Does Fear Equal Motivation for Exceptional Work?
And so the saga continues . . . I have blogged about TurnItIn.com before, but this new article makes me question the impact teachers have on students. Like I have stated concerns about before, the lack of trust in a classroom between the students and the teacher can cause tension and anxiety in students. In one teachers classroom — that uses TurnItIn — two students were interviewed about the paper they turned in to their teacher. The first student, Kelsey Pence, states that, “‘It scares me, but I’m glad she does it because it teaches us how to cite properly.” The second student, Trina Morgan, states that, “It’s really scary because it picks up everything. It definitely prepares you, but it really, really scares you.” Personally, I am astounded by these statements on many levels.
First, I believe students should have confidence in their writing. When a student one day turns a paper into me, I want the student to believe in their work and effort. If I’m not teaching my students to have confidence in their own work, I would feel like a failure as a teacher. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want my students to cheat and lie to me and feel confident about that. I personally don’t believe that this teacher described in the article is really helping her students.
Secondly, I feel that these children are being brainwashed in a strange sense. I can visualize the teacher telling the students, “This is for your own good to stop you from cheating. Plagiarism is like stealing, and stealing is wrong so you will be punished severely for copying work that is not yours.” So rather than students actually understanding what plagiarism ISN’T (hence the fear of being caught even when submitting ORIGINAL work), the teacher focuses on punishment which strikes fear into the students. For instance, Morgan says, “I wish that the first time she could show us where it looks like it could be (plagiarism).” Even if the teacher is educating the students on how to cite, she is not effective in her techniques because the students continue to feel discomfort and anxiety after completing original work. Maybe I’m in one of those critical moods right now, but I just really have difficulty understanding how a teacher can feel he/she is successful if his/her students fear prosecution for their work and efforts. Your thoughts?
Thou Shalt Not Steal . . . Term Papers
by Oseye Boyd
April 9, 2007
I totally agree with you about having your future students feeling confident and proud about their writing when they turn it in. This seems simple, but it is not. I work for the writing center and lack of confidence in writing seems to be an epidemic almost everyone suffers from. Even the best writers use the “This writing is bad” or “I know it’s not good, but…” disclaimer before discussing the paper. Creating a classroom environment based on fear and punishment absolutely will not help these already nervous / scared students.
I also agree with your asessment of fearing the final product vs. praising the process of writing. Energy spent worrying about failing with citations could be spent researching new ideas, focusing on one narrow topic, and making sure the paper is organized well.
Finally, turnitin is controversial in and of itself. What gives this company the right to take a copy of every single paper submitted and save them in an archive? What legal (and ethical) ramifications are there in this practice? I am not a fan of turnitin. Teachers definitely need to check out suspected plagiarism, but this can be done privately. Warning students papers will be checked should be enough. Some plagiarism will inevitably slip by, but the gains in classroom atmosphere and confidence, in my opinion, more than offset this.
I also agree with you on this one. I am not a fan of the TurnItIn system that is now in place at GVSU or anywhere else for that matter. One of my biggest problems with it is the first point you brought up. What did happen to the teacher-student trust. It is hard to think that a teacher trusts and respects you when they make you submit you paper to a service that will check for cheating. I think it is a slam at all students who work hard to produce their own original work. If the question is properly citing the work than the professors need to take the time to make sure students know how to do this. I have had proffesors threaten that it must be done right, but never offer up any information on where to check citations.
That is almost besides the point because I realize the importance of citing you work, but if the attempt is made than the student is not trying to lie and say it is their own.
I also think that worry about citations and TurnItIn takes some energy and focus away from the actual content of the paper. I know that I stress about little things, not matter how small they may be. This is just another pressure to add to turing the paper in. I am confident in my writing, and a system such as this just puts a little voice in my head saying questioning my work. I have never doubted my capabilities until fall semester this past year when I had to use the TurnItIn service for the first time. I am paying for this education. Why would I cheat myself out of it by copying someone else’s work? Students do still have integrity. Obiviously that is a question that TurnItIn poses.
I do not want to fear what will happen to me when I turn in a paper. That is supposed to be a time when writers should feel a sense of accomplishment and pride in what they have completed. They should have a sense of relief, not, I hope I cited everything properly so my teacher can focus on my content and not my originality rating.
I think that most of the plagurism that occurs, especially on the secondary level is probably pretty obvious. Especially to a teacher who is familiar with the literature being written on. I think that systems like turnitin are a little degrating to the writers. I can remember the first time I was asked to use turnitin. Even though there was no cause for worry, I felt like a criminal, and I was also nervous that if I didn’t cite everything correctly it would send a red flag. I was also concerned that something that I had written may have sounded similar enough to someone elses work that I could have been accused of plagurism. I am a fairly confident writer, but I didn’t like the idea of being accused by a piece of software.
As a secondary teacher, I think that programs like turnitin may cause students to withhold their abilities because of the chance of being falsely accused of something they didn’t do. Do we really want to sacrifice our relationships with our students because of a nifty new way of policing something easily spotted with experience.
I am not naive enough to believe that plagurism doesn’t exist, but I do believe that there are better, more effective ways to catch the culprit. Students are typically not fluent enough to be able to write an entire paper in the same diction as a professional would use in a quote. I think that more often than not, those student accused of plagurism are really the victims of poor citing. This poor citing issue may even be the teachers fault. When I began taking classes at GVSU, I didn’t know what MLA was…there was no MLA when I went to college before. Anyway, when I cited my paper (the only way I knew to) my professor alluded to the idea that if I didn’t cite information correctly, I would be guilty of plagurism. That’s a lot of pressure for a mistake.
We need to figure out how to deal with these discrepancy.
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