Job Discussion Forums

[cps82856]

There have been many threads on this board about cheating, especially on the university level. I found an interesting idea on behavioral economist Dan Ariely's website:

http://www.predictablyirrational.com/

"The First 2 Questions of My Exam

3rd May 2009, 11:10 pm

Here are the first two question of the exam I just gave:

1) My parents and grandparents would be most proud of me if:

a. I did not cheat on this exam and got the score I deserve
b. I cheated on this exam and got a score higher than the score I deserve

2) While taking this exam, I intend to:

a. cheat (e.g., by looking at other people’s answers, or showing my answers to others)
b. not cheat

I think it was effective."

The comments section was also interesting.

Not sure if the best way to present this would be to have a pre-exam discussion of the issue or not. It might also be useful to have a post-exam de-briefing, which may be difficult to do.

[Jayray]

I am sure that such a prompt on a test could be effective in some situations. I had one class in which the cheating was rampant if not outright blatant. I tried to think of ways in which to thwart the cheating without being intrusive or offensively suspicious of the innocent. I realized, however, that the administration was aware of the situation and was not eager to address it. The attitude was that NOBODY takes the FT courses seriously.

In another school, I caught kids with crib sheets. I just discretely took them away and said nothing about it. I finally convinced the students that it was honorable to go down in flames on a test. I said that when many students cannot answer the questions, it tells me what "we" must work on so that they can learn. I told them that if they were unsure if they could pass a written test, then they should study a few things that interest them and then discuss them fully on the test. That produced some improvement in a class of diverse abilities.

I now have a freshman class comprised of students of similar ability levels. On one test, there were a ridiculous number of answers that were exactly the same. One student always sat apart from all of the other students during tests. His books were on the other side of the class and the only thing near him was his test and his pen, yet many of his answers were exactly the same as the others. There was something going on other than cheating. I knew that many of my students studied together in the class room at night. I realized that what was happening was that some of the better students sometimes took bad notes and they helped other students when they reviewed together. One bad piece of information was passed from one student to the other during their self-guided reviews. To test my theory, I visited their class room at night and found that the top students were sharing their notes with others, hence the exact same wrong answers on the majority of the tests.

It is for this reason that I have misgivings about the two test prompts that you suggest. It could actually work against the teacher AND the class. The class could be offended if they believed that the teacher did not trust the class.

On the other hand, if a teacher had a class like the first one that I mentioned, it might not hurt to use the prompts. It might not make a difference either. That class had zero respect for me or the course from Day One. They exhibited the same behavior in the other FT's classes too.

My short reply is that the teacher should be judicious in expressing skepticism about students' academic integrity.

[JGC458]

I "teach" 2nd year uni students and the issue of cheating in exams has come up in discussions a couple of times. The most open students will agree that cheating is wrong, but they'll also add that cheating may be the only fair way of evening the field in a China where cheating seems to be commonplace.

[kev7161]

Well, I'm only at 4th grade primary level but there is cheating and copying going on even there. It's not unusual for me to get two work papers with the exact same wording on both. I'll just call the two students to my desk and ask who did the actual work and who copied. The look of shock on their faces that I could actually figure out what happened is sad yet amusing all at the same time.

I tell my students that it's okay to help each other out when I'm not around but it's not okay just to simply give someone an answer or let them copy your papers. After all, say I, you won't be able to do that come test time. Some kids really make an effort to try and make their classmate understand a difficult math concept or something while still letting them find the answer on their own. But when I get a student who can do well on all the minor assignments throughout a week or two, then do very poorly on a test, then I know something's up!

[Hansen]

OP, Some, perhaps many, of the parents of these children expect them to cheat. They probably give them ideas on how to cheat. In some cases, they even help them cheat.

While I appreciate your sensitivity to your students feelings, it's lost on them. Cheating is a way of life here, part of the culture. They may be amused at your naivete, but I doubt that it is changing their way of doing things.

Two acquaintance of mine have both told me that if their sons do not do well on their exams, they will do whatever necessary to get them into a good school. These are both respectable people with good government jobs. Lots of money involved in fixing problems such as this. Each point adjusted on a test upward can cost 10,000RMB.

Getting into the wrong school in China can be a sentence to mediocrity the rest of a child's life. It's probably cheaper to fix their test scores than buy them a job later, which they might have gotten had they gone to the right school

If your parents told you, a high school kid, that they had 50,000 RMB set aside to fix your exam but would give you half if they didn't need to use it, what would you do?

Some of the better high schools have arrangements to admit a certain % of students into top universities based on their high school performance.

If the difference between going to Peking University and Hubei College of Art, Science, Western Culture and Foreign Language depends on a student cheating, what do you think they will do? What will many parents demand that they do?

