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1
Cheating
interest and often at the expense of the other. The act of cheating is prevalent in every
some point someone resorts to cheating to gain a biased advantage over other
individuals. The focus of this research paper is to discuss the most common venue for
decades, there has been a steady rise in cheating incidences within United States of
1998, some 70% of country’s top high school students admitted to cheating on a test
(1999, Oct 16, The San Diego Union Tribune) In other surveys conducted by the
Josephson Institute of Ethics reveal that as high as seven in ten students surveyed
indicated cheating on a test at least once and nearly half admitted having committed
settings occurs in number of forms. Cheating on a test or school work may include the
sharing of information among test takers or the use of secretly covered notes or crib
sheets. Cheating during tests can be as simple as looking over the shoulder into other
obtaining information such as through use of cell phones, pagers, graphic calculators,
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handheld computers or Palm Pilots. Such devices can easily download information;
answers to a test ahead of time are other common form of cheating amongst students.
On academic essays cheating often takes the form of plagiarism. Through simple cut
and paste technique students usually adopt ideas, words or statements of another
individual without giving due recognition. Act of plagiarism ranges from borrowing
rate. In the past, students would purchase old test papers or essays from fellow or
former students. However, this business has changed in new millennium. In the age of
growing Internet, the business of selling custom written academic papers is booming.
These papers are written according to the student’s needs, their specification of topics,
length and number of works cited. For a specified fee, students get access to
and expectations from the students. Generally the smaller and more selective the
institution or class, the less the cheating occurs there. This is possible because in a
smaller group of students chances of getting caught cheating are more likely than in
classes having large number of students. Moreover researchers have found that
students who attend a school with a set honour code are less likely to cheat than
students at school with other ways of enforcing academic integrity. These codes
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provide guidelines to students about acceptable academic behaviour and the
cheating also varies according to age. It appears to increase as students move through
the kindergarten to high school system; no age group is exempt from cheating. Studies
have indicated that cheating occurs amongst elementary school children, in middle,
et al. 2007)
Cheating if caught often leads to either suspension, failing grades or other forms
academic misconduct not only indulge in unethical practices but often find themselves
at the losing end. A student purchasing a badly written paper suffers all the usual
consequences of plagiarism, but also added consequences of a low grade and loss of
money (Embleton & Helfer vol15.6: p 23). So why do students of all age groups and
psychology and sociology. Many theories have been proposed explaining the
2007).These factors can range from one’s social surroundings at school to what
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instructions are given before exams. Psychologists explain cheating from the
learning often involves the use of complex strategies, cheating precludes the need to
use such complexities. Thus students may choose to cheat either because they do not
know how to use effective learning techniques or simply because they do not want to
invest time or energy in such strategies (Anderman et al. 2007).Cheating offers an easy
way out. Students view it as why bother studying hard, doing all those term papers by
yourself if someone else’s work is readily available. Strangely, students will go out of their
way to cheat or prepare cheat sheets than to study for a test. Occasionally this is due
to boredom. Lack of clarity in a lesson, perceived lack of relevance and too few tests
offered in a grading period are few examples urging students to indulge in cheating
student’s level of cognitive, social or moral development. Cheating tends to occur less
changes both in student’s cognitive abilities and in the social surroundings in which they
interact (Anderman et al. 2007). For example, cheating may be more likely to occur
amongst middle or high school students than elementary students because the
instructional practices used in middle and high school are more focused on grades,
learners report many different reasons for engaging in academic cheating. Some
students cheat because they are highly focused on extrinsic outcomes such as grades
(Anderman et al. 2007). This is the case in competitive exams for professional schools,
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undergraduate or graduate schools. At this point, students are struggling in competitive
environment and cheating again offers an easy way to deal with competition as long
and Education of 5300 United States graduate students found that 56% of business
students at 54%. Both groups admitted to plagiarism to smuggling crib notes into exams.
(Gulli et al. v120.5: 32) Some other students cheat because they are concerned with
mostly people tend to follow the norms of their peer groups. Thus students who believe
their peers disapprove of cheating are less likely to cheat. Most decisive factor in a
student’s decision to cheat is his perception of his peer’s idea of academic dishonesty.
Some students who fail to develop skills in dealing with complex topics or tasks or those
competitive world (Anderman et al. 2007). In certain other cases, poor time
management can become a principle cause for cheating. It has been found that
time between studies or extracurricular activities can be a real challenge and often
exhaustive task for some students, who might indulge in cheating as an easy way out. In
certain educational settings such as highly competitive business schools the tactics of
competitive advantage. In such fields, the ability to utilize someone else’s intellectual
idea is considered smart and rewarded. Students in such scenarios do not consider
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cheating as unethical and form fluid notions about what is actually unethical.
(Verchoor: v89.1:15)
The reasons for cheating and its continuance in academic setting is wide
ranging, extending from academic competition to more fluid notions around what is
or warning about plagiarism into the class curriculum. Students are frequently explained
what constitutes plagiarism and are instructed in writing citations or how to give credit
where it is due. Many universities have honour codes but students get these along with
large package of other information about university, when they are enrolled. It does not
seem to make an impact on them until they are caught or threatened with expulsion.
Certain other ways institutions fight cheating is through strict vigilance, seating schemes
during exams, supplying different versions of exams, banning large number of electronic
devices, mandatory removal of all bags, books, coats or hats while giving exams. More
and more faculty require students to show outlines, progress reports, drafts and
students thought process while students are encouraged to get involved in their work
and reduce chances of plagiarism. Some instructors have resorted to giving more
analytical home work that is aimed at encouraging students to think and apply their
own thoughts. While many institutions have also resorted to websites such as
Turnitin.com that help in catching plagiarised work. Such measures have been
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successful to some degree but cheating still prevails as students become more creative
Institutions can only police dishonesty and punish it. However that does not appear to
dishonesty can either remove occurrences of such acts but mostly it suppresses them.
At some point, students resort to creative ways of dealing with anti-cheating measures.
Therefore, there is a need to promote a sense of honesty; integrity and honour and
and universities as an umbrella institution that not only imparts basic education or
knowledge but teaches how to learn, behave, face challenges and succeed in real
world. This can only be achieved with a continuous effort of students, their parents and
instructors, through ways of teaching that aim at original and analytical thinking with a
Josephson Institute of Ethics puts it, “if students take it honestly, they’ll not only learn
more than they think but will become better, stronger people.” (ABC Primetime News:
April 29th)
References:
ABC Primetime News (April 29th): A Cheating Crises in America’s schools- How it is done
and Why it’s happening URL:
http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=132376&page=1 (Accessed 13th Sept,
2007)
CNN.com (2000, Oct 16th): Study finds widespread lying cheating among U.S. teens-
URL- http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/10/16/morality.study.ap/index.html (Accessed
12th Sept 2007)
Embleton Kimberely and Helfer Doris S. (2007, June): The Plague of Plagiarism and
Academic Dishonesty, ProQuestComputing, ProQuest Database URL-
http://proquest.umi.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/pqdlink?index=4&did=12883621
71&SrchMode=1&sid=3&Fmt=6&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=
1189648407&clientId=12520(Accessed Sept 13th, 2007)
Gulli Cathy, Kohler Nicholas, Patriquin Martin (2007, Feb 12th): The Great University
Scandal. Maclean’s vol120.5: p32 ProQuest Database URL-
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=1189648507&clientId=12520(Accessed Sept 12th2007)
Pence Angelica (1999, Sept 13th): Cheating on rise in U.S. schools, study indicates. The
San Diego Union Tribune, pg B 6: PRoQuest Database, URL-
http://proquest.umi.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/pqdlink?index=3&did=44650790
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89993919&clientId=12520 (Accessed Sept 12th, 2007)
Verschoor Curtis C. (2007 July): Who is Responsible for College Students Cheating?”
Strategic Finance vol 89.1: p15 ProQuest Database URL-
http://proquest.umi.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/pqdlink?index=3&did=13069491
51&SrchMode=1&sid=3&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=
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