Cheating in Educational Institutes - Essay Example

Cheating in Educational Institutes Introduction Cheating in educational institutes conducted bystudents is even regarded as dishonesty that is academic in nature and may be caused as a reaction to the formal structure of educational institutes. Cheating in the academic sphere can be of diverse types, it can be in its simplest form regarded as plagiarism in which students tend to resort to copying someone else’s work and presenting that work as their own and even gaining credit for it. It can even be witnessed in quite subtle forms for example: students getting their work done by other students or external sources and paying for the work. This assignment will focus of how prevalent cheating has become in educational institutes of the 21st century, while ways of conducting academic cheating will even be highlighted (Schmidt 115). This paper will argue regarding various factors that promote academic dishonesty and cheating, these factors include student characteristics as well as characteristics of schools and the structure followed by educational institutes. The paper will lastly highlight methods that can be used to counter or restrict the level of cheating taking place in the academic sphere. Body Prevalence Academic cheating is not a new phenomenon; it has been present since the evolution of different examination tools used in the academic arena. Davis reports that students, who believed that they would fail in a particular class or test that was being scored, resorted to cheat in order to avoid failure (Davis 33). Academic cheating is a soaring problem in educational institutes throughout the world and the number of incidences of cheating having witnessed an increase over the years. According to Davis, cheating among students who are studying at the undergraduate level in the regions of United States as well as Canada is increasing day by day and at least one out of every 10 US or Canadian students have accepted that they have committing some form of academic cheating (Davis 34). Methods of Cheating Cheating in previous years mainly included copying someone else’s homework and presenting it as one’s own work or cheating used to take place during examination sessions while students used to carry small pieces of paper with them to copy from it during examination. Previously, cheating even constituted of asking answers from fellow students during examination sessions while ensuring that the invigilators and teachers were not aware of the event taking place. According to Staples, cheating gas becomes quite subtle and that is mainly due to information that is available over the internet (Staples 7). Staples state that now students tend to copy information directly from the internet and simply present them to their instructors as their own work and this form of cheating is mostly conducted by students who have just enrolled in college level of education and are not aware that this activity is even regarded as cheating under student code of conduct of almost every educational institute (Staples 7). Factors Promoting Cheating Researchers have figured out various factors due to which students end up committing the act of academic cheating. Certain researchers believe that cheating is innate and an inborn quality and students tend have certain traits or characteristics due to which they are at a higher risk of conducting the act of academic dishonesty. Researchers have even pointed out that cheating is even caused as a result of the structure followed by educational institutes along with issues within the teaching faculty and grading systems. Cheating is an outcome of relaxed rules as well as corrupt teaching faculty and their aim of advancing their own self interest over the interest of others. A student cannot escape after conducting the act of cheating until he/she has assistance from those who are provided with the authority of ensuring that such activities do not occur. Educational standards in developing areas are quite low, the teaching faculty and other faculty members who are responsible for regulating and supervising examination sessions are not quite well paid by their educational institutes. Due to this they lack the motivation of ensuring that unethical activities such as cheating do not occur. For example: during the period of 2012, students who were against cheating and represented an underdeveloped region called Pakistan reported that students can never cheat in exams until and unless they have support from the supervisors and the instructors (Mohmand 1). They even stated that these instructors are even taking rewards from students in order to allow students cheat during examination session. Another issue with the educational system that promotes the unethical act of cheating is that the penalties that are levied on convicted cheaters have failed to deter students from cheating. Students, like any other individuals are opportunity seekers as well as rational choice makers (Anderman XIV). They tend to weight costs and benefits while conducting any act that is acceptable or anti-social in nature. If students perceive that the benefits they may derive from conducting the act of cheating are far greater than the penalties they may have to face as a result of being caught for indulging in the act of cheating, they may resort to cheating. Motivation to achieve higher grades in the academic region is not only one of the reasons that promote cheating behavior. Cheating is a facet that is embedded within the educational institutes itself. Those educational institutes that do not strictly deal with cheaters or do not have measures to ensure that the occurrence of such activity is low, tend to promote cheating. Educational institutes are similar to societies, the authoritative members of the society tend to set rules and regulations, and similarly, authorities in educational institutes need to create rules and regulations to stop cheating and should ensure that these rules and regulations are followed. When members of a society conduct a particular act and the authorities do not stop those