Cheating in School E-Book

Stephen F. Davis

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 365

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Cheating in School is the first book to present the research on cheating in a clear and accessible way and provide practical advice and insights for educators, school administrators, and the average lay person.

• Defines the problems surrounding cheating in schools and proposes solutions that can be applied in all educational settings, from elementary schools to post-secondary institutions
• Addresses pressing questions such as “Why shouldn’t students cheat if it gets them good grades?” and “What are parents, teachers, businesses, and the government doing to unintentionally persuade today’s student to cheat their way through school?”
• Describes short and long term deterrents that educators can use to foster academic integrity and make honesty more profitable than cheating
• Outlines tactics and strategies for educators, administrators, school boards, and parents to advance a new movement of academic integrity instead of dishonesty

Leseprobe

Contents

About the Authors

Preface

Chapter 1: Cheating in Our Schools, Colleges, and Universities

Concerns of Character Corruption

Concerns of Institutional Corruption

The Deep, Dark Secret: Cheating Corrupts

Individual and Institutional Character

The “Business” of Education

The Values Wars in Education

Finding a Voice: The Movements against Cheating and toward Values Education

Conclusion

Overview of the Book

Chapter 2: The Nature and Prevalence of Student Cheating

A Brief History of Student Cheating

Extent of Student Cheating in the Early Twenty-First Century

Comparing Rates of Cheating by Education Levels

So If Cheating has Always Existed, Why does It Require Attention Now?

Reaching an Unacceptable Level of Corruption

Other Considerations

Student Cheating in the Midst of Greater Corruption

So, How Bad Is It?

Okay, So It’s Bad – Why?

Chapter 3: Reasons for Academic Dishonesty

Situational Determinants

Stress and Pressures

Other Situational Determinants

Dispositional Determinants

Changes in Attitudes, Values, and Morals

Receiving an Education versus Receiving a Degree

Academic Dishonesty as a Victimless Crime

A New View of Academic Ownership

Chapter 4:From Cheat Sheet to Text Messaging

Grade School

High School

College

Classroom Tests

Laboratory Reports

Internet Plagiarism

Online Classes

Beyond the Undergraduate Level

This Sounds Bad – Is There Nothing We Can Do?

Chapter 5: Short-Term Deterrents

Detection

Responses to Academic Dishonesty

Penalties

Short-Term Deterrents

Effectiveness of Short-Term Deterrents

Chapter 6: Long-Term Deterrents

Moral Development: Of Individuals and Institutions

Teaching Students How to Resolve Ethical Dilemmas

Institutionalizing Academic Integrity: Toward a New Conceptualization

Conclusions

Chapter 7: The Call for Action and Wisdom

Teacher-to-Teacher

School President-to-Governing Board Member (GBM)

Principal-to-Parent of Teen Charged with Cheating

Teachable Moments Are Important

The Moral Implications of Intellectual Growth: The Glass Half Full

A Vision of Success

Back to the Future

Chapter 8:Refining Our Tactics and Strategies

The Five Strategies for Implementing a Vision of Success

The Six Key Tactics for Pursuing the Strategies

What Can Parents Do?

What Can Teachers Do?

What Can Academic Administrators Do?

What Can Principals and Presidents Do?

What Can Governing and School Board Members Do?

What Can Advocacy Groups Do?

What Can External Agencies Do?

Summary

The Power and Promise of Research

Conclusion

Chapter 9: An Optimistic (and Provocative) Conclusion

The Search for Meaning

The Search for Meaning II

Machiavelli and the Realists

A Final Note

Notes

Name Index

Subject Index

Praise for Cheating in School

“In a high-stakes society where the ends are often valued more than the means, cheating has permeated all levels of education. This book is a must have for anyone wishing to understand the causes of cheating and find ways to prevent its occurrence.”

Bryan K. Saville, James Madison University

“Cheating in School provides a compelling call to action. Rather than simply sensationalizing individual cases of cheating, it provides a broad and balanced perspective and outlines reasonable short- and longterm actions we can all take.”

Lauren Scharff, Director of the Center for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), U.S. Air Force Academy

“This book combines the work of experienced authors who have unique knowledge of different facets of academic integrity and its attendant problems. Working together, they have created a volume that brings together the various stakeholders concerned with academic cheating. They articulate the problem and define it in all its myriad forms, from the student who copies another’s exam to the parent who ‘helps’ more than she should.

