In the article “Studies Find More Students Cheating, With High Achievers No Exception,” Richard Perez-Pena writes:
Large-scale cheating has been uncovered over the last year at some of the nation’s most competitive schools, like Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, the Air Force Academy and, most recently, Harvard.
Studies of student behavior and attitudes show that a majority of students violate standards of academic integrity to some degree, and that high achievers are just as likely to do it as others. Moreover, there is evidence that the problem has worsened over the last few decades.
Experts say the reasons are relatively simple: Cheating has become easier and more widely tolerated, and both schools and parents have failed to give students strong, repetitive messages about what is allowed and what is prohibited.
…“There have always been struggling students who cheat to survive,” said [Donald L. McCabe, a professor at the Rutgers University Business School, and a leading researcher on cheating], but more and more, there are students at the top who cheat to thrive.”
Students: Tell us what you have observed about cheating in your school. Do you think there is more of it than ever? If so, why? Do you agree with an expert quoted in this article that “Students are surprisingly unclear about what constitutes plagiarism or cheating”? What or who is to blame? Do you think cheating is always wrong? Why or why not?
Large-scale cheating has been uncovered over the last year at some of the nation’s most competitive schools, like Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, the Air Force Academy and, most recently, Harvard.
Studies of student behavior and attitudes show that a majority of students violate standards of academic integrity to some degree, and that high achievers are just as likely to do it as others. Moreover, there is evidence that the problem has worsened over the last few decades.
Experts say the reasons are relatively simple: Cheating has become easier and more widely tolerated, and both schools and parents have failed to give students strong, repetitive messages about what is allowed and what is prohibited.
…“There have always been struggling students who cheat to survive,” said [Donald L. McCabe, a professor at the Rutgers University Business School, and a leading researcher on cheating], but more and more, there are students at the top who cheat to thrive.”
Students: Tell us what you have observed about cheating in your school. Do you think there is more of it than ever? If so, why? Do you agree with an expert quoted in this article that “Students are surprisingly unclear about what constitutes plagiarism or cheating”? What or who is to blame? Do you think cheating is always wrong? Why or why not?