COOPERATION VERSUS COMPETITION: EFFECTS ON HISPANIC AND ANGLO CHILDREN

Spanish American children experience problems in achieving and relating in the classroom environment. Their performance on academic tasks is significantly lower than that of Anglos despite the fact that their potential functioning is equivalent to that of Anglos. A factor that probably contributes to their handicap is the fact that often they have a low degree of interaction with Anglo children and thus never really integrate into the classroom environment. Cultural differences have been identified as a possible source of the disadvantage experienced by Hispanics. In an effort to facilitate the learning of these children and bridge cultural differences, the Bilingual Education Act was passed. It was considered that teaching a child in both Spanish and English in a bicultural environment would be beneficial not only cognitively, but also emotionally. Research has shown that although bilingual schools have been successful in enhancing self-esteem, they have failed to bridge the achievement gap between the two ethnic groups. Whereas bilingual schools included the Spanish language, history, and some aspects of the culture, they maintained the competitive reward structure of traditional classrooms. This would likely be a handicap for Hispanics. Many studies have shown that Mexican American children are more cooperatively oriented than Anglos. Cooperative learning techniques have been demonstrated to have positive effects on academic performance and interracial relations for black and Anglo children. It was considered that, given their alleged cooperative orientation, Hispanics would be likely to make gains in such a reward structure. An intervention was designed to compare mathematics instruction within a cooperative or competitive reward structure. The following questions were asked: (a) Are Spanish Americans more cooperative than Anglos? (b) Does initial orientation to compete or cooperate affect academic performance and cross-ethnic relations in cooperatively or competitively structure classes? (c) Does the cooperatively oriented classroom enhance relations between Anglos and Hispanics?; Results supported two of the major hypotheses: (a) cooperative learning reduced negative cross-ethnic nominations for playmates, and (b) competition increased the number of unwanted cross-ethnic peers in math work groups. In essence, the cooperative intervention reduced strong negative feelings which could lead to a lack of interethnic interaction. When children were asked to name desirable playmates, friends, and work group members, the cooperative intervention did not increase cross-ethnic choices. Contrary to what has been found in studies using Mexican American subjects, Spanish Americans were not more cooperatively oriented than Anglos. Implications for future studies are discussed.