activities from occurring, those activities are seen as acceptable by the members of the society and all members tend to follow same behavior. Similarly, if in those educational institutes where cheating is not curbed, the members of these educational institutes will believe that cheating is acceptable and follow this unethical behavior. According to Davis, students exhibit neutralization behavior in case of cheating and they justify their involvement in such an unethical act by stating that they are involved in such activities as other students are even doing the same (Davis 72). Whitley conducted a research on the factors that promote cheating behavior and figured out that one of the main reasons due to which students were cheating is that they expected that they will gain huge rewards if they get better grades in their educational sphere by indulging in the unethical act (Whitley 5). Education itself has turned into a race of the fittest or a race of horses where those who score high in different examination sessions such as assignments and exam papers are considered better than those who fail to secure better grades. Race for better grades is backed by the belief that those who score better grades have learned more and have superior intellect than those who have failed to score high in their exams. This belief is promoted by businesses and organizations as they tend to hire individuals who have performed better during their educational sessions. Due to the employer’s desire for incumbents who score high in educational settings, educational institutes as well as parents have started pushing their students and children hard to score better grades in their college and university life. According to Faust, educational institutes, especially university level institute are experiencing crises of purpose (Faust 1). This means that the way they operate is conflicting with the main purpose they are actually created for. Faust further argues that instead of promoting learning and development, universities are operating in such a manner that they are advancing the interest of corporations among their own students (Faust 1). This in turn has increased the pressure and the stress that students have to experience and in order to fight with this pressure and secure better grades, students resort to cheating in exams. The problem is that intellect and an individual’s knowledge is not determined through what he/she can do or perform, it is rather determined through the scores he/she secures in her educational life. Jones in her article titled as “What is the purpose of education” states that knowledge has different meanings and there are different kinds of knowledge and use of SAT scores to determine an individual’s knowledge is completely wrong as SAT scores can only evaluate certain form of knowledge and should not be replaced with methods of determining all sorts of knowledge (Jones 1). Jones even argues that SAT tests are not helpful and are rather hurting an individual’s or a student’s ability to think creatively and innovate as SAT scores are based on one single correct answer, while there can be several solutions to a particular problem if the problem is tackled in a creative manner (Jones 1). Countering Cheating is surely a major issue is educational sphere and need to be countered, in order to counter cheating, the authorities as well as the parents and students need to take proper measures. In case of developing nations where teachers are quite relaxed about cheating and are even accepting bribes to help students cheat, educational institutes need to motivate instructors and supervisors to put a stop to such unethical activities by motivating them by fulfilling their needs and desires. They need to be paid properly and strict actions against invigilators who assist students in cheating needs to be taken. Secondly educational institutes should serve for the purpose of providing knowledge and should give importance to learning instead of promoting the interest of corporations. Educational institutes need to promote and adopt formative learning in their curriculums instead of adopting SAT tests that are summative in nature. Educational institutes being a society need to stop students from cheating and need to ensure that students perceive cheating as anti-social as this will encourage members of the society to see cheating as an anti-social behavior. Conclusion Academic dishonesty or academic cheating has existed within the society for several years and have become quite subtle in nature. One of the main factors that promote educational dishonesty is the structure and the goals of the schools itself. Academic dishonesty is taking place as supervisors and invigilators in developing nations are accepting bribes in return of allowing students to cheat, schools are promoting competition and serving the interest of corporations which has led to an increase in stress experienced by students and in turn students have resorted to cheating to meet the objectives of competing for jobs instead of gaining knowledge. Works Cited Anderman, Eric M., and Tamera Burton Murdock. Psychology of academic cheating. Amsterdam: Elsevier Academic Press, 2007. Print. Davis, Stephen F., Patrick F. Drinan, and Tricia Gallant. Cheating in school: what we know and what we can do. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Print. Faust, Drew Gilpin. “The University’s Crisis of Purpose.” The New York Times, 1 Sept. 2009. Web. 29 July 2013. Jones, Kim. “What Is The Purpose Of Education?” Forbes.com, 15 Aug. 2012. Web. 29 July 2013. Mohmand, Fazalullah . " Students cannot cheat in exams without invigilators' cooperation." The Frontier Post,Pakistan,Peshawar. N.p., 11 Aug. 2012. Web. 11 Aug. 2013. . Schmidt, Renita Revland, and P. L. Thomas. 21st century literacy if we are scripted, are we literate?. Dordrecht: Springer, 2009. Print. Staples, Brent. “The Cut-and-Paste Generation.” International Herald Tribune. 16 July 2010: 7. Whitley, Bernard E. Factors associated with Cheating among College Students: A Review: Research in Higher Education, Vol. 39, No. 3. 1998. Read More