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© Alex Green
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
By Andrew Simmons
“Why did you cheat in high school?” I posed the question to a dozen former students.
“I wanted good grades and I didn’t want to work,” said Sonya, who graduates from college in June. [The students’
My current students were less candid than Sonya. To excuse her plagiarized Cannery Row essay, Erin, a ninth-grader
with straight As, complained vaguely and unconvincingly of overwhelming stress. When he was caught copying a
review of the documentary Hypernormalism, Jeremy, a senior, stood by his “hard work” and said my accusation hurt
his feelings.
Stuyvesant High School in New York City confirm that academic dishonesty is rampant and touches even the most
prestigious of schools. The data confirms this as well. A 2012 Josephson Institute’s Center for Youth Ethics report
more than half of high school students admitted to cheating on a test, while 74 percent reported copying their friends’
homework. And a survey of 70,000 high school students (http://www.academicintegrity.org/icai/integrity-3.php) across the
United States between 2002 and 2015 found that 58 percent had plagiarized papers, while 95 percent admitted to
According to researchers and psychologists, the real reasons vary just as much as my students’ explanations. But
educators can still learn to identify motivations for student cheating and think critically about solutions to keep even the
RATIONALIZING IT
First, know that students realize cheating is wrong—they simply see themselves as moral in spite of it.
“They cheat just enough to maintain a self-concept as honest people. They make their behavior an exception to a
general rule,” said Dr. David Rettinger (http://www.umw.edu/directory/employee/david-rettinger/), professor at the University of
Mary Washington and executive director of the Center for Honor, Leadership, and Service, a campus organization
dedicated to integrity.
According to Rettinger and other researchers, students who cheat can still see themselves as principled people by
Some do it when they don’t see the value of work they’re assigned, such as drill-and-kill homework assignments, or
“There was no critical thinking, and teachers seemed pressured to squish it into their curriculum,” said Javier, a former
student and recent liberal arts college graduate. “They questioned you on material that was never covered in class,
and if you failed the test, it was progressively harder to pass the next time around.”
But students also rationalize cheating on assignments they see as having value.
High-achieving students who feel pressured to attain perfection (and Ivy League acceptances) may turn to cheating as
a way to find an edge on the competition or to keep a single bad test score from sabotaging months of hard work. At
Stuyvesant, for example, students and teachers identified the cutthroat environment
And research has found that students who receive praise for being smart—as opposed to praise for effort and
expectations. (https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/25ab/297c17a87c8a0f79e109be531fe9c7da97b8.pdf)
A DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE
When it comes to risk management, adolescent students are bullish. Research has found that teenagers
(http://www.pnas.org/content/109/42/17135) are biologically predisposed to be more tolerant of unknown outcomes and less
“In high school, they’re risk takers developmentally, and can’t see the consequences of immediate actions,” Rettinger
While cheating may not be a thrill ride, students already inclined to rebel against curfews and dabble in illicit
substances have a certain comfort level with being reckless. They’re willing to gamble when they think they can keep
up the ruse—and more inclined to believe they can get away with it.
Cheating also appears to be almost contagious among young people—and may even serve as a kind of social
adhesive, at least in environments where it is widely accepted. A study of military academy students
cheating is tolerated easily cave in to peer pressure, finding it harder not to cheat out of fear of losing social status if
they don’t.
Michael, a former student, explained that while he didn’t need to help classmates cheat, he felt “unable to say no.”
Roman Pelesh
According to a survey of 70,000 students across the United States, 95 percent of students
admitted to cheating in some capacity.
can reproduce for exams and papers. Studies show that technology (http://isedj.org/2015-13/n5/ISEDJv13n5p92.html) has
made cheating in school easier, more convenient, and harder to catch than ever before.
To Liz Ruff, an English teacher at Garfield High School in Los Angeles, students’ use of social media can erode their
understanding of authenticity and intellectual property. Because students are used to reposting images, repurposing
memes, and watching parody videos, they “see ownership as nebulous,” she said.
As a result, while they may want to avoid penalties for plagiarism, they may not see it as wrong or even know that
(https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/cheating-college); he found that more than 60 percent of surveyed students who had
cheated considered digital plagiarism to be “trivial”—effectively, students believed it was not actually cheating at all.
Even moral students need help acting morally, said Dr. Jason M. Stephens
adolescents at the University of Auckland’s School of Learning, Development, and Professional Practice. According to
Stephens, teachers are uniquely positioned to infuse students with a sense of responsibility and help them overcome
1. Turn down the pressure cooker. Students are less likely to cheat on work in which they feel invested. A multiple-
choice assessment tempts would-be cheaters, while a unique, multiphase writing project measuring competencies can
make cheating much harder and less enticing. Repetitive homework assignments are also a culprit, according to
research (http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar07/vol64/num06/The-Case-For-and-Against-Homework.aspx), so
teachers should look at creating take-home assignments that encourage students to think critically and expand on
class discussions. Teachers could also give students one free pass on a homework assignment each quarter, for
2. Be thoughtful about your language. Research indicates that using the language of fixed mindsets
demotivating and increases cheating. When delivering feedback, researchers suggest using phrases focused on
effort like, “You made really great progress on this paper” or “This is excellent work, but there are still a few areas
3. Create student honor councils. Give students the opportunity to enforce honor codes or write their own
classroom/school bylaws through honor councils so they can develop a full understanding of how cheating affects
themselves and others. At Fredericksburg Academy, high school students elect two Honor Council members per
grade. These students teach the Honor Code to fifth graders, who, in turn, explain it to younger elementary school
students to help establish a student-driven culture of integrity. Students also write a pledge of authenticity on every
assignment. And if there is an honor code transgression, the council gathers to discuss possible consequences.
4. Use metacognition. Research shows that metacognition, a process sometimes described as “thinking about
quandaries: the play Macbeth. Before they meet the infamous Thane of Glamis, they role-play as medical school
applicants, soccer players, and politicians, deciding if they’d cheat, injure, or lie to achieve goals. I push students to
consider the steps they take to get the outcomes they desire. Why do we tend to act in the ways we do? What will we
do to get what we want? And how will doing those things change who we are? Every tragedy is about us, I say, not
5. Bring honesty right into the curriculum. Teachers can weave a discussion of ethical behavior into curriculum.
teach media literacy to help students understand digital plagiarism and navigate the widespread availability of
secondary sources online, using guidance from organizations like Common Sense Media
(https://www.commonsensemedia.org/).
There are complicated psychological dynamics at play when students cheat, according to experts and researchers.
While enforcing rules and consequences is important, knowing what’s really motivating students to cheat can help you
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