Avoid Zero-Sum Games

Hey 👋

I’m sending this message from Austin, where I’ve been spending some time at Alpha School. It’s been one of the most fascinating visits ever…

Big idea 🍉

When I talk to schools about motivation, one question frequently comes up: is competition between peers good? The answer, for the vast majority of students, in the vast majority of situations, is no.

Trying to beat a classmate isn't inherently bad. The problem arises when we publicly compare the results. Consider the extreme example of a classroom leaderboard.

For students at the bottom of the table, the cost is high. Their self-confidence plummets, they feel a lower sense of belonging, and research suggests that teacher expectations of these students often unconsciously drop.

By contrast, students at the top don't necessarily ‘win’ either. Some, feeling they have already ‘made it’, reduce their effort. Others may actually hide their ability to avoid social stigma (especially if ‘learning is cool’ is not the dominant social norm).

In short, peer competition is a zero-sum game. Not everyone can win. And often it just exacerbates the gap and lowers collective growth.

So, what is the alternative?

Instead of prompting students to compete with one another, we can get them to compete with their past selves. Ways to do this include:

• Track Personal Bests: Just as runners track their best times, have students track streaks of focused work, words written, or problems solved correctly.

• Highlight Then vs Now: Have students physically place a piece of work from three months ago next to a current piece to visualise their growth.

• Gap-Based Feedback: Focus on the distance travelled, not the position in the pack. Point out concrete improvements since the last piece of work.

Unlike Me vs. My Peers, Me vs. My Past Self is a positive-sum game. Everyone can win simultaneously. And when each student strives to beat their own best, collective improvement doesn't just rise… we also grow stronger together.

🎓 For more, check out this paper on the effects of leaderboards on learning over time.

Summary

• Competition between peers tends to be ineffective for collective motivation.

• This is because it is a zero-sum game. Not everyone can win, and it disadvantages the most vulnerable.

• A better approach is to foster positive-sum games, such as Me vs My Past Self. This way, everyone can win.

Little updates 🥕

• Study tracking student brain signals during maths → suggests early error-detection boosts learning and eases negative feelings about feedback.

• Paper exploring study strategies through a habit lens → finds students easily fall into unhelpful habits, and simple cues can help spark better strategies.

• Study on how including pupils with special educational needs affects classmates → finds no harm and only tiny drops in learning, suggesting inclusion remains safe for peers (not to mention other benefits).

• Paper analysing the effects of rank ordering → predicts later education and income, with gains for high-ranked students and harms for low-ranked students.

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