Cooperative vs. competitive learning
Overview
- Influence: Cooperative vs. competitive learning
- Domain: Teaching Strategies
- Sub-Domain: Instructional strategies
- Potential to Accelerate Student Achievement: Potential to accelerate
- Influence Definition: Cooperative learning (in which students work together to solve problems) has been shown to be more effective than competitive learning (in which students independently solve problems) in nearly all cases, although some studies disagree about the relative advantage to cooperative learning programs.
Evidence
- Number of meta-analyses: 8
- Number of studies: 1,031
- Number of students: 17,000
- Number of effects: 960
- Effect size: 0.53
Meta-Analyses
Journal Title | Author | First Author's Country | Article Name | Year Published | Variable | Number of Studies | Number of Students | Number of Effects | Effect Size |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Psychological Bulletin | Johnson, Maruyama, Johnson, Nelson, & Skon | USA | Effects of Cooperative, Competitive, and Individualistic Goal Structures on Achievement: A Meta-Analysis | 1981 | Cooperative with intergroup competition | 122 | 0 | 9 | 0.56 |
Review of Educational Research | Johnson, Johnson, & Murayama | USA | Interdependence and interpersonal attraction among heterogeneous and homogeneous individuals: a theoretical formulation and a meta-analysis of the research | 1983 | Cooperative vs. competition | 98 | 0 | 83 | 0.82 |
Prentice-Hall | Johnson & Johnson | USA | Learning together and alone: Cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning: | 1987 | Cooperative vs. competition | 453 | 0 | 36 | 0.59 |
Unpublished Thesis | Hall | USA | The effects of cooperative learning on achievement: a meta-analysis | 1988 | Cooperative with competition | 18 | 0 | 83 | 0.28 |
Review of Educational Research | Qin, Johnson, & Johnson | USA | Cooperative Versus Competitive Efforts and Problem Solving | 1995 | Cooperative vs. competition | 46 | 0 | 63 | 0.55 |
Report | Johnson, Johnson, & Stanne | USA | Cooperative learning methods: a meta-analysis | 2000 | Cooperative vs. competition | 158 | 0 | 66 | 0.55 |
Psychological Bulletin | Roseth, Johnson & Johnson | Promoting early adolescents' achievement and peer relationships: the effects of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic goal structures | 2008 | Cooperative vs. competition | 129 | 17,000 | 593 | 0.46 | |
Unpublished Thesis | Hilk | USA | Effects of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning structures on college student achievement and peer relationships: a series of meta-analyses | 2013 | Cooperative vs. competitive using university students | 7 | 0 | 27 | 0.42 |
TOTAL/AVERAGE | 1,031 | 17,000 | 960 | 0.53 |
Confidence
The Confidence is the average of these four measures, each divided into five approximately equal groups and assigned a value from 1 to 5 based on the following criteria:
-
Number of Meta-analyses
- 1 = 1
- 2 = 2–3
- 3 = 4–6
- 4 = 7–9
- 5 = 10+
-
Number of Studies
- 1 = 1–10
- 2 = 11–50
- 3 = 51–200
- 4 = 201–400
- 5 = 400+
-
Number of Students
- 1 = 1–2,500
- 2 = 2,501–10,000
- 3 = 10,000–20,000
- 4 = 20,000–100,000
- 5 = 100,001+
-
Number of Effects
- 1 = 1–100
- 2 = 101–300
- 3 = 301–600
- 4 = 601–1,200
- 5 = 1,200+
Number of Meta-Analyses | Number of Studies | Number of Students | Number of Effects | Overall Confidence | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Confidence Factor | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 |