External/Internal Pressure Cause for Cheating?

If you’ve read my last post, I hope you may have formulated some sort of opinion on free schools and the amount of pressure that enrolled students encounter.  Now, I found an article that focuses on the pressure students feel in a regular high school setting (Northville and Novi High School) and the occurrence of cheating within these schools due to this pressure.  This article had some great information, so I hope I don’t bore you to death with block quotes but here goes:

In 2004, an ABCNEWS Primetime nation-wide poll of 504 12 to 17 year olds revealed seven out of 10 youth said kids cheat on tests; six out of 10 have friends who have cheated; and one in three admit they have cheated.

O.K., I’ll admit that when I was in high school, I cheated on certain tests and assignments.  I know the decisions I made were immature, but back then, I did not see my decisions as immoral.  I justified my actions by saying that the pressure to receive good grades exceeded the risk of actually taking a test and learning something.  I understand how diluted this justification is, but I don’t think I am the only student that has ever felt this way.  In the article, several students were interviewed for their opinions.  One student said, “‘. . .cheating – it’s not right – but it helps kids to get into colleges they want and to succeed in whatever they want to go into.  I wouldn’t say it’s totally wrong, but it is wrong.’”  A different student states that, “‘I know it’s the easy way out.  But, I think personally the stuff that we learn in school you don’t ever use in the work place.’”  Clearly, there is a problem here.  This even seems to incorporate the discussion in class about students being trained in only certain areas in order to prepare them for work rather than teaching a wide variety of subjects that may be uninteresting in their perspective.  Like I said in class, although we as future teachers will strive to motivate students into reading/English, some students would rather cheat to save a grade than actually learn (NOT stereotypical, but realistic).  Students feel so much pressure today to get into good colleges in order to have a successful future that it seems like it doesn’t matter what they have to do in order to get there.  This idea is not surprising though, when looking at the dishonesty in the workplace, or specifically in business world, among adults.

One professor from Novi High School, Jim Didio, discusses the use of an online program that deters cheating:

The program, called LON-CAPA (learning on line, computer-assisted personalized approach) allows students to take tests and collaborate on homework assignments online, but each student has an individual set of questions.

This program sounds very beneficial because it encourages students to communicate and learn without being able to directly copy responses of their peers.  Didio claims to be able to teach more in class rather than focus on the actual homework assignment collection.  This does seem like a good program, but I have a couple concerns.  Not every student is able to access a computer or the internet from home so this may create issues for some.  Another problem that could occur is the teacher setting the pace of the class too fast.  Teachers might forget to ask if students had problems with the homework or may not give students the chance to voice difficulties they are having because the teacher is too focused on moving the class forward.  Students that aren’t able to catch up will lose interest.  If a teacher does review the problems for students, since students will have different answers,the teacher will have to generalize the online questions in order to answer the entire classroom at once.  For example, in math, teachers would have to focus on basic questions than more complex questions in order to save time in class. 

Overall, cheating is a major problem because many students will continue doing it even if they believe it is wrong.  The article concludes by discussing that cheating will probably continue into college if students are not caught because there is still a great deal of pressure.  So between this post and my last post, what do you believe a solution could be?  It seems that everything a teacher may try does have a downside, so is there a correct answer?  Can a change even be made?

Pressured to Succeed: Students Think Cheating is a Way to Make the Grade

by Renee Gates

February 22, 2007