Cheating as a Serious Issue in Todays Schools - Essay Example

Cheating in School affiliation Thesis: Cheating is a serious issue in today’s schools and the current measures put in place have not been successful in addressing the issue. Introduction Children are considered as hardworking by their parents and school administrators and expect them to be honest in their academics. Academic dishonesty is an increasing epidemic in American schools and has now become an accepted norm and part of the school culture among students. Compared to previous generations schools have an increased rate of cheating and have become more sophisticated making detection of dishonest hard and difficult. Measures in school have been unable to deal with the issue of cheating since most schools ignore suspects and do not have tough laws to deal with students suspected of cheating. Elementary schools have seen significant cases of cheating and this essay addresses this issue in-depth. Definition Academic cheating is also known as academic dishonesty that is a complex issue since what cheating is and is not depends on different students and its context varies. Sometimes it is thought as serious cheating and sometimes not serious (Nora 575). This definition is properly defined, as it is not narrow in its analysis it incorporates other situations that may be considered as cheating in school as opposed to copying only during exam times. What is right and wrong is drawn under hazy lines especially for younger kids and shaping the mindsets of such children at a younger age can be very tricky. Parents overreact and misread any motivations of such young children. Challenges with young children of the age 5 and 6 years are helping them realize that cheating is wrong with other actions. Most children at the age 2 and 4 that other actions are bad like teasing or hitting other children they also know that cheating in games is wrong and therefore transferring such knowledge to cheating in school can be tricky. Most first and second graders are taught in school to work and share ideas in groups in classrooms. When they are then told that they must act alone, it becomes confusing for them. With third graders the pressure of school starts was more scandalized test are given. Grades are given, and this creates a leeway for children to cheat to please parents and teachers. Children that have poor study skills and learning disabilities become vulnerable where sometimes factors like poor impulse controls can lead to cheating. Children feel pressured in such stages especially if they are busy with activities like sports and other schedules that deny them the time to study. Parents can contribute to their children lack of study due to busy schedules where they may end up typing their assignments or assisting them in their science projects. This type of behavior from parents sends the wrong message that if someone parents another person’s work is okay and the kids understand that getting higher grades is more important. In Kindergarten to the second grade, cheating is considered a very old school where it entails copying another classmate’s homework, also seeking someone work. By the third grade, cheating may extend to internet plagiarism (Nora 576).In middle school, they invent trickier ways of cheating where they end up texting each other during exams and exchange and share electronic files. They may take internet pictures for friends who have done similar exams. Reasons for Cheating Some students cheat because they are morally