| This qualitative study examines the experiences and perspectives of twelve middle school students who are members of a collaborative competition based classroom in which they study Spanish. The student participants in this study were in grades seven or eight and were either twelve, thirteen, or fourteen years of age. The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of collaborative competition on the academic and personal experiences of the participants. The student participants in the research study were interviewed; the participants also completed reflective journals after working with their classmates to compete in weekly challenges against one another. Their reflections and commentary about collaborative competition provide relevant and useful insight into the benefits of implementing the instructional method in the classroom. The research question that guided the study was: What impact does the simultaneous use of competition and collaboration used as an academic instructional strategy have on seventh and eighth grade world language students. The findings of the study revealed six experiences uniformly reported by all participants while participating in collaborative competition: fun, motivation to learn, building peer relationships, nervous frustration, confidence, and self-esteem. The findings of this study included positive feedback from all of the participants, indicating that the participants experienced primarily positive emotions while participating in collaborative competition. |
