Cheating is definitely a problem. But I don't think people think about why a person would want to cheat. People don't realize what some tests are. A lot of them are just memorizing. Nobody will learn from memorizing everything. Some tests that we take involve us memorizing the answers on a review sheet or memorizing a list of terms. These are the tests people cheat on. When it comes to applying concepts to problems, there is almost no way of cheating because you have to come up with the answer yourself. Many students don't want to spend hours trying to memorize a giant list of things so they simply make a cheat sheet with everything on it. It saves time for them but they don't think of the consequences. The article does support its argument of why cheating is bad and wrong, but it doesn't try to explain the reason for everyone's cheating. So I will. Memorizing Tests = cheating 95% of the time. Non-memorizing tests = no cheating.
-Akash Patel
4 comments:
Hmmm.... thank you for being candid. There is a tremendous amount of pressure on students today (I'm a teacher, but also a student)to achieve and to reach their full potential. It's tougher to get in to good colleges today. We all wish to excel. Don't most students feel more confident and proud of their accomplishments when they get honest scores?? They're not ridden with guilt because they worked honestly. I know what you mean about memorizing facts,etc. But, what about those students who are going in to the medical field, the accounting field or the legal field, to name a few. There's intense material to master and memorize. Would you want a surgeon operating on you who cheated all of the way through school?? Now that sounds fecitious, doesn't it.But, these are professions where intense, intense memorization is a skill that's needed to be mastered.
This is true, but intense memorization isn't the answer to success in these fields. If someone works hard enough on something and is really passionate about something, they don't have to sit down and memorize because it's like good song lyrics coming to mind. However, if a person is forced to memorize something they have no interest in, they will most likely cheat to get out of the class.
Akash -
Thanks for this thoughtful post. I actually agree wtih your reasoning about why people cheat to some extent. I also think that laziness has something to do with it. And I think so many high school students overcommit themselves to activities (I'm a band director, so I am not against the activities) that they lose sight of the fact that all these things require time.
It takes time to learn something - whether it is memoriazing facts, which is sometimes necessary, or learning to apply those facts. And a lot of the time, if you can memorize some basics so they are right at your fingertips, the application comes more quickly and naturally. If I had not memorized my scales and basic triads, it would be difficult for me to play with my jazz band to help them learn. I would be looking up those "facts" I should have memorized!
But a day full of only that memorizing thing is such a drag! So I get that there has to be a balance.
Keep up the good posts!!
I dig it Akash. Teachers should make assignments which negate the "need" to cheat. Students don't cheat because they want to be a cheater, they cheat because they deem the assignment busy work and feel that cheating is a better use of their time. Sometimes I think they are right. The challenge is to come up with assignments which allow no opportunity for, nor benefit of, cheating. Not only will the class run more smoothly, but the students will respect it and learn more all at the same time.
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