A discussion of relevant research and what to do with it.

 70% of students feel prepared to make ethical decisions in the workplace.  39% of students feel that it is sometimes necessary to break rules in order to succeed.

 Students ranked themselves below Professional Athletes and Business leaders on Ethics.  The only group that students ranked lower was Politicians.

Disconnect between digital and normal life  More than 57% said that it was unfair for employers to make decisions based on students’ MySpace or FaceBook pages.  47% said that it is ok on some level to download music, but only 5% are ok to steal from a store.

 Nearly 25% of the students who admitted to lying to their parents say that lying is never acceptable.  Nearly 25% of students who cheated on a test or plagiarized say that they know that it is not ok.

 Students are more perceptive than teachers when cheating happens in their classrooms.  Students and teachers often have different thresholds for cheating.

Who Cheats and Why? Student Perceptions of Cheating Recommendations… not yet Teacher Effects

Is there a difference between cheating in Secular and Religious schools? Short answer… No. Students are likely to cheat whenever they can get away with it, and have little regard for consequences.

Is there a difference between cheating in Secular and Religious schools? Students who describe their home as religious are less likely to cheat.

 Cheating is lower in the middle school.  Cheating increases during the Freshman year and throughout high school.  Cheating reduces during college years.

High School students are more likely than Middle school students attribute cheating to personal responsibility. Middle School students are more likely to attribute cheating to external, uncontrollable circumstances.

Students who think cheating is serious cheat less often. Students who think that cheating is not serious cheat more often.

Most students mix digital and conventional forms of cheating. More students reported using ‘cut and paste’ plagiarism online, than from conventional sources. More students reported using digital cheat sheets than paper cheat sheets during tests and consider it less serious.

Students are more likely to cheat when they:  Work part time  Have low academic self-concept  Have friends that cheat  Have poor time-management skills  Fear failure  Avoid work

Overwhelmed to Succeed Personal Desire to Succeed justifies… Total“Overwhelmed” Students Cheating54%66% Plagiarism37%51%

Pressures on Students  Peers –exclusion from ‘Smart’ group, competition for grades  Parents – awareness of college pressures, scholarships, unreal expectations  Teachers – mostly unaware of their influence, students don’t want to disappoint.  Time – balancing activities, social life, work and school, not enough hours

Cheating on exams is seen as the most serious type of cheating. Copying homework is often justified. In a ‘teaching’ setting, with one student helping the other understand, it is not considered cheating. While there is a perception that students with low GPA’s frequently cheat, but there is frequent cheating among students with High GPA’s.

Success is defined by the A, not by what was learned or mastered. Students generally know that cheating is wrong. Cheating is seen as sometimes necessary, due to the pressure to perform. Among AP/IB students, cheating students rarely develop a pattern of dishonesty.

Rational For Plagiarizing Not enough time to do the assignment49% Personal desire to succeed in school37% Pressure from parents to succeed in school25% Everyone else does it18% Thrill of possibly not getting caught plagiarizing8% Peer pressure6% Some other reason16% I don’t know13%

I felt I had no time to do my own paper.28.1% I felt unprepared to write the paper on my own. 26.3% I was not interested in the subject of my paper. 21.1% If I wasn’t allowed to do it, the teacher should have explicitly said so. 14.0% I knew I would not get caught.12.3% How do students justify Internet plagiarism?

I think it is okay to use papers from the Internet. 8.8% If I wasn’t allowed to do it, someone should make it impossible to do. 7.0% I think it’s fun to beat the system.7.0% I felt like my teacher would not care.7.0% Some of my friends or classmates do it.5.3% How do students justify Internet plagiarism?

 A high performance goal structure lead to more cheating.  A high mastery goal structure lead to less cheating.

Students are more likely to cheat when the teacher:  Is a tough grader  Is unfriendly, boring or dull  Has high expectations of student performance  Cover a lot of material  Is disorganized

Teachers fall into one of 4 groups, based on what they feel about plagiarism  Given up – it is impossible to tell who did what  In retreat – use traditional methods to assure academic honesty  Needed guidance – are looking for solutions that incorporate Internet resources  Teachers who have developed a strategy

Teacher developed strategies incorporate the following  A Culture of honesty  Observation of Students’ continual work  Review of intermediate drafts  Ongoing Discussion with the students CORD

Teachers who use CORD reduce the amount of cheating and plagiarism in their classes.  A Culture of honesty  Observation of Students’ continual work  Review of intermediate drafts  Ongoing Discussion with the students

Examination of your own teaching practices to avoid unwittingly encouraging cheating behaviors. Take a stand against cheating early. Objectively discuss cheating with the goal of reconciling differing opinions about cheating, may reduce cheating in classrooms.

 Technology and the Internet enable cheating, they are not the cause of cheating.  So far teachers have been reactive, not proactive. ◦ Doccop, Turnitin, and other text checking websites don’t prevent plagiarism only catch it after the fact

 We should seek to prevent plagiarism. ◦ Create interesting assignments ◦ Require drafts, and intermediate products ◦ Discuss throughout school the importance values such as honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility