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
I also can remember the days of cheating in high school. I never did anything drastic like plagiarism, but I definitely copied the homework of my friends and if a test was multiple-choice I would find my eyes glancing at other students’ tests just to “compare my answers.” I think that the idea about using on-line programs to decrease cheating is a great idea. However, I too have some concerns. The main one is the same as yours: not everyone will have access to a computer, so unless you expect students to stay after school to do their homework, it is just not feasible. I also think that you will get many students and their parents probably too claiming that this type of treatment is unfair. Students will complain that their questions were harder than so and sos and parents will say that it is unequal treatment to give every student a different set of homework from the next. I do think that something must be done about cheating in high schools, it seems so easy to do and it is often beneficial to the student. Having programs like the one you wrote about is a good start to tackling the cheating problem.
I think that this article and the pressure that students feel to cheat is a really bad comment on society. I’m not sure that everyone is feeling it, but I feel like there is a certain pressure on me as a potential teacher to find a different way of evaluating students without the traditional test. Maybe this could be part of a solution? I think that part of our responsibities as teachers is to be able to evaluate our students based on their best work and their potential. I have to believe that the NCLB teaching to the test format of teaching will be modified to be more helpful to both teachers and students. I know, I might just be an optimist, but there are sooooo many problems with the current system, adjustments are inevitable. Perhaps if we as teachers could shift the importance from grades to individual achievement, our students wouldn’t feel like they needed to develop their skills of compromised morals.
I found your last two posts rather interesting, particularly because they are unique to the subjects that most people are covering. After reading your post on free schools, I believe that they are waste of time. It is true that many students learn information in high school that will not benefit them in their later careers. That does not mean, however, that they should not receive a liberal and broad education just like everyone else. It seems to me that many students would blow off such a school, not going to class and only “learning” the easy stuff. Many students, without the structure and pressure(yes, pressure) of a non-free school, would destroy their futures by enrolling in such a school. Children need direction and although it is noble to give them the chance to decide, I do not believe that it is in their best interests.
In regards to your most recent post on cheating, I have a strong opinion. I graduated valedictorian of my high school and I did not cheat once. On the other hand, the guy who was 2nd in our class was one of the biggest cheaters in school. How is it fair for a student to get such high recognition for academic work that he did not even do himself? There is no justification for cheating, other than perhaps laziness on the part of the cheater.
I like how you admit to cheating in high school. I think cheating is more rampant than we’d like to admit! I know I did it, but at the time I didn’t really look at it as cheating. We called it “group work” and looked at it as a team effort. This was done mainly in our Spanish class where the teacher did not teach but simply handed us packets of “busy work” for us to complete and told us to find the answers in our books or look it up on the internet. Basically, this class was a joke. So, we didn’t take it seriously and just copied the answers from each other. This made me wonder, is cheating done by some students just because they don’t care, or is it because they have an uninterested teacher? Maybe you could write a post about this sometime and let me know what you find?
Also, that program sounds interesting. However, it seems largely impersonal. I like that it gives students individual questions to deter cheating, but I wonder how the teacher can ensure that he or she is covering all of the questions in class if the questions are indeed all different. I’ve had many teachers say that they wish they could not give out grades because they know some students won’t learn and will just cheat to get the grade they want. But how else should teachers see if students are learning? Just a thought. Great post.
[...] External/Internal Pressure Cause for Cheating? [...]
Pingback by Comments « Stephanie’s Wicked Awesome Words | April 5, 2007 |