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[kuberkat]

It's been one of those days where I feel like a sci-fi pioneer on an underdeveloped planet inhabited by an incomprehensible civilisation (using the term loosely, I fear). Complete culture shock of the pedagogical kind.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but are foreign teachers not employed to bring international standards to Omani education? And if not that, then what are we here for?

Assuming that this is so, why is it that, when it is well known that two or more weeks are to be lost to holidays and festivals, the ministerial tertiary curriculum is written for a chock-a-block sixteen week semester? There isn't a shred of contingency time. Year upon year, textbooks are only half completed, but the following semester students move to the next level's book. Does this harm students' learning? Well, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. And the pudding is bloody rotten.

The above scenario considered, it is also interesting that three weeks of the semester are allocated to testing. With two weeks of holiday and three of testing, and of course the review week when students do not actually attend, this leaves a thrilling ten weeks of actual classes. Since these orders come from the top, the "foreign experts" called in to raise standards (presumably) have no say in the matter.

The final nail in Oman's educational coffin is the Exam Room Co-Op Culture. There seems to be a code of honour compelling students to "help" others during exams- which, I am told by the more diligent students, is not at all discouraged by staff outside the oddball English department. This is subdued and can be controlled in English departments. But students who have mandatory English courses and no other exposure to the newfangled infidel concept of actually writing an exam on one's own steam are not at all impressed. Despite my Nazi dominatrix routine (and I'm pretty darned scary) they still try their luck- not even discreetly. I am permitted to threaten them with disqualification from the exam, but not to follow through. All students must pass, after all. Good for the old credibility, isn't it?

So why are we here again?

[veiledaccoutrements]

You're missing the point.

The purpose of the '5 colleges' is not simply to provide an education, they are also a means of control. They keep girls occupied until (the majority) get married, and the boys are kept out of trouble (to a degree) until they are older and more mature.

If they fail, then this purpose fails also. Passing exams, and 'standards in education' are secondary issues.

[Aliskander]

Well said Kubercat. It is an abysmal system and drives me insane every time! Trying to get the point across that they are following international standards and an international system is just an impossible task. They can't seem to get the point that a Bachelors degree is actually a fairly important qualification and not just a game. Even when you try and explain the reasons why 'helping' is not allowed there is just a sea of blank faces and a mass of protests 'but teacher, he / she is my friend, i must help'. In one of my classes yesterday we had a discussion about the infamous Middle Eastern 'wasta' - the final consensus amongst the class was that wasta is good and more helpful than getting anywhere on their own merit!
We have our mid term exams tomorrow - and no, i am not looking forward to it!

[kuberkat]

What a wrist-slitter this industry can be. Despite the marvels of Oman and its people, masquerading as a Lone Educator in this wild west of inductive logic casts a dark shadow on things.

What is also puzzling is that while testing as an evaluation method is just so last century, it is still a curricular requirement. Ongoing assessment is at the bleeding edge of education on the whole, and TESOL in particular. But neither this, nor the fact that students evidently do not come by their passing grades honestly, seems to have any impact. And let's not ask what the curriculum designers were smoking while creating those masterpieces of abstract thought that dictate our students' fate. It patently wasn't an apple sheesha.

So that's the tale of woe. But I would also like to ask what you feel able to do about this situation within your classes, and within your organization. Any triumphs? Even little ones?

[veiledsentiments]

Hi Kuber

So... you have reached the infamous "why are we here" stage? This is my interpretation - for what little it is worth. We are there to teach as many students as possible as much English as they are able to learn. You haven't the ability to actually change the system, nor do they wish you to.

The cheating problem is a large one and I was fortunate to work at places which allowed me to fail students and I did it regularly. But it was a struggle that many of the teachers didn't bother with. I managed to be known among the students as being fair... but very strict about the rules - which they were all informed of on day one of my classes. I know that many, if not most, employers do not give their teachers this right.

But, I look at it this way... it's their money paying me to teach them. If they wish to put up roadblocks, fine. It is their country and their economy that will have to deal with the product that comes out with a degree. The reality is that most of the women will never work, but we are keeping them in the classroom to pick up whatever knowledge they can. The best and the brightest of the boys (and some of the girls) will actually learn and be successful... perhaps even study abroad. ...or go to work for daddy's business, and...

