academic cheating

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The Causes ofAcademicCheating

Social Psychology’ Final Assignment

4/4/2013

Nguyen Minh ChauEBBA 3BCQ530406

EBBA 3BCQ530406 NguyenMinh Chau

Abstract

It has been centuries since the human first

tried to search for a possible solution to

suppress the Academic Cheating. Time steps

by, Academic Dishonest does not seem to

decrease but becomes a serious worldwide

problem of Education. During recent decades,

many researches have been conducted; a large

amount of money has been pumped up into

Education Revolutions all over the world, to

find an answer. However, “fish begins to stink

at head” so, come back to this small essay, I

am going to sum up some common causes

lead to Academic Cheating.

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Introductioncademic Dishonest is no longer an issue of the

Education system, but a burden for the all nation in

Asia, in many European countries, as well as in the

United States. Keith-Spiegel (in Murray, 1996) shows that among a

sample of almost 500 university professors 20 percent reported

they had ignored to take further measures in evident cases of

cheating. With cheating rates as high as 75% to 87% (e.g., Baird,

1980; Jendreck, 1989) and detection rates as low as 1.30% (Haines

et al., 1986), Academic dishonesty is reinforced, not punished.

(Davis, Grover, Becker & McGregor, 1992, p. 17).

A

It is clearly that Academic Cheating hardly be a new problem in

Vietnam’ Education. A survey among 2,000 students, which was

carried out by The Ministry of Education and Training’s

inspectors in 2006, resulted in 89% admitted having cheated at

some point in their studies (Huong, 2006). The Quan Doi Nhan Dan

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online also gave examples of many “suspiciously” outstanding

results in many examination sites after the 2006 High School

Graduation Exam, among which there was a room with all 24

students getting equal or above 9 at Mathematics. Such

unreasonable numbers require Education authorities to take

immediate actions to prevent the cheating epidemic from

developing any further.

Nevertheless, before going to any resolution for this phenomenon

we must get back to the root, which is caused from both aspects:

the insider and the outsider.

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The Outsider

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EBBA 3BCQ530406 NguyenMinh Chau1. THE PARENTS AND TEACHER’ POINT OF VIEW:

hildren are the most talent creature in the world, but

there are differences among them. Some are confident,

some are quite. For the one who ready to show the world

their ability, it is no difficult to recognize it. When it comes

to a quite one who hardly shows off anything about their

capability, how can others ever realize that?

COn the other hand, we all know that, parents are famous about

showing off their children. And with a kid who never wants to let

it out, this desire from their parents could never be done.

Therefore, the parents start to put the child in a comparison

with other kids, because of thinking their kid is not good

enough. What happen next? It goes without saying that the child

begins to believe so, that they are not good and the other is

better; they set off the idea of stealing others’ work instead of

doing it themselves. Moreover, owing to the preconceived idea

from parents and society about good universities and prestigious

schools, achieving high grades is an evident must for every

child. Hence, it is no doubt that the children will try their5


best to make parents proud of them, one way or another.

Additionally, the way parents think also gain a large impact on

their children. For example, smoking, to them, is far worse than

their children cheating at school since they think health is more

important than building up a good character. That is where the

cheating was fired up.

The same case with parents, a teacher, who is respond to classes

with a great number of students, cannot take care of everyone; so

it is not easy for teachers to recognize all the imperceptible

talent. For example, during the lesson, 2 pupils is talking, a

look from the teacher can immediately stop their conversation. A

simple act can make awareness to a kid like that so it goes

without saying that there is no difficult for children to spot

the difference in the way teachers treat them. For instant,

between pupils who usually late for class and pupils who go to

class on time, it is clearly that teachers would never treat them

alike. Even in a solidary class, somehow, teachers

unintentionally create a barrier among students, which divides

the class into groups. As a result, due to the rank in the class,

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the disappointment pushes them to stop believing in their

ability; or the feeling of confident and getting higher mark

motivates other to accept that rank, though they know cheating is

unacceptable they are now having reason to do so.

2. THE NEW EDUCATIONAL TREND: NO CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND

ore developing the world gets, more essential the

Education becomes. Comes along with it, pupils must

take standardized tests so that the Education

authorities and government can evaluate the nations’ Education

system and to classified the capability of the young generation

as well as compare one school to another and to the state level.

The pressures are enormous on both students and teachers. At

school, these tests mean that a teacher must achieve the expected

results or better, or she/he will be viewed as ineffective, or

worse, incompetent. So instead of teaching your child how to

think, they teach your child how to pass the test.