The book prompts the reader to wonder why cheating is not central to the 21st-century education agenda, and how our values become circumvented or distorted in relation to this issue.”

Ken Keith, University of San Diego

“Cheating in School: What We Know and What We Can Do, is perhaps the most comprehensive and accessible text on the topic of academic integrity that I have read. What makes this book special is the clear intention of the authors to look beyond the individual to the broader institutional and societal milieu within which student cheating occurs, but always with clearly articulated optimism. Stephen Davis, Patrick Drinan and Tricia Bertram Gallant should be congratulated on this carefully and elegantly constructed presentation of the field.”

Tracey Bretag, Editor, International Journal for Educational Integrity, University of South Australia

This edition first published 2009© 2009 Stephen F. Davis, Patrick F. Drinan, and Tricia Bertram Gallant

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Davis, Stephen F.Cheating in school : what we know and what we can do / Stephen F. Davis, Patrick F. Drinan, and Tricia Bertram Gallant.p. cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-1-4051-7805-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-1-4051-7804-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Cheating (Education) – Prevention. I. Drinan, Patrick F. II. Bertram Gallant, Tricia. III. Title.LB3609.D38 2009371.5'8–dc22

2009007060

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

About the Authors

Stephen F. Davis is Emeritus Professor at Emporia State University. In 2002–3 he served as the Knapp Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences at the University of San Diego. In 2007 he was awarded the Doctor of Humane Letters degree by Morningside College (Sioux City, IA). Currently he is the Distinguished Guest Professor at Morningside College and Visiting Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Texas Wesleyan University. He has served as President of APA Division 2, Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Southwestern Psychological Association, and Psi Chi (the National Honor Society in Psychology). His research on academic dishonesty began over 20 years ago.

Patrick F. Drinan, Professor of Political Science at the University of San Diego, completed his PhD in 1972 at the University of Virginia, and it was there that he first developed his interest in academic integrity. Drinan served as the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of San Diego from 1989–2007 and has been active in the Center for Academic Integrity since the mid-1990s. He has authored and co-authored many articles on academic integrity this last decade and has served as a consultant on academic integrity at the university level.

Tricia Bertram Gallant serves as the Academic Integrity Coordinator at the University of California, San Diego. In this capacity, she is responsible for managing the university’s Policy on Integrity of Scholarship and its corresponding processes, educating the campus community on academic integrity, assisting faculty in implementing short-term cheating deterrents, and working with key campus constituencies on long-term deterrents and initiatives to create a culture of academic integrity on campus. Tricia Bertram Gallant has also been active with the Center for Academic Integrity since 2002, having served as a member of its Board of Directors and as the chair of its Advisory Council. Since completing her PhD at the University of San Diego in 2006, she has authored and co-authored many articles on academic integrity and is the sole author of Academic Integrity in the Twenty-First Century: A Teaching and Learning Imperative, published in 2008.

Preface

This book is a culmination of the professional and scholarly work of the three authors on the topic of student academic dishonesty and is designed to be a realistic, practical, and comprehensive reflection on the current and future states of the efforts to confront student cheating from elementary through graduate education. There has been an explosion of research and scholarship on academic integrity the last two decades, but it has not been pulled together as a compelling call for action. There have been excellent targeted books that look at discipline-based research, such as the 2007 publication of Psychology of Academic Cheating by Eric Anderman, of Ohio State University, and Tamera Murdock, of the University of Missouri. And, there have been comprehensive studies by UNESCO on corruption in schools worldwide but they did not give much attention to student cheating. The advantages of our book are its range across levels of education and countries, its multidisciplinary character, and the portrayal of the confrontation of student cheating as a key pivot in the reform of education: confronting student cheating is essential to the rejuvenation of teaching and its return to a central location in our educational systems.

Throwing light on student cheating, the “dark side” of education, is not meant as a threat to teacher morale or a blanket criticism of our educational systems. Rather, it follows the old saying that “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Students, parents, teachers, school administrators, and governing boards cannot tackle the student cheating problem by themselves. As you will see, it takes a highly coordinated approach by all the constituencies and stakeholders in education. This book serves as a roadmap to help those concerned about student cheating by identifying obstacles and nasty curves in the road, as well as the possibilities for desired locations at the end of the road. We even have an optimistic and provocative conclusion that speaks to finding the good in student cheating!

