College Students’ Perceptions of and Responses to Cheating at Traditional, Modified, and Non-Honor System Institutions states students cheat to remain competitive in the classroom and get good grades; they lack the correct learning strategies to do well, and students lack integrity. This article strongly recommends honor codes and systems. It is believed that with such codes and systems in place cheating can be decreased.
Student’s cheat because they see their peers cheating. Therefore they feel the need to do the same so that they can remain competitive and get good grades. They are aware that cheating is wrong but still feel if their peers are getting away with it so can they. The students are not being held accountable if caught so therefore their peers engage in the immoral behavior.
An honor code is an academic integrity pledge. These codes have specific rules and regulations. Honor codes are put in place so that students do not cheat and will be held accountable for their actions. There are traditional and modified honor codes. Some colleges have an honor code and some do not; those that do students are less likely to cheat. An honor code will help students understand why cheating is morally wrong and reduce peer cheating.
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Students are also required to sign a pledge and dual responsibility. The teacher is then to notify the judiciary body and not deal with the situation on their own. A modified system does not have all of the components of a traditional system. The effectiveness of the two is not the same. It has been proven that honor codes affect student’s academic integrity. A syllabus has been a helpful tool in trying to prevent cheating as well. The syllabus includes information on academic misconduct and classroom honor codes that have been put in
In “Why Colleges Should Ditch Honor Codes” Susan Greenberg is trying to inform the audience as to why society does not require the honor code anymore. The rules that lie behind this regulation are becoming outdated and more students are finding themselves punished for disobeying it. A lot of honor code schools are trying to get rid of this process because it only brings the students more pressure. Typically, students that are in honor code schools tend to cheat more than schools that do not possess it. If a student is enrolled in a more prestigious school, he/she is more tempted to cheat in order to maintain his or her good grades. Greenberg explains a situation that took place in Stanford University that led more than 100 students in academic
All penalties are handled in an all-student court. The author states, “Our honor code is strictly enforced, and the enforcement is handled by an all-student court. Students convicted of lying or cheating can expect to receive punishments ranging from suspension to expulsion.” (Source C) Enforcing the honor code in this way give the students an input on how the students are charged. In order to inveigh a student for cheating or plagiarism, the they must have evidence leading up to the accusation of cheating. This way students will have laws of a propensity to cheat or
However, this may stem from a lack of enforcement of the rules. Even at the most prestigious schools, such as Harvard University, students are not upholding the rules implemented: “The possibility that 125 Harvard students ‘improperly collaborated’ on an exam in the spring has galvanized … discussion about … honor codes” (Source: C). In this case, people may argue that the only party at fault consists of the students. However, the faculty may be partially guilty as well, as their lack of care towards the rules has created a situation that jeopardizes the school’s integrity. Revision may then seem like the least of the school’s priorities, as they must show they seriously consider educational integrity. Likewise, at the University of Virginia, “157 students have been investigated by their peers in the largest cheating scandal in memory” (Source: D). Again, the school and all those who work there hold at least part of the fault for this ignorance because, theoretically, they should preserve and enforce the rules provided. The fact that the scandal exists means that they were not doing their jobs to their fullest. Although revision may seem simpler to carry out, the school’s staff must show an attempt at intervention within the student lives to keep them on a path towards
Studies have shown that, “…many schools with academic honor codes allow students to take their exams without proctors present, relying on peer monitoring to control cheating…a more important factor seems to be the peer culture that develops on honor code campuses—a culture that makes most forms of serious cheating socially unacceptable among the majority of students” (Source F). By using peers to uphold the honor codes, students are embarrassed if they are caught cheating. Therefore, they are less likely to defy the honor code at their school. However, if they break the honor code they should be punished by the same students and teachers who revised the honor code. Honor codes will be revised and enforced differently. For example one school’s, “honor code is strictly enforced, and the enforcement is handled by an all-student court. Students convicted of lying or cheating can expect to receive punishments ranging from suspension to expulsion” (Source C). If the honor code is in place, it needs to be enforced by the same people who follow it. This creates trust between the students and teachers which is how an effective honor code should
If a teacher is unfamiliar with current advancements in the digital world, it is possible that they will miss the most obvious of cheaters. Because the student is never punished or caught, they assume the teacher does not consider it cheating. In some cases, schools are responsible for the rise in cheating because of the way curriculum is presented. In an article written by the Atlantic, a teacher received an anonymous letter from a successful college student stating that he had cheated all throughout high school. He told the author he cheated “because the grade [he]would have otherwise been given was not reflective of [his] true learning” (Lahey). In other words, he felt the teachers were giving him exams that were not accurate representations of the material he had learned. If students are giving themselves excuses for their cheating, that feeling of guilt will subside, and they will not view the action as wrong. Many think they are not at fault if they do not get caught or because they are just trying to keep up with their classmates who are cheating as well. These are the students that contribute to the statistics, the ones who are adding to
An honor code can affect students’ behavior positively by the student knowing between what is right and what is wrong; that builds a principle that student will follow for the rest of their life. Honor codes reduce the amount of cheating that is occurred in classrooms, this is very beneficial since cheating is looked at very negatively since it is a very dishonest way of showing your knowledge. Also, if a student has cheated their whole way through high school, their life would be much more difficult. An honor code not only gives a school a better name, but it also shows that the kids that come out of the school are honest and hard workers. We need honest hard workers for several important jobs, such as a doctor, etc. If people were cheating and did not learn what they were supposed to know for this job, that can become very harmful. An honor code is necessary to make the world a better
For the student, there is either a social or an economic incentive to be gained by cheating [MacGregor, 2012]. However, cheating, more specifically, cheating during exams or in graded assignments gives the students who cheat an unfair advantage over those who remain honest and study hard to excel in the same examination or assignment. Grades are reflection of knowledge and competence gained through learning. Therefore, acts of academic dishonesty undermine the validity of student learning. This, in turn, has effect on academic system in two ways – 1. It reflects poorly on the academic standard or quality of education being imparted by the institution from where the cheating student earned his/her grades and 2. It also interferes with faculty’s ability to correctly diagnose gaps in student learning for the purpose of both re-teaching current students and re-designing instruction for future students [Passow, 2006].
