Coopetition in Education: Redefining Collaborative Learning through Design-Based Research

The book explores the development of coopetition designs aimed at enhancing student collaborative learning, addressing persistent challenges such as low individual accountability and the associated free-rider issue.

Moving beyond the long-standing and inconclusive debates between collaboration and competition, the book embraces the concept of coopetition--a hybrid approach that merges the strengths of both collaboration and competition while mitigating their respective weaknesses. The author develops two initial coopetition designs: social-comparison coopetition and zero-sum coopetition, both of which underwent rigorous examination and refinement through three iterative research cycles, followed by the design-based research methodology. He reveals that social-comparison coopetition consistently outperformed other designs across all cycles, demonstrating enhanced student motivation, engagement, and self-regulated learning. By contrast, while zero-sum coopetition showed slight advantages in one-off applications, its repeated use required careful handling. In conclusion, the book introduces two key design principles that define the core components and appropriate contexts for implementing coopetition, with a particular emphasis on social-comparison coopetition.

The book will be valuable for researchers, educators, and teachers looking for new theories and strategies to enhance collaborative learning.