Job Discussion Forums

[Yu]

Last semester I taught a course on Finance for Managers. As I have no expereince whatsoever in Finance, I was learning along with my students. I would read a chapter, understand it, and then teach what I thought was important to the students. I would also occassionaly refer back to other related texts and read those until I could understand the main points in their book well enough to understand them.

I created an exam for the students based on what I thought was most important and that I thought they should know. Things that were related to Finance that managers should know. I gave them a Review Sheet that essentially told them what was going to be tested, but it was a little vague. I.e. here are 50 terms you should know and 15 questions you should know the answer to. Some of the questions on the review sheet appeared on the test but were asked in a different way. I.e. several vocabulary words were put together to form a multiple choice question.

I taught 2 sections of this class. The second class of students I taught benefitted from my expereince of already giving the lecture to the previous class and making a few adjustments to the way I taught their class.

So today I show up to teach a course on International Contracts to the same students. At that time I find out the students in that class all got a D in the Finance for Managers class I taught them. I think that they could not have done so poorly on the exam that they all failed. I think there must be some mistake. I tell them I this, and they went to ask the director of the program and find out they all get a "D" because they all did good on the exam so the university decided they cheated and gave them all a "D" instead.

I think I did an awesome job teaching them and they were good enough students to do at least 80% on the exam. I felt the book was really challenging for students so I tried to help them get the most out of it that was possible. I am really angry they all got "D" because it suggests to me that the school cannot believe I was a good enough teacher to teach my students everything they learned.

I did tell the students the exam should be closed book, I told the director it should be closed book. Somehow the proctor of the exam allowed students to have an open book... making the exam a cakewalk. But it is also the standard practice at that school to have all open book exams, so I don't think it really made much difference to the students grades.

I asked to be there to proctor the exam and was told it was not necessary. I asked to be able to grade the exams and was told it is better if I don't grade them, and let a TA do it. So I relented, and relaxed. But I wrote the exam in such a way that the short answer questions could be easily graded by an outside party.

I am really really angry about this and I think it is truly unfair to both the students and myself. My question is "What should I do??????"

Right now I just think I want to quit teaching at this job because I am so angry. Tell the director I am going to quit after teaching the first class and they will need to find someone right away to take my place.... but actually this may not really help my students. So Now I am thinking to teach them in an outstanding way again and teach them well enough to ace the test again. Surely they will not be accused of cheating again if they all do poorly, right? I really don't know what to do. I think this is incerdibly unfair to these students, the only thing they did wrong was do good on my test.

[Norman Bethune]

Chinese Students being given a 'D' because they all did so well on an examination the Chinese Administration thinks they all cheated?

That is quite astonishing. Cheating at Universities and Colleges I have taught at has been a largely ignored problem. Students caught cheating by an FT just shrug it off as they know they will face no adverse consequence. When an FT mentions the misdemeanor to Administrators, they either respond with that blank look (signifying..."I don't care") or by interrogating the FT to ascertain if he actually saw cheating take place.

At some schools, the exam results don't count at all. Every student passes, no matter how poorly they do on those English Exams conducted by foreign teachers. Some students who fail miserably are allowed to take make-up exams as many times as it takes to get a passing grade. Some students wit quanxi, pass without even having to attend class or take exams.

A Chinese administrator actually suggesting students cheated is highly unusual. Maybe he is doing the old shake down the parents at end of term boogie to see who will pay for a higher grade?

[kev7161]

I say stay with the school and grade your own tests next time. Don't listen to what others at your school "advise". You know your students the best and you know their abilities the best. If the school is concerned about cheating, make up 3 different tests: Test A, Test B, and Test C. All the questions and exercises can be the same, just in different locations on the test.

If you want it to be a closed-book test, then do so. As long as you are following school regulations, it is YOUR class. Do as you see fit.

Question: Do these students earn grades throughout the semester? Do they have homework grades? quiz grades? test grades? Is their class score based solely on that final test? Do you keep a record of their scores/grades? If so, why can't you take your grade book to the powers that be and show them that, indeed, most students were doing well in your class?

[Roger]

I also think your students got what they deserved, even if you feel they deserved better. 'D' is not failed.

I don't know how you did your exam but to me multiple-choice questions are not the way to test someone's English or their English writing skills. ANd, if you tested their newly-gained knowledge on finance I guess their Chinese teachers can better assess that.

Don't be angry! Cheating is indeed the norm in China! These students were no doubt known to cheat in other subjects. Your services have been retained - that's proof enough that you as a teacher have not failed.

Do you give them marks for their coursework, class attendance and an occasional test? You should!

[Yu]

The people from my school said the test was hard and the students could have have done that well. It consted of short answer, fill in the blank, true false, and multiple choice. There was a also an essay. They said the students had the same correct answers so they must have cheated. Wasn't the proctors jjob to make sure they did not cheat.
I had one student in the class who knew everything on the review sheet on the day I handed it out. Others knew like 60% of the info on the review sheet.

As for doing another assignment, I suppose it would work. It was hard enough for me to come up with the first one, and this sort of assignment will not be easy to devise.

[Roger]

Yu,
most proctors in a Chinese examination room is unable to stop the rot. First of all, you have to accept that cheating is a widely-tolerated form of social behaviour, so even teachers and proctors don't really combat it forcefully enough.

Your school may very well be an elite school that's concerned about academic honesty of its students; fine! But they are dealing with local people who are inured to a cultural feature that we identify as negative. They may try to stem it - but they cannot stop it dead.

You should ask your students how they think students cheat during exams; I tell you students are pretty up-front about this if you give them a face-saving option to talk about it. Cheating is done in myriad ways. Smuggling notes is the most obvious one: on their body parts (palms, arms, even thighs!), crib notes, scrambled scrawled notes in their various materials, on their desks, etc. Are your students allowed to visit the WC during ongoing exams? If not, I for one would be surprised. And the WC is one of the most oft-mentioned places where they think they can refuel on information they feel they need to regurgitate in a test.

A more insidious way of cheating is by hiring a stand-in - often for a fee. How common this is in China I don't know, but it appears to be a pretty serious problem! Finally, they all own a cellphone, don't they? There - another way of cheating!
I design my exams in such a fashion that memorising is not part of the game; practice is.

[Norman Bethune]