Cheating in school
According to several reports, the number of students' cheating is increasing in universities worldwide. From the U.S, UK, France, Germany to India, China and Australia there were many cases of school cheatings. Even prestigious schools like Harvard, Stanford and Princeton also found that many of their students were cheating. Although these schools would not say how many students had been disciplined for cheating but last year there were over 500 students were dismissed from these universities. Few months ago, Harvard said that more than 100 students were being investigated for plagiarizing answers on the final exam. By definition, plagiarize is the copy of someone else’s work as your own without citing the source. It has serious consequence but the problem is students do not think plagiarism is cheating at all. A student said: “I did not copy from other students, I get the answer from the Internet and there is nothing wrong with it.” The fact is most cases of plagiarism can be avoided by citing the sources such as a note states that certain material has been borrowed from someone. (i.e., an author or an article on the Internet etc. with the link to find that source is acceptable.)
Donald L. McCabe, the co-author of the book “Cheating in College” defined cheating as copying material without proper citation, padding bibliographies, getting exam questions in advance, collaborative homework, turning in paper done by others, and using notes during exams. He also found that cheating habits among college students develop prior to arriving at college, usually in high school; and more than 2/3 of college students report in engaging in some form of cheating.
When teaching in Asia, I heard a lot of professors' complains that today's students have no shame as they cheat often. One professor called it “The academic disease that is spreading fast.” During the discussion with them, I explained my view: “Cheating is not new; college students have been cheating for years but instead of complaining about them, my question is how we can help students not to cheat? The reason that students cheat is they want to pass exams, if we do not measure them by exams then the cheating would stop. In my class, I give students that did not do well in exam a second chance to retake the exam. My view is not to fail them but make sure that they learn and re-learn until they really know the materials. (See my blog on second chance.) That is why students rarely cheat in my course because there is no reason to cheat.”
At the beginning of the class, I clearly explain why it is important for them to learn and develop their skills. I ask them to be honest with themselves because it is part of growing up to be responsible person for themselves, for their society and their country. Cheating may help them to pass exams and even get a degree but without knowledge and skills they will not go far in their career. If they cheat, they will have to continue to cheat and may constantly live in fear of being discovered that they cheat etc. Basically by cheating in school, they cheat themselves an opportunity to learn. I explain to them that they do have a second chance to learn, if for whatever reason they do not do well in the exam, but they must study for themselves and for their future. I explain that academic work is like building a house, brick by brick, as each class is one brick that they will build upon another. It is important that they build their own house on solid bricks, else the house will fell apart, and it is their house, not someone else's house.
I also explain the difference between collaboration and collusion. Collaboration is working together with others in a team and it is permitted by teachers. The team follows instructions given by the teachers as they collaborate on class project. Team members share ideas and discuss course materials with others but each should perform their own work according to the assigned roles and responsibilities. Collusion is working with others when it is not allowed by teachers. Students share the works or copy others but let teachers believe that the work is done individually. In this type of collusion, some students may do most of the work while others do very little, therefore do not learn much.
I also explain the difference between fabrication and falsification. To fabricate is to make-up data on research or results such as “hard code” the outputs of a program to match desired results even the program does not work. To falsify is to change the results to make it more favorable to something such as begin from expected results and working backwards so the research looks impressive. Some students falsifying school records, test results and transcripts when applying for job with the hope that they can get better offers. What they do not know is if they get caught or when the company find out later, they will be dismissed. With many information are available today, the chance to get caught is much higher than they think. For example in 2013, Annette Schavan, Germany's Education Minister was found plagiarized her PhD dissertation 32 years ago. She was fired, and her doctorate degree was revoked. Few months earlier, Karl Guttenberg, German Defense Minister was also found to falsified data in his doctoral dissertation and quit in disgrace.
Basically, by cheating students do not learn anything. They penalize themselves and everyone who depends on their knowledge and skills. Imagine you are treated by a doctor who cheated his way through school? What will happen if the doctor performs surgery on you or your family members? By allow cheating to happen, you create situation where dishonesty is consider a normal thing. When students cheat in school, they will cheat at work and this dishonesty spread into the whole society then what will happen? Imagine a society that no one trusts others? Imagine a society where everybody is dishonest?
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