M

Furthermore, a trend is formed, as a consequence, and called “No

Child Left Behind”. It can be explained that, instead of focusing

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on quality of learning and teaching, the government concerned

much more on the quantity of student gain high mark in the

standardize exams which is driving most of the assessment

teaching these days. Educators really have no option but to

produce the best possible results. To do that they must teach

solely to the test or else.

Vietnam is an ordinary example, once the Education and Training

Network of Vietnam (http://edu.net.vn) claims that the race for

excellent results among schools is the most serious reason for

the dishonesty in study. In almost every part of the country, the

sight of teachers leaving students cheating freely is not so hard

to find. They have to do all that to maintain the school’s

reputation of Education, which they themselves are not even sure

of. Besides the care for results, the question of whether

teachers really love their profession is also considered. The

majority of Vietnamese teachers today have cram classes along

with their official classes at school and they often do not have

time to improve their knowledge on the subjects. Thus, it is

understandable that teachers choose the solution of reducing exam

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http://edu.net.vn/


questions’ level of difficulty to make sure the students get

satisfying grades, which prove that they do not take school work

for granted. All these actions subconsciously encourage cheating

though teachers may be aware of it.

If you tell a school administrator that his school's existence or

employment might hinge on his students' performance on a test, I

guess you are tempting fate. Most human beings have a breaking

point and when anything threatens a person's livelihood, income

and/or social status, you put them in a survival mode. In other

words, as you threaten that individual's existence, you dare them

to reach their moral breaking point which, in this case, incites

the child to cheating on purpose.

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EBBA 3BCQ530406 NguyenMinh Chau3. WRONG EXAMPLE FROM SOCIETY:

very two years the Josephson Institute conducts a

nationwide survey of high school students called Report

Card on the Ethics of American Youth. More than 43,000

students were involved in the latest poll comprising about 100

high schools – both private and public. They come to a startling

result as: 92 percent of students believe their parents want them

to do the “right thing,” eight out of ten say they lied to their

parents about something significant. In addition, more than 90

percent of those students say they are fully satisfied with their

personal ethics.

E

Right and wrong are now defined differently by people, especially

among young generation. How can we let this happen? The answer is

not quite hard to find, it is in the image that adult and society

set on the eyes of children. It is like everyone cheats on their

taxes, or people think it is normal to lie about their age, job

and salary. A very simple words from adult, but it can bring to a

definitely dissimilar meaning to kids who barely spend the first

30 years of their life learning by observe. By this way, children10


will take the wrong opinion about dishonest in studying with or

without being aware of it.

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The Insider

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EBBA 3BCQ530406 NguyenMinh Chau1. AN EASY WAY OUT:

ndoubtedly, when it

comes to a lazy

student, it must be

more than tough for them to

put their mind on an assignment. Why should they bother to study

hard and do all those papers while all they need to do is go and

ask for someone’ help or steal others’ idea or maybe go online

and search for a sample one? They can blame on the development of

technology nowadays, they can claim on kind people, who willing

to help them doing the homework, or they can attribute to easy

teachers who do not conscious to the dishonest of students. It

does not mean that every pupil is lazy or once they lazy they are

not good at any subject. In fact, researchers have not found any

stable reason for the idleness of children. For me, I think,

occasionally, it occurs to bored students. This is very strange

that, they could spend a greater length preparing for cheating

plan than study for the test. Studies indicate that there is a

high correlation between certain pedagogical practices and

U

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cheating behavior: lack of clarity in a lesson, perceived lack of

relevance, and too few tests offered in a grading period are just

a few examples. Perhaps, it comes from the subject itself which

makes the students feel nonsense and do not have the inspiration

to learn. Sometimes, I even wondered myself if cheating is some

form of student protest against certain types of curricular or

pedagogical factors.

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EBBA 3BCQ530406 NguyenMinh Chau2. EVERYBODY DOES IT:

ne of the most significant inventions of science is to

point out the conformity base on the social influence

during 1951 – 1956.

The Asch study had shown

that, group has a heavy

impact on individual, even

if the action is not right,

once a member of the group did it; others tend to do so because

they fear of standing alone. Let’s get back to this case, no

matter how intelligent, hard-working and integrity your child is,

he/she is within a group that eggs them on; an environment where

other kids cheat. Once the children notice that by playing unfair

in the exam other gets even higher grade than they are worth; the

kids will think twice about cheating. The peer pressure might

lead them to a further action in the coming test: cheating like

others. Maybe it is just a way to fight against that unfair, thus

as soon as they involved in this dishonest behavior, it is like

drug abuse; the child cannot stop!