[eddy-cool]

I don't disagree with anything that's been said so far but there is something that's been left out of the picture.

Does anyone question the format of those 'tests' and 'exams'? Nobody? That may bea fundamental problem!

About two years ago there was a national exercise in which teachers had to trial national English aptitude tests meant for students. It was discovered that many teachers would fail them as well.

If you ask a Chinese teacher how they are testing their students' English they come up with unambitious multiple-choice questionaires. Teachers don't even 'think' about the right answers - they compare student answers with the 'correct' answers as per their manuals.

Even FT's, supposedly specialising in the spoken variety of English, ask well-rehearsed, hackneyed questions and pay attention to the choice of words rather than the liveliness of the answer as such.

Besides, if you ask every single student the exact same questions - in writing and orally - aren't you prompting the answers you get from students who prime those that come after themselves?

[sharpe88]

It`s not naivete, it`s called trying to do his job as a good teacher. Putting that prompt at the top of a test shouldn`t be a big deal. It probably won`t solve the cheating problem but might have an effect... so why not

[killian]

as a culture, chinese used "team learning" to a much greater extent than we did back home.

call on a kid in class and listen to his mates feed him the answer. the nuns woulda smacked the snot out of us for such but "team work' is the norm here.

the desks are physically touching here. it would be tempting not to look in such a situation. but...as long as there are 65+ kids in a class, over crowding will continue to create problems.

[evaforsure]

At many programs, cheaters form an additional revenue stream as they sign a "honor code" at the beginning of class and if found cheating have to repeat the year....if several infractions occur...curtains...

One such cheat ring was very sophisticated and hired a lock smith to do the dirty work of breaking in so as not to leave evidence of the robbery of test papers...they each had a job...their were 6 of them...from the initial entrance to the copying and the coding of the cheat sheets...

my thought .. why look for the reasons or ways to prevent it...just outline consequences and let the chips lay where they fall...after all .. everyone has to make their own choice and the realization that if a cheater gets always with it... they likely have the stuff to succeed in china...which I suppose is the aim of the Chinese system and not the moral overtones of a education system that values learning over preparation....but remember.. Those who make fake DvDs and designer handbags don�t feel they are cheating either due to the economic development they are helping to create. (This is a big consideration to many Chinese people when deciding what is �right� and what is �wrong�) We will always have to deal with this practical side to determine whither it is more honorable to play fair or to win....

[Jayray]

[JGC458]

Oral exams at my uni today. For two weeks I've been giving practice. In this practice I've told them till both they and I are bored that in the first part of the exam they are NOT allowed to talk with each other.

So what happened today? 2 separate sets of students decide to "share info"! And they're sat 3 feet away, right in front of me and I'm recording everything!

I sometimes think they don't even realise they're breaking the rules, that they just do it, without thinking. Coz the alternative is that they honestly think that I won't see or hear them speaking to each other when they're right in front of me (!!!) - and that idea is just too bizarre...

[YANKEE]

Amid 'prep-week' for the fall term Final-Exams (Dec. 2008), last year; During the class break, I walked past several of my students who were intensly reading what appeared to be a formal English Exam paper.

I asked to see it and to my amazement, it was the Exam / Answer key to an English exam, scheduled for later in the week!

I asked where they got it? NO answer (Suddenly their English has vanished). So i took one paper away from one of them and showed it to the Dean of English, later.

He was completely unsurprised and said he'd "look into it".

I'm certain he did: Advising the students to be more careful about showing the 'answer keys' to FTs.

I later found out the printing office routinely gives advanced copies of both the exams and answer-keys to 'favorite' students, who later sell copies for distribution.

Best little capitalists in the world !

Now, If I can just buy someone in the Uni's Payroll Dept ?

[JGC458]

So a student had missed 2 too many classes and I told her that she'd need to bring me 2 official notes or else she couldn't sit the final exam (and so would fail the year). So what happens? Well she comes to the exam, I ask for the notes, she walks to a fellow student sat in the front row who gives her 2 slips of paper. Our student starts writing on the slips of paper while I'm watching. After a few seconds I ask to see the slips of paper and can see that they are/look like blank official notes with red chop - one already filled and the other only half. I ask the student why she is filling in the notes, and not her teacher. She replies that the teacher didn't have time and tries to get the slips back. I give back the slips but inform her that she really shouldn't be filling in the notes in front of me! And, amazingly, she didn't seem to understand why!!

I let her do the exam, but said she needed to hand in 2 notes to my boss. I don't want to aid and abet a cheat/lier/forger, but there's no point in making a fuss/trying to stop it either. Let the school fail her or try to prevent these actions if it wants...yeah right, fat chance of that happening!!!...