The Issue
Cheating in our schools has reached epidemic proportions. Why do students cheat? What can you do to prevent it? Some answers to these questions and much more in this article which features an in-depth interview with one of the nation's foremost authorities on the subject, Gary Niels.
Why do students cheat?
Everybody does it!
Unrealistic demands for academic achievement by state education boards
Expediency or the easy way out
Everybody does it!
It's disturbing to discover that young people in middle school and high school think that it is acceptable to cheat. But it's our fault, isn't it? We adults encourage young people to cheat! Take multiple choice tests, for example: they literally invite you to cheat. Cheating, after all, is nothing more than a game of wits as far as teenagers are concerned. Kids delight in pulling the wool over adult eyes, if they can.
While cheating is discouraged in private schools by tough Codes of Behavior which are enforced, cheating exists nonetheless. It helps that private schools devise tests which require written answers rather than multiple guess answers. That's more work for teachers to mark, but eliminates much cheating.
Unrealistic demands for academic achievement by state and federal education authorities.
The public education bureaucracy answers to political masters. State legislatures, state boards of education, local boards of education, unions, and countless other organizations demand action to correct the continuing failings of our nation's public education system. In a word: it's all about accountability. As a result, students must take standardized tests so that we can compare apples to apples. In the classroom these tests mean that a teacher must achieve the expected results or better, or she's in plenty of hot water! So instead of teaching your child how to think, she teaches your child how to pass the test. No Child Left Behind is driving most of the assessment teaching these days. Educators really have no option but to produce the best possible results. To do that they must teach solely to the test or else.
The best antidotes for cheating are teachers who fill children with a love of learning, who impart some idea of life's possibilities and who understand that assessment is merely a means to an end, not the end itself. A meaningful curriculum will shift the focus from learning boring lists of irrelevant facts to exploring subjects in depth.
Expediency or the easy way out
Years ago cheaters lifted whole passages from an encyclopedia and called them their own. That was plagiarism! Still is! Plagiarism's newest incarnation is dead easy: you simply point and click your way to the site with the relevant information, swipe and paste it, reformat it somewhat and it's yours. Need to write a paper in a hurry? You can quickly find a site which will oblige for a fee. Or go to a chat room and swap papers and projects with students nationwide. Perhaps you'd prefer to cheat using texting or email. Both work just fine for that purpose. Sadly, many teachers have not learned the subtleties of internet cheating
Solutions?
Schools need to have zero tolerance policies concerning cheating.
Teachers must be vigilant and alert to all the newer forms of cheating, particularly those using the new technologies. Did you know that cell phones can access the internet to look up answers? How about iPods loaded with test answers instead of tunes? The possibilities for electronic cheating are limited only by your students' imaginations. How do you fight that kind of brain power? Always fight fire with fire! Do some sleuthing with both student and adult geeks. Their exploits and perspective will help you fight electronic cheating.
Teachers
Ultimately the best solution is to make learning exciting and absorbing. Involve students in the learning process. Allow them to buy into the process. Empower them to guide and direct their learning. Finally, do everything you can to make assignments meaningful and interesting for your students.
Parents
We parents have a huge role to play in combating cheating. After all, our children will mimic almost everything we do. We must set the right sort of example for them to copy. We must also take a genuine interest in our children's work. Ask to see everything and anything! Discuss everything and anything!
Students
Students must learn to be true to themselves and their own core values. Don't let peer pressure and other influences steal your dream. If you are caught, cheating has serious consequences.
Everybody does it!" "Unrealistic demands for academic achievement by state education boards" "Expediency or the easy way out" are some of the reasons why students cheat. Are there other reasons of which you are aware?
The first thing to recognize about cheating is that the vast majority of young people (and adults for that matter) believe that cheating is wrong. Yet, by nearly every poll, most young people cheat at least once in their high school career. So, the most important question is why do young people behave in ways that are inconsistent with their stated beliefs? I believe the answer to this lies in a survival instinct. I am not a psychologist, but I believe there is a mechanism within each of us which triggers a need to "save face." Saving face can mean a desire to save oneself from the angry assault of a parent or teacher; it can mean avoiding embarrassment; it can mean economic survival or a perceived pressure be it self-inflicted or inflicted by some other extraneous force. Nowadays, college acceptance is the major instigator of this survival instinct.
Of course, the survival instinct isn't the only reason young people cheat. They might cheat because they find a lesson or a course to be meaningless -having no perceived relevance to their lives. They might also cheat because they belief something is unfair, so feel justified in cheating.
Let's examine each one of these reasons in more detail. First of all, "Everybody does it!" To me that's like saying everybody cheats on their taxes or lies about their age. Does this signify a lack of moral conviction on the part of society as we head into the new millennium? Are parents setting the wrong example for their children?
Historically, sociologists and psychologists have studied cheating behavior under the classification of aberrant or deviant behavior. Psychologists and sociologists have applied theories of deviant behavior in order to understand cheating. However, cheating is no longer deviant behavior; it is now normal behavior. This change poses a significant challenge for those who seek to establish academic integrity in a school environment since the "student code" is stronger to break and is more prevalent. As for the role of parents, I'd like to come back to that a little later.
The demand for accountability has created a clamor for state testing of students. The pressures are enormous on both students and teachers. How widespread do you think cheating is in this area? Does state testing ipso facto encourage cheating to achieve acceptable results?
Although I cannot excuse it, I understand why an educator might find state testing to offer an unbearable pressure to cheat by in some way giving your students an unfair advantage. If you tell a school administrator that his school's existence or employment might hinge on his students' performance on a test, I believe you are tempting fate. Most human beings have a breaking point and when anything threatens a person's livelihood, income and/or social status, you put them in a survival mode. In other words, as you threaten that individual's existence, you tempt them to reach their moral breaking point.
Cheating offers an easy way out. Why bother studying hard and doing all those term papers by yourself if you can use somebody else's work? Would you agree that expediency is a major reason for cheating?
Expediency might be one reason for cheating, but I'm not sure its the main reason. In fact, strangely, young people will sometimes go to greater lengths to cheat than to study for a test. Occasionally, this is due to boredom. Studies indicate that there is a high correlation between certain pedagogical practices and cheating behavior: lack of clarity in a lesson, perceived lack of relevance, and too few tests offered in a grading period are just a few examples. I've even wondered at times if cheating isn't some form of student protest against certain types of curricular or pedagogical factors. One mathematics teacher had an interesting insight into a student who had gone to elaborate lengths to program his calculator to outsmart his teacher.
"I can't help but believe that a student who is so capable in using technology, couldn't ace an Algebra test. Also, I find when I prepare a test with calculator use, I emphasize the problem solving aspect, not the calculation. Those real world applications which we are encouraged by (the NCTM) Standards to employ in our classes actually defeat the need to cheat in classes, or don't provide the opportunity to cheat."
Without wishing to appear to be blaming teachers, it is necessary to point out that the way we present our curriculums and the type of assessments that we offer can influence cheating behavior. We need to demonstrate to students why it is important for them to know the material we are presenting and the purpose it will serve in the bigger context of their studies and lives.