O

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EBBA 3BCQ530406 NguyenMinh Chau3. THE AFRAID OF LOSING FACE AND BREAKING EXPECTATION:

believe there is a mechanism within each of us which

triggers a need to "save face." Saving face can mean a

desire to save oneself from the angry assault of a

parent or teacher; it can mean avoiding embarrassment; it can

mean economic survival or a perceived pressure be it self-

inflicted or inflicted by some other extraneous force. Nowadays,

college acceptance is the major instigator of this survival

instinct.

IFar from self-satisfaction, the feeling of breaking ones’ hope is

much worse. The fear of extinguish parents’ expectation is

sometime lead children to reckless action, even suicide. As I

have said before, everyone here does not mean only within a small

group but the society, where parents and adult repeat the wrong

example, it make the child start to believe that lies is

acceptable. Meanwhile, the parents pin too much hopes on their

children, this accidentally force them into a dead end street

where they have to choose between trying and cheating.

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ConclusionGenerally, an undeniable truth is that there are a lot more

reasons for individual to commit cheating while the relevant

among these factors is so strong that they combine together to

make this matter heavy than ever. Accordingly, to tackle this

subject is a time-consuming process, which need a big effort from

the cooperation of both sides. During the past 5 years, there are

several efficient changes against this tackler, and we are all

looking forward to seeing new action from Education authorities

and government throughout the world.

Moreover, parents are the closest friends to children, who must

be the first to conduct a revolution in educating their kids.

Glance over the homework, ask about the test, read his papers

then ask about the resources of a paper or project, etc. are just

a minor activities you can take part in with your children.

Nonetheless, never underestimate these activities which, on the

other hand, plays an important role in cheer up the kids and

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encourage them more confident and feel be loved. If you ever

suspicious about their behavior take a deep breathe then talk to

them gently to find out the truth. Whether it is or not, we

cannot blame it on the children, who hardly understand about the

world, for what they almost know nothing about its result, even

us; we have different issues that we could not address. Yet, it

does not mean that we are easy going, they must be punished, no

matter what. Consequently, the better way to love our kids is to

teach them how to draw a way out instead of pushing them go

straight ahead and then fall down hard.

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References:

1. 2004, Nạn quay cóp trong thi cử - thử tìm nguyên nhân từ phía nhà trường

http://www.edu.net.vn/Default.aspx?

tabindex=0&tabid=2&mid=42&tid=132&iid=838

2. 2006, Phát hiện hàng loạt gian dối trong kỳ tốt nghiệp THPT

http://www.qdnd.vn/qdnd/baongay.xahoi.giaoduc.1875.qdnd

3. Prager, D. 2002, Why So Many Students Cheat

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?

ARTICLE_ID=27246

4. 2011, Basic Education Capability – Trust Fund, Teachers Are

“Facilitators and Victims” of Cheating in Exams

http://bectrustfund.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/teachers-are-

%E2%80%9Cfacilitators-and-victims%E2%80%9D-of-cheating-in-

exams/

5. 2013, The Cheat Sheet

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http://bectrustfund.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/teachers-are-%E2%80%9Cfacilitators-and-victims%E2%80%9D-of-cheating-in-exams/



http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27246

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27246

http://www.qdnd.vn/qdnd/baongay.xahoi.giaoduc.1875.qdnd

http://www.edu.net.vn/Default.aspx?tabindex=0&tabid=2&mid=42&tid=132&iid=838

http://www.edu.net.vn/Default.aspx?tabindex=0&tabid=2&mid=42&tid=132&iid=838

EBBA 3BCQ530406 NguyenMinh Chauhttp://www.christianitytoday.com/iyf/faithandlife/

schoolspirit/9c3037.html

6. 1996, Mikaela Bjorklund, Department of Teacher Education,

Vasa, Finland, Academic cheating: Frequencies, methods, and causes.

7. Andy Ozment, Alison Smith, Wendy Newstetter, Georgia

Institute of Technology College of Computing, Causes for

Cheating: Unclear Expectations in the Classroom.

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http://www.christianitytoday.com/iyf/faithandlife/schoolspirit/9c3037.html

http://www.christianitytoday.com/iyf/faithandlife/schoolspirit/9c3037.html

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