You are going to read a newspaper article on education. Read the text and answer the questions that follow. Decide whether each statement is True or False and provide your arguments drawn from the text to justify your choice. The proof should be given in your own words.
Cheating is a dirty word in almost any culture. Yet exams and class assessments are seen as fair game. Cheating to get higher marks is not really cheating at all; it is just a fact of life. Everybody does it. But what can teachers do to dissuade their students from trying to cheat in public exams?
Cheating means submitting work that is not entirely your own. This broad definition includes everything from handing in an essay that you have downloaded in its entirety from the internet to copying your neighbour’s answer to a multiple choice question.
On the way, it goes from making unacknowledged use of someone else’s research, via writing model answers on the inside of your leg and wearing a short skirt which you can hitch up discreetly when you need inspiration, to wearing a wireless earpiece and communicating with a colleague - sitting at home with all the books - through a microphone hidden in your pen.
Who does it? Just about everybody, it seems. In 2001 a survey of 8,600 US high school students found 71% admitted cheating in exams. The problem is compounded by the recent rise in many parts of the world in school-based assessment, in which coursework may be considered as part of the overall assessment package. Who actually does this coursework is often an open question. Parents? Friends? A paid helper?
The reason for cheating is not hard to find. In today’s world, the grade you get is often seen as more important than how you got it. If you get a good degree, it could shape your career path. If you get it by breaking a law, there are more pros than cons.
So what remedies does a teacher have? There are three basic approaches. The first is to frighten students out of cheating. Most national examination boards have regulations that set out the dire, disastrous consequences of cheating, and your students need to know about these.
Unfortunately, there are at least two problems with this approach. The first is that some students will interpret it as a challenge to go around the system; the higher the potential penalty, the greater the thrill. The second is that in some cultures it may be difficult for supervisors to confront examples of cheating. In a “face-saving” culture cheating in final examinations is tolerated because, for the supervisors, “maintaining peace and harmony is all-important”.
The second approach is to use the “let’s all be adults about this” tactic: taking students into your confidence, explaining to them why cheating is not going to help them in their future career. Some teachers find that developing an honour code which governs all classroom behaviour is often helpful.
Again, though, there are problems. In many cultures, behaviour regarded as “cheating” in the individualistic west is regarded as normal. The honour code may actually have exactly the opposite of its intended effect as different notions of what is “honourable” come into play.
So we come to the third approach, “learner support and training”. It goes beyond the negative (don’t do this, you might get caught) to stress the positive (do this, it will help you to learn). Engage with them about the test or exam. Don’t let it remain “out there” - the great sword hanging over the class whose name is never mentioned. Instead, bring it into the class and discuss it, analyse it, dissect it. Help them to see exactly what the exam requires of them, and what particular strengths and weaknesses they, as individual learners, have in relation to it. Don’t spend time grinding through past papers in a mechanical way but look at ways of preparing for the exam. Explore with them: revision strategies, time management and examination-answering techniques.
If we help students to prepare for an exam by “de-demonising” it and giving them positive help and support, they may realise that real preparation is actually easier and more reliable than cheating.
1-5. Choose whether the statements are True (T) or False (F) and, to justify your choice, provide your proof from the text in your own words.
Example : (0) The statement is true because the narrator has never read a single book in the original and has not demonstrated any interest in the subject.
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1. Although cheating is disapproved of in many countries, it is a widespread practice among students.
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2. Cheating exclusively means copying from one’s fellow student’s work in an exam.
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3. The reason for cheating is that the possible negative consequences outweigh the possible benefits.
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4. Sometimes cheaters are not exposed because it goes against cultural values of their country.
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5. The best way to discourage students from cheating is providing them with sufficient information.
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