Student achievement on different types of tasks under cooperative, competitive, and individualistic conditions

Abstract

The effects of interpersonal cooperation, competition, and individualistic efforts were compared on math and reading drill-review, story problems, sequencing, triangle identification, and visual sorting according to attributes tasks. Sixty-four first-grade students were included in the study. Subjects were randomly assigned to conditions stratifying on the basis of sex and reading ability so that an approximately equal percentage of males and females and high, average, and low readers were included in each condition. The results indicate that on all six tasks subjects in the cooperative condition achieved higher than did subjects in the competitive condition on all six tasks, and higher than the subjects in the individualistic condition on the drill-review, sequencing, and visual sorting according to attributes tasks. On the triangle identification tasks subjects in the individualistic condition achieved higher than did the subjects in the competitive condition. In general, subjects in the cooperative condition felt that the tasks were easier than did the subjects in the competitive and individualistic conditions.