The Influence Of Classroom Competition

“Time flies fast when you’re having fun.” This is probably one of the most common idiomatic expressions to date. However, what is behind this famous adage and how did it came to be? Well, according to a research done by Dinah Avni-Babad and Ilana Ritov (2003), they found out that people judge the duration of a period of time from memory differently than they judge the duration of a time period as it is going on. In other words, the busier a person is during a time interval, the faster that time interval will feel like it passed. In another study, the expression may be true but with a slight twist: time flies when you're having goal-motivated fun (Gable and Poole, 2012). Gable concluded in their study that “the goal pursuit or achievement-directed

Competition is also seen in classroom settings, where either individually or in teams or small groups, students strive to win by being the smartest or fastest on a task (Nichols and Sullivan, 2009). In our society, competition in various areas (whether it may be at school or at work), plays a huge role. Good and Brophy (2008) summarize several ways in which classroom competition may negatively impact students' development, learning, and motivation. In the workplace, it can create unhealthy rivalries that result in workers resenting one another. Competition can also create undue stress that may actually prove to be counterproductive to some worker's efforts (Lewis, 2014). However, while there may be drawbacks to competition, there are benefits as well. Competition is the critical driver of performance and innovation. One of the main advantages of competition in the workplace is that it can create an environment where employees push each other to exceed their normal limits, which can result in increased production, both at an individual level and among the entire workforce as a whole. It can also pave the way for self-improvement. In the classroom setting, children learn valuable life lessons through competition, such as the joy of putting forth effort, good sportsmanship, leading by example, having a positive attitude and that being knocked down or losing is not the end of the