Is Your Child Cheating in School?
Written by Craig Rogers, Posted on , in Section Teens & Tweens
Most people you talk to (teen or young adult) will tell you that they believe cheating is wrong. Despite their moral beliefs, most young people admit to cheating at least once during their high school years. Why does this happen?
The first thing you would think, is that cheating is the easy way out. Why on earth would anyone take the time to study and write a paper and do all that work if you can just use someone else’s work that’s already been done? Although this might be true some of the time, often times people will go out of their way and even spend more time cheating then they would actually doing the assignment. One teacher tells of a student who programmed his calculator to outsmart his teacher.
"I can't help but believe that a student who is so capable in using technology, couldn't ace an Algebra test” Says the teacher. “Also, I find when I prepare a test with calculator use, I emphasize the problem solving aspect, not the calculation. Those real world applications which we are encouraged by (the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) Standards to employ in our classes actually defeat the need to cheat in classes, or don't provide the opportunity to cheat."
Another reason students cheat is merely because of boredom. In fact, studies have shown that there is a correlation between certain teaching methods and cheating. If a teacher isn’t clear in a lesson, if there is no connection to reality (“when will I ever use this in real life?” as most students will say), or not enough tests within a grading period are a few methods that might encourage cheating. This leads us to think that if teachers change the way they present the material, we might see a drop in classroom cheating.
Knowing What to Look For and Prevention
Knowing the common forms of plagiarism will help you know if your child might be cheating. Students have admitted to looking at notes during an exam, allowing other students to copy answers, getting answers from people who have already completed the work, among many other methods.
Teaching teens about why cheating is wrong can be the biggest factor in preventing cheating. Dr. Thomas Lickona, author of the book Educating for Character, gives some examples.
• It will ultimately lower your self-respect, because you can never be proud of anything you got by cheating.
• Cheating is a lie, because it deceives other people into thinking you know more than you do.
• Cheating violates the teacher's trust. It undermines the whole trust relationship between the teacher and his or her class.
• Cheating is unfair to all people who aren't cheating.
• If you cheat in school now, you'll find it easier to cheat in other situations later in life - perhaps even in your closest personal relationships.
Helping students learn the advantages of actually putting in the work for their education will help them not only in their academic careers, but help them in other aspects of their lives as well.
