Competition is something we cannot avoid in the modern world. We find it everywhere:
between brothers and sisters at home, between co-workers in the company and between
countries. We can see competition throughout the entire life of an individual, from birth to
death. This is why understanding competition is important in order to understand many
psychological processes. The purpose of this research was to study how natural science
contests in primary school affect competitive behaviours of pupils that compete, compared to
pupils that do not compete. The research was based on a descriptive, non-experimental
method of empirical research, where we used an empirical quantitative approach. In this
research, 32 primary school teachers from Slovenia participated. The study showed that some
of the behaviours, which this study's sources designated as competitive behaviours - such as
higher participation in competitive situations and higher frequency of hand raising in
classroom, were more frequent in pupils that compete. The study also showed that some
behaviour was more frequent in male pupils than female pupils, such as excitement in
competitive situations. According to the research the level of competitive behaviour
expression was higher in pupils that scored higher on natural science contests. With the results
of this research I hope to contribute to a better understanding of competitiveness in primary
school pupils.
|
