Student Perspectives of Competition: A Qualitative Analysis

Authors

Michael W. Firmin, Cedarville UniversityFollow
Jennifer Evens Lucius
Sharon Johnson, Cedarville University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2009

Journal Title

American Journal of Business Education

Volume

2

Issue

2

First Page

7

Last Page

16

Abstract

The present study involved action research of appraising business students’ individual assessments of a classroom competition exercise in which they participated for a university semester. Analysis of in-depth interviews held with each student show four over-arching themes shared by the participants. First, students showed significant self-insight into how they perceive themselves competing. This occurred on both the cognitive and affective domains. Second, with relative consistency, students reported avoiding competitive situations where they did not believe chances were good that they would win. Conversely, they tended to involve themselves in situations where success was perceived as possible or likely. Third, gender differences existed in how the students viewed competition. And fourth, we found that classroom competition affected how the students related to one another on personal levels.

Keywords

Competition, business education, qualitative research

Recommended Citation

Firmin, M., Lucius, J., & Johnson, S. (2009). Student perspectives of competition: A qualitative analysis. American Journal of Business Education, 2, 7-16.