Cheating is omnipresent in almost every country and many universities face cheating scandals every year. This is a very important issue which is difficult to solve. However, nothing is impossible. It’s wise to know the cause behind it if we want to fight effectively.
High-Stakes Exams
Many students believe that cheating can be reduced if teachers assign more low-stakes assessments. For example, a teacher could assign two papers in a month instead of one at the end of the year. Students are put under a lot of pressure before important exams and the fear of failure is very strong. As a result, the most desperate ones decide to sacrifice their integrity to make the grade. They know that they’re going to fail, but they care about the grade, not about their poor knowledge. This is also caused by performance-oriented goals and anxiety. In addition, the fact that some exams play a hand in shaping a students’ future does a lot of harm to their mental health. Besides these, high stakes testing often leads to corruption and gaming of the system.
High Expectations
Most parents want their child to get into a competitive college. However, some of them take it too far. They want their child to be the best in everything. As a result, he/she may not only start cheating but also show symptoms of anxiety and depression. Some parents forget that it’s more important to make sure that their child is happy.
When I was in the fifth grade, I had a friend whose parents would put so much pressure on her that she always looked stressed out. I felt very sorry for her. Every time she got a B, her parents would make her feel like she was not good enough. We would also go out very rarely because she spent most of her time at home doing her homework and writing papers. However, I think that it would be much more beneficial to hire helpers at Cooleditors.com and enjoy the time while you are young and full of energy.
Dishonesty
Some people say that two main reasons for cheating are debts and the hikes in tuition fees. While I agree that the prices are high and giving 18-year-olds, who know nothing about money, access to crippling debt is crazy, I still don’t think that these are good excuses for cheating. On the contrary, a tuition fee can serve as a good reminder of why a student is studying his/her degree. In my opinion, cheating is an extremely dishonest act and financial worries can’t justify it.
It’s worth mentioning that high education in European countries is less expensive when compared to the US. However, it has its own downsides such as a small number of sports programs and high income taxes.
In addition, some people say that students cheat and lie because of the fear of not passing the exams. However, the number of the people who don’t get a degree because they failed exams are minuscule. Nowadays, it is unusual to be kicked off the course. Maybe, that’s because it’s not feasible for a college.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that a student who cheats is a bad person. Maybe he/she just spent too much time writing English papers and couldn’t prepare for another subject. However, this is a good sign that he/she might become a bad employee with lack of timetable skills, knowledge, and morals.
The Solution
Many teachers use such tech tools as Turnitin and Proctortrack to check students’ papers for plagiarism and make sure that the homework is done with integrity. I agree that trust is paramount in studies but there are cases when it’s wise to ensure that a person isn’t lying. Some educational institutions also use an honor code. Surprisingly, it works. The percentage of the students who cheat and use other people’s ideas decreases when they are asked to write out an honor code before exams. There is always a better solution.
Another possible way to reduce cheating is through the use of other types of assessments. Learners can be asked to create a presentation, tell a teacher about what they’ve learned or write a paper which won’t be marked. Either way, every teacher has to fight cheating and emphasize on mastery of the content of being taught, not on grades. This is important because an educated population is a key to a well-functioning society.