Motivating Pupils, is making comparison between pupils good Options

[amroabdo2000]

Iused to make challenges between my pupils i.e : to make them always rivals who would exceed the other and get the higher marks.But I found that I made two enemies not two friends !!!!!I made pupils who wants just only them to be the first and no body else .
If any body have any comment on how to make pupils work together and with high motivation PLEASE let me know.
Iwork with 50 pupils inside my class ,not well equiped.

[DavidMusic]

It's best to try and balance out stuff so that pupils are always trying to beat themselves, and do better than they did the week before. Competition among children is not healthy - competition against oneself is a useful life skill

[trio]

Yes I think it is a mistake to make comparisons between your pupils. They need praise and recognition for effort and improvement, not comparisons with others. They will notice that for themselves and hopefully be motivated to work hard because they like the way someone else plays something. You could try asking your pupils to listen to each other and to make two positive comments about the piece and one suggestion for improvement. This keeps comments balanced in the positive but also helps their listening skills - this willl hopefully help everyone to be working together.

[AmandaL]

Encouragement through ensemble playing is also useful. Make sure you emphasise that it is not a competitive environment - every individuals input is as important as each other and nobody is on top of someone else.

Playing one child off against another does not develop self esteem, self belief, or in my own experience, give any motivation to those who may not be so quick to learn. It only serves to give the faster learners bigger heads than they've possibly developed already, and rapidly undermine all the others.