Resulting from the numerous pressures of high school, academic cheating places a large amount of stress on the minds of American teens. To begin with, low self-esteem and a lack of morals prompt a student to cheat to maintain an acceptable grade. When students pick on a less academically inclined student, the unfortunate student will loose confidence in himself and resort to cheating, cheating that will begin a downward spiral of negative effects. Furthermore, if failing grades persist and plague the student, one will cheat to halt the continuation of unacceptable grades. Secondly, loving parental pressure will generate the need to cheat in school. For example, a child, who is a good student, will cheat, to prove to their parents that they are smart, and that they can achieve their goals throughout their schooling. Additionally, parents want their children to follow in their footsteps in the aspect of the education that they received; therefore, more pressure will be enfo...
The first cause as to why students cheat is because they are lazy. It happens all the time, where students go home from school, have a snack, watch television, take a nap, play some video games, and just keep saying that they will do their homework later. The next thing they know it eleven o’clock at night and time to go to bed, but no homework was accomplished. The student keeps pushing back the assignment until the last minute and the last minute is not enough time. This is also known as procrastination. The student does not want to fail, but they were too lazy to do their own work, so they ask to copy the work from a friend that did the work. I once said something to a guy about how this was cheating and he told me that he was, “using his resources wisely”. Another time I asked a student next to me to stop copying my answers in class and he told, “Then you shouldn’t let me see your answers”, he blamed his cheating on me. One time when I was in seventh grade in my ecology class we had to put together a presentation with a partner. My partner was a close friend at the time, and our topic was solar power. I ended up doing all of the research and put together the presentation a...
There is no specific reason as to why every student cheats; every students situation is different, which leads to different motives. Some students cheat because of pressure their parents put on them along with their parent’s high expectations they are expected to fulfill. The student cheats as a result of their fear of not being able to fulfill their parent’s expectations and in their eyes see no other option, other than to cheat because of their low self confidence that they cannot do well on their own. According to Tom Keana of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, parents affect the children by constantly badgering and questioning about how well they are doing. Tom says:
Modern students face many pressures for academic success. They are often unwilling to disappoint their parents or spouses. Some fear that not cheating will weaken a student’s ability to compete with their peers. They rationalize their unethical behavior, unwilling to accept a poor grade, consequently justifying cheating as the only means to that end.
Overall, moral values and integrity play a major part in the choices we make. Deciding weather to cheat or to work hard and apply oneself can be a moral dilemma. Struggling with wanting a higher grade or gaining the approval of others can be a factor in that decision. However we all have to face the consequences of our actions. I prefer to make errors on my exams and endeavor to learn from them. I believe that learning from mistakes is part of gaining wisdom which is only earned through time and experience. In addition if the cheater wants to someday gain the trust of others. The perpetrator will be faced with the need to reestablish an honest reputation, all of which will take hard work and honest application.
Cheating is a break of a rule or a law by acting dishonestly and unfairly to gain an advantage. It occurs in various forms, physical, emotional, and many more. Therefore, cheating in the educational field between students is the most common form at any level of education. in school, college, and even university students.
The word “cheating” when introduced in a conversation brings forth the connotation of thief, laziness, incompetence, scared, untrustworthy just to name a few characteristics. However, take that same word, “cheating”, and apply it to education or business and the audience begin to stuttering, become confused, offer qualifiers and exclusions, delineations, classifications or absolute deny any such behavior. It is generally accepted that cheating occurs in high school and college, but is it viewed as an acceptable practice by students or a lack of understanding or miscommunication between students and educational institutions. According to data gathered by the Educational Portal, between 75%-98%
The major reason which leads to popularity of cheating is that students always desire to have good marks. Today’s academic system is generally based on grade point average or some other alphabetical or numerical representation of academic skill. If students notice that many classmates have high marks, they also want the fame of having good grades. Therefore, this pressure unintentionally causes students to value their goods marks much more than their knowledge. Eventually, students do anything to achieve good marks, even cheating in exams.