The intended audience for this book is large – intentionally so given the need for the broadest possible mobilization of citizens, education professionals, and students. Anyone interested in education will find useful information and fresh perspectives inside. There are many to blame in tolerating this epidemic of student cheating, but our effort is crafted so many can take credit for arresting the epidemic. Teachers, educational administrators, parents, counselors, governing boards, elected officials, and curious citizens will all find nuggets that will inspire and inform action. We hope that these education stakeholders can come together in conversation to honestly assess the state of student cheating and to innovate action to move their organizations from recognizing the problem and committing to addressing it, to institutionalizing academic integrity as a core, strategic value of the educational institution. Other important calls to action in education, such as for access, affordability, and diversity, can fall flat in the meaning they have to our schools, colleges, and universities if, once the students get there, integrity is lacking and cheating is rampant. We should not desire simply for students to get a diploma or degree, but for them to get a diploma or degree that means what it says it means.

The authors have hundreds of people to thank including colleagues, students, and, of course, Chris Cardone at Wiley-Blackwell who kept us on target. Tricia would first like to thank the students, staff and faculty at UC San Diego for their academic integrity efforts, in particular the first Academic Integrity Peer Educators (Devin, Julie, Zoe, and Yugandi) and the Academic Integrity Review Board who voluntarily dedicate their time in order to make a difference on campus. She also tips her hat to the staff and members of the Center for Academic Integrity – they are the folks around the world who recognize both the costs of ignored corruption and the tremendous profitability of academic integrity. And finally, Tricia thanks her family and friends who continue to support her work despite the time it takes her away from them; her husband, Jamie, deserves special recognition because he continues to be the best friend any woman (or writer) could wish for.

Pat developed his interests in academic integrity in graduate school at the University of Virginia and, in the mid-l990s, became active in the Center for Academic Integrity. He was mentored by Don McCabe, founder of the Center. The University of San Diego has been very supportive of Pat at both practical and research levels during the last decade. And most supportive has been Pat’s spouse, Mary Ann, who has shared his interest in academic integrity during 41 years of marriage.

Steve extends his appreciation to the graduate teaching assistant who told him, “I saw a student cheating on a test today,” and with that comment began a 20-year research quest to document and understand academic dishonesty. Cathy, this one’s for you!

It has been both gratifying and inspiring to us that Wiley-Blackwell saw the timeliness of this book. Also inspiring has been the interest shown by parents and the public as we have shared our insights with them during conversations about the progress of the book. Virtually everyone we have talked to has shown genuine interest in our effort because it touches memories of lives in school and because people have a nagging feeling that the problem of student cheating, if not addressed, may say something both profound and dangerous about possibilities for children, education, and our common future. As a society, we often try to give voice to our concerns about what may be working in education; but there is something special and deeply personal about student cheating. Confronting student cheating is hard, but there is a promise and power in doing so that many are just beginning to realize.

Chapter 1

Cheating in Our Schools, Colleges, and Universities

A Critical Problem for the Twenty-First Century

“It’s not the dumb kids who cheat... it’s the kids with a 4.6 gradepoint average who are under so much pressure to keep their grades up and get into the best colleges. They’re the ones who are smart enough to figure out how to cheat without getting caught.” 1

Students from all segments of education are cheating – from grade school through graduate school, from the inner city to the country, from the poor to the rich schools, and in both public and private schools. Students are cheating because they are scared of failing. They are cheating because they are scared of having a less than perfect grade point average. They cheat on their own, they cheat with their peers, they cheat with their parents, 2 and sometimes students even cheat in cooperation with their teachers and school administrators. 3

In this book, we explore the student cheating phenomenon, the what, how, why, when, and where of students acting in ways to “cheat” their education. However, we do not stop there with the problem of cheating. Identifying the problem is only the first step toward our goal of motivating all those with an interest in education – from students to parents to teachers to administrators – to do something about the problem of student cheating or, to be more precise, to leverage the opportunity of student cheating to make education stronger, assessment more meaningful, and the relationships between students and teachers more collegial and less adversarial. Thus, while we establish the state of the problem in the first five chapters of the book, we offer a call for action, tactics, strategies, and conversations to tackle the problem in the last four chapters.