good or bad by itself. Ask what each one makes pupils do: help, hide mistakes, copy, explain.
- Collaborative learning is rated by the Education Endowment Foundation as moderate impact at very low cost; groups of three to five with a shared goal work best, and competition between groups can help but may pull attention away from learning.
Make competition safe and fair
- In a fixed ranking the same pupils win and the rest learn that effort will not matter. Mix teams every round so nobody is always weak.
- Compare pupils with their own past (a personal best), or count team improvement rather than team totals, so a weaker team can win.
- Keep competition short (one round, one lesson) and make losing cheap: nothing is lost except a turn. Never use it to rank pupils publicly for long.
Points: information or control
- Points can INFORM ('you have mastered 6 of 10 steps') or CONTROL ('do this to earn sweets'). The same number feels very different.
- A well-known review by Deci, Koestner and Ryan found that expected tangible rewards for a task tended to reduce later interest in it, especially for children, while informative verbal feedback usually helped.
- See course 8.9 Student Motivation: autonomy, competence and belonging matter more than prizes.
Practical rules for points
- Do not turn game points into marks in the register. A game is a safe place to make mistakes; marks change that.
- Reward strategies and helping ('explained well', 'found a mistake'), not only right answers and speed.
- Run the stop test: if you stopped the points tomorrow, would pupils still want to do it? If not, strengthen the goal, the choice or the story.
Three ways to organise play
Team against team
Win or lose
- Energy, but same winners
- Mix teams each round
- Keep it short
- Watch the losers
Against own best
Personal progress
- Everyone can improve
- Fits mixed ability
- Needs a record strip
- Less public
Class goal
Together against a target
- Pupils help each other
- Needs a fair target
- Show the goal on the wall
- Shared success
Competition that stays safe
Competition is not the enemy; unfair and permanent competition is. Pupils compete happily in a short, mixed-team game when losing costs nothing but a turn and the teams change next round. The trouble starts when a ranking lasts for weeks, is displayed on a wall and is always led by the same pupils. Some of the pupils who lose learn that effort does not matter.
Safer designs compare pupils with their own earlier results, mix teams often, give teams a chance to win through improvement, or set a class goal against the clock. Reviews of collaborative learning suggest that shared goals and groups of three to five work best, and that competition between groups, while it can help, may move attention from learning to winning.
Points: what they are paying for
When pupils receive points or sweets for a task they might do anyway, they may start to see the task as work done for a reward. A well-known review by Deci, Koestner and Ryan concluded that expected tangible rewards tended to reduce later interest, especially in children, while informative verbal feedback usually did not. This is not a ban on all rewards, but a warning to be careful with tangible ones, tied to simply doing the task.
The practical test is the stop test: if you took the points away tomorrow, would pupils still do the task? Points that show steps mastered, that feed back on strategy and that are linked to a goal pupils care about pass the test more often than points that rank or pay. Points should not enter the mark book, because marks change a game from a safe place into a risk.
Examples from the classroom
The leaderboard that went quiet
Scene. Malika in Tashkent ran a weekly leaderboard for Grade 8 algebra. The same five pupils led for three months, and Aziz, once keen, stopped doing homework. She replaced the board with a personal strip of steps mastered and a class goal of 80% of homework returned. Aziz returned to homework, because he could see his own steps rising.
Insight. Personal progress and a shared goal give every pupil a reason to try.
Mixing the teams
Scene. Jasur in Bukhara had fixed teams for a term and the weakest team always lost. He now draws new teams each Friday from numbered cards and scores 'points gained compared with last week'. Last week the team that usually lost won, and nobody could predict the winner in advance. Pupils began to say 'good luck' to the team they were against.
Insight. Mixing teams and scoring improvement keeps competition without permanent losers.
Replacing sweets with feedback
Scene. Dilnoza gave sweets for each correct vocabulary answer in Grade 5 Uzbek. She stopped and replaced them with a wall of mastered words and a short specific comment ('you explained the word with an example'). Hands went up less in the first week, then more as pupils saw the wall fill. In week three they asked to add their own words.
Insight. Specific feedback and visible progress can replace tangible rewards.
Common pitfalls
- Giving a public ranking that is led by the same pupils every week.
- Converting game points into marks in the register.
- Rewarding speed and right answers only, so that explaining and helping earn nothing.
- Removing all competition and all points without giving pupils another reason to try.
Redesign a Reward System
- Open the Activity Kit: four SAMPLE classroom reward systems and an analysis grid. Read them in pairs (5 minutes).
- Pairs (10 min): for each system, fill the grid: who wins, what pupils think about, what happens when the points stop. Mark 'inform' or 'control'.
- Pairs (10 min): redesign two systems using the design moves in the box. Keep the energy but make sure every pupil has a chance to succeed and a reason to think.
- Alone (10 min): audit your own points or rewards with the second table. Write one thing you will stop, one you will keep and one you will add.
- Class (5 min): hear two redesigns and the stop test results. Then write your classroom action task from the Kit.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which of the sample systems would your pupils like at first and dislike after a month?
- What did you decide to stop in your own reward routine, and what will you say to pupils?
- How can a weaker pupil succeed in your redesigned system?
Reflect
- Which pupils in your class would lose most in a weekly ranking?
- Which reward do you give out of habit that could be replaced by feedback?
- What shared goal could your whole class work on for a month?
Try it tomorrow
- Pick one reward or ranking you use and run the stop test with yourself: would pupils still do it?
- Replace one fixed team scoring with mixed teams or a class goal for a week.
- Add one comment per lesson that names a strategy a pupil used, not just 'good'.
Further reading and links
Let points inform, keep competition short and mixed, and let pupils work together on a goal.