Posted on 11/19/2004 9:24:48 PM PST by lawnguy
Saw John Stossel's report on 20/20 tonight. He went into some detail about cheating in colleges, including rich kids who pay for others to do their work.
Do you guys see this, and what the heck can you do to stop it?
Would like to see a good discussion of this.
It is my belief that you have to teach them when they are 5 not to cheat. 18 might be too late.
I should say, "start to teach them at 5"
Do you know the expression shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in a couple of generations? That's the end result.
"It's not SO bad" "everyone does it" "School is tough" "If I don;t pass this test I'll fail the class"
How many excuses do we need? Values are taught first by a Mother and Father. If they don't learn, what does society expect?
Toss anyone caught cheating out of school, publish a database of cheaters so that school admission departments can check applicants against it. Hell, make it public on the internet.
Heck, I didn't even know cheating was still needed, given grade inflation at most colleges. The fact is, cheating stems from the administration's need to quantify school performance with grades. There is no longer anything approaching a "Gentleman's C." If you don't graduate in the top 10 percent of your class, then you don't get a decent job.
Grades based on in-class exams. Exams designed for individual classes. Exam questions to test knowledge, not mere facts.
And in ten years they'll wonder why their jobs were outsourced to a country where students actually studied.
Right, it's not just Clinton-era, though I think that is part of it. I've had a few bosses who were Republican by registration, but not conservative in culture ("Country-Club Republicans"). They saw cheating as a game, being dishonest even when there was no significant gain to be obtained, just because they considered "success" as "how well they bypassed the rules". After working with such people, I realized that attitude was all around me.
A little beside the point, but it sounds like a nice place.
If one college hammers students for cheating, they will go elsewhere. Grant money, tuition, funding follow.
I think there are several things that can be done, to at least make this practice less prevalent.
If they use those graphing calculators, have them clear their memory before the test so their stored notes are deleted. The 20/20 special showed people using hand held computers for tests...to me that would just be a big no-no. How is that fair to the rest of the people taking it without one? In most standardized tests, they won't even allow you to use more advanced graphing calculators, so why the fancy pocket pcs? And cellphones? Won't it look obvious when someone is using a phone during a test? I imagine this would be harder to control in large university classes where you can't check every student's calculator, but in smaller highschool and college classrooms, it should be done.
As far as papers... turnitin.com is an excellent resource. I think most college students that cheat would copy some paragraphs off of the internet, rather than pay lots of money for fake papers (that doesn't stop the richer ones from doing so though). Turnitin.com will catch most of these people, if teachers actually use it. Most universities will have an account there, and teachers can have students submit their papers online on the site. It highlights the parts that look plagarized for the teacher to further review. Every time a paper is submitted, it is added to the database of papers to check against for future submissions. A lot of times, it highlights cited quotes, but if the student documented it properly, it will not be a problem. I don't know why more professors don't use this site...it's not much extra work at all.
And as a last resort, you could always check their wrists for rubberbands, and make them take the labels off their water bottles! ;-)
I do not see how it is beside the point. We were expected not to cheat and we rose to that expectation. Students today are trying to get jobs, please parents and get certain grades but do not have the moral underpinning to do that without cheating. They have to be taught that being honorable is a huge part of their education and honesty is expected of them. The epidemic of cheating is part of the dumbing down of America, both academically and ethically.
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