Competition in Education

In this chapter, the authors delineate how competition circulates through education. First, the authors show how competitive ideologies, values, and norms are transmitted from society to educational institutions, in particular ideologies and values such as meritocracy, the belief in a fair free market, and neoliberalism, as well as norms such as productivism and employability. Second, the authors review the competitive structures and climates within educational institutions that shape students’ values, goals, and behaviors, in particular structures such as normative assessment, tracking, and numerus clausus, as well as climates such as classroom climate, goal structures, and error climate. Third, the authors report research that documents the impact of students’ competitive values, goals, and behaviors on educational outcomes, from learning and achievement to social relations. Finally, the authors conclude by reflecting on how such a socialization of students may impact society in a feedback loop, either in terms of maintenance of the status quo or in terms of social change.

Games and enculturation: A cross-cultural analysis of cooperative goal structures in Austronesian games

While most animals play, only humans play games. As animal play serves to teach offspring important life-skills in a safe scenario, human games might, in similar ways, teach important culturally relevant skills. Humans in all cultures play games; however, it is not clear whether variation in the characteristics of games across cultural groups is related to group-level attributes. Here we investigate specifically whether the cooperativeness of games covaries with socio-ecological differences across cultural groups. We hypothesize that cultural groups that engage in frequent inter-group conflict, cooperative sustenance acquisition, or that have less stratified social structures, might more frequently play cooperative games as compared to groups that do not share these characteristics. To test these hypotheses, we gathered data from the ethnographic record on 25 ethnolinguistic groups in the Austronesian language family. We show that cultural groups with higher levels of inter-group conflict and cooperative land-based hunting play cooperative games more frequently than other groups. Additionally, cultural groups with higher levels of intra-group conflict play competitive games more frequently than other groups. These findings indicate that games are not randomly distributed among cultures, but rather relate to the socio-ecological settings of the cultural groups that practice them. We argue that games serve as training grounds for group-specific norms and values and thereby have an important function in enculturation during childhood. Moreover, games might server an important role in the maintenance of cultural diversity.

Examining the Creative Self-Efficacy, Goal Interdependence, and Satisfaction of New Venture Teams in the Board Game Industry

This study theoretically and empirically examines the important role that goal structures play in new venture teams. Specifically, we examine how creative self-efficacy affects the satisfaction of team members through cooperative and competitive goal interdependence. Relying on social cognitive and social interdependence theories, we contend that new venture teams’ creative self-efficacy leads to higher team satisfaction because it promotes the perception of cooperative goal structures among team members. We test our theory on new venture teams in the independent board game industry. Results generally support our hypotheses and we discuss the implications for entrepreneurship research and practice.

From Teachers’ Personal Achievement Goals to Students’ Perceptions of Classroom Goal Structures: Via Student-oriented Goals and Specific Instructional Practices

While research has documented associations between teachers’ achievement goals and students’ perceptions of classroom goals, little is known about the mechanisms behind these effects. To enlighten the mode of operation of teacher goals on students’ perceptions of instructional practices and classroom goal structures, a study with 84 secondary school teachers and their 1,447 students (ranging from 7th to 9th grade) in the subject of mathematics was conducted. Classroom goal structures and a wide range of specific mastery and performance-oriented instructional practices derived from Ames’ (1992) TARGET model were assessed via student reports. Teachers reported two types of goals, namely personal achievement goals and student-oriented goals. Two-level path modeling indicated that both types of teacher goals were of relevance. Student reports of teachers’ specific mastery-oriented instructional practices were predicted by teachers’ student-oriented goals and, indirectly, by their personal mastery goals (positively) and performance approach goals (negatively), while performance-oriented instructional practices were negatively predicted by teachers’ personal mastery goals. Perceived classroom goal structures were closely related to these specific instructional practices and also indirectly predicted by teachers’ personal and student-oriented goals.