Cooperation and Competition in Teaching and Learning across Cultures

One is the cooperative strategy, and competitive strategy is the other. Additionally, the determination of which strategy to implement is far much determined by the peoples' culture. By culture, I mean the collective human intellectual achievement based on arts and other manifestations. Deciding on which strategy to implement may turn uneasy task especially when the teacher is not familiar with these cultures. Educators may get stranded on which strategy is better than the other, achieves better results and easy to put in practice. Ashley Montagu (1968), said that "without the cooperation of its member's, society cannot survive, and the society of man has survived because the cooperativeness of its members made survival possible. " Much achievement comes as a result of this teamwork.

On the other hand, competition strategy of teaching and learning majors on the person's results, thus, it is also referred as individualistic learning. The learners are allowed to do and complete their study assignments and quizzes on their own in attempts to learn a given subject matter. Howard Cosell (1974) who was a sports journalist and an ultimate competitor once said that "the ultimate victory in competition is derived from the inner satisfaction of knowing that you have done your best and that you have gotten the most out of what you had to give. An individual is entitled to receive the burdens and benefits of cooperation from institutions in the society. A school or other education-oriented institution is not an exception.

The learner needs to feel well accommodated and well catered without any form of social activity. They need to get their needs fully and objectives well met when engaging in a learning institution. The learners are entitled to justice and fairness in grouping when it comes to cooperative teaching and learning strategy. In other cases, both the competitive and cooperative strategies may be used interchangeably. In the US education system today, they have embraced the competitive strategy. Students are subjected to environments where they have been left to be more of themselves. More so, they are expected to engage in online classes individually. The greatest motivation is on grading, and not necessarily on how they get the concepts being taught. Culture: Man's adaptive dimension.