There were always a few of those bright stars that made showing up to class every day worth the trouble.

What do we really care... we will be gone in a couple of contracts...

VS

[Spin duck]

'Education' and 'Teaching'. The lack of explicit consensus about these terms in deed (as opposed to just nice jargon-filled spin) leaves both open to hi-jack and reformulation, seemingly depending on agendas.

Explicit agreement on values - including such things as honesty, integrity, critical and free expression and so forth - and the boundaries within which these might be encouraged or 'taught' in practice, might be a good place to start, so that all stakeholders are conscious about where they stand and what they can expect. Unfortunately, some of the practical implications of this are likely anathema to cultural aspects, despite the seeming supportive words from the top.

Educational 'martyrs' in most, ultimately, insecure overseas situations in particular (much of TEFL, for example), though highly admirable, are going to find the going very tough. When the chips are down, most others will be prepared to sacrifice any admirability, and martyrs may find themselves 'alone'.

As things continue to stand in such situations, in the end, the rare admirable 'martyrs' are likely to have to leave quietly, be 'trapped' politically by those who feel threatened by them and be edged or 'kicked' out, or may have to convert to non-martydom (e.g. because they have a family to keep or because of detriorating mental/physical health), this at the expense of some of their beliefs about what education and teaching ought to mean.

The only other possibility would seem to be a, perhaps unlikely, scenario where consensus from a set of admirably like-minded managers and above leads these to really stick their necks out and defend their ideals in practice, possibly at risk to their own position (and salary): I've never seen this come into substance over sufficient time for it to have an enduring impact in overseas situations. The mercenary mentality tends to prevail in varying degrees. It's not that it doesn't also happen in non-overseas situations too, but there may be more chance of holding on to integrity if, for instance, there is some kind of 'worker protection' law in existence to fend off those who feel threatened by the very thought of values such as educational integrity. But then in domestic TEFL, you may sacrifice the attraction of living and working in exotic locations. Most overseas EFL teachers are prepared, at certain times, to forgo integrity for the sake of this and other overseas attractions, whilst being quite aware of some of the pretences of what might be termed education and teaching where they work. Besides, lots of educationalists consider the more admirable and honest aspects of teaching and education too much bother to get involved with anyway.

[carnac]

This is a big, big problem for Oman and its future. Not what you know, but who you know. Wasta.
Every new class, I begin with a small talk about cheating. I tell them of my policy of zero tolerance. I explain what cheating is. I explain when "helping" is ok, and when not. I also explain that copying writings from the Internet is another form of cheating.
One difficulty is the cultural avoidance of confrontation: it's just not done by culturally-savvy teachers, unless overtaken by suicidal tendencies. (an Egyptian teacher was stabbed last year; another was severely recently beaten up by a class of teenage boys)
I am fortunate in having a school administration which seemingly supports the "no cheating" rule, and I have seen two students expelled during the past year for this offense. However, their punishment was mitigated by their being "transferred" to a non-academic posting.
In my own classes, I make it clear that if I find them cheating, I will dismiss them permanently from the class and refuse to teach them. I teach them (or try) that this is a dishonor to the others, to themselves, and to me. I try to instill a sense of shame over this activity. This goes against the culture of "helping" each other, admirable in so many ways except academically.
All in all, I believe this "cheating" in Oman is really not much different from the cheating taking place elsewhere in the world - witnesss the proliferation of online sites proferring ready-made essays. (Easy to catch with Google).
Anyway, after all the lecturing about cheating to the students, I watch them and hang them as much as I can when I catch them. Fighting back the tide.

[kuberkat]

Thank you for the thought-provoking and reassuring comments. I do believe that it is possible to have a significant impact on some students- I've experienced that and it does make it all worthwhile. Now if only I could actually SEE my students sometimes, we could go for that approach .

After a vicious delayed culture shock phase, I have been realising just how relative and elastic a thing reality is- and moral judgements even more so. The best analogy is that applying "Western" values to this system is like trying to play hockey on a tennis court. It doesn't work. Thing is, who's to say what the rules should be? Cooperation is, as Carnac notes, an admirable approach. But it nullifies written exam results!

And here I have to side against the teaching paradigm we follow. Our evaluation methods have not caught up with the information age. When grading reports starts consisting mainly of plagiarism checks, something has gone horribly wrong. And actually, one has to ask if it eally is the students that are to blame. They are rolling with the times- the evaluation methods are not. The true challenge might not be to end cheating- despite the small triumphs in this respect- but to find a method of evaluation that truly plays to students' strengths as communicators.

Fact is, they'd probably learn a whole lot more.

[veiledsentiments]

Dealing with plagiarism in an essay writing class can be simplified, but is very labor intensive for the teacher. I turned it into an individual course with first drafts having to be done in my presence, and restrictive revision/proofing of the next drafts. But in the end I knew that most of the work came from the student... and on the least suspicion on my part, they had to start over. But if you have more than say 40 students, it would be impossible.

Teaching the research writing course - anywhere in the world - has just become a googling nightmare. Here you run into another cultural road block. Since there are so few writers in Arabic (relatively speaking... more of an oral culture), they tend to be respected. There is an idea that it is showing a lack of respect for the original writer to change it... and besides the writer is a professional, so how could a mere student improve on it. They just don't get the 'plagiarism is theft' concept...

The reality is that we have it very easy in the plagiarism area. It is quickly obvious when the writing is not theirs. (oh look... a grammatical, perfectly arranged paragraph!!) I never had to google to figure it out. I think writing teachers with native speakers have a much more difficult job.

VS

[kuberkat]

Quite so, VS. There is something fishy about good grammar and polysillabillic words used appropriately that can get us on a plagiarist's case before you can say "intellectual property".

The only remedy, particularly in Writing, is to actually reach the point where students take such pride in their own work that they would never consider bootlegging another's ideas. Once again, that is a process for which the pedagogical stars really need to line up. And that, once again, takes time, which we are not given.

As to cheating on short questions, I cannot imagine having more faith in the intellectual misadventures of another than in my own. How can students gamble on a classmate's answers? The blind leading the blind!

[veiledsentiments]

For a few semesters I taught a business course where the exams were from a test bank, so one could easily produce multiple formats. It took me awhile to work out the bugs in giving it to two groups at the same time - about 57 students - but it only took a couple times before they figured out that cheating wouldn't work.

It is terribly easy to find the cheaters when they get almost every question wrong.

And there was that time in my first year in Oman, in a reading exam... where directly in front of my desk a fellow was literally falling out of his chair to copy answers from the boys on each side of him... and they were two of the dimmest bulbs in the class. I failed him for cheating, but the two on each side of him failed on their own merits.

VS

[Spin duck]

I like the Cambridge listening exams where in some parts of the world the instruction on tape "You now have 10 minutes to transfer your answers to the answer sheet" might just as well be "You now have 10 minutes to look at everybody else's answers".

[veiledsentiments]

Did you ever get the feeling that we were expecting more of these students than is happening in our systems back home?

Having never taught in a US Secondary school or university... what standard is their writing? From posts on here from 20somethings looking for that pot of gold in the Gulf... their writing levels are terribly low... as few grammatical sentences as the majority of my students... and almost as many spelling errors.

How much blatant cheating and plagiarizing is being ignored in the system here in the US? How much of the talk of 'standards' here are ignored as much as they are in the ME?

VS

[Spin duck]

News from the UK is that there are some rumblings. But, the increasing commercialisation of education - customer demands for the money coughed up by themelves: I pay, therefore I pass - and emphasis towards research kudos rather than teaching kudos, is likely to force more compromise on overstretched lecturers and their dept. heads, anxious not to see their departments fold as a result of too many students failing - for cheating.

Just a couple of recent Guardian stories I came across on the topic:

"Traditional GCSE coursework will be abolished in 10 subject areas as part of a government campaign to stamp out cheating, internet plagiarism and help from parents and teachers."
http://education.guardian.co.uk/gcses/story/0,,1888785,00.html


"University catches 237 student cheats who trawl the internet": http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,1869165,00.html

[eha]

I must say, this thread is very encouraging. Some years ago, when I first came to the Gulf, you'd be laughed off the forum for bringing up such unmentionables as 'standards', 'values', even 'educational content'. If you tried to bring up such issues for discussion in the workplace, you were soon silenced, either through interpersonal politics or personal abuse. At least, now such issues are being discussed; this must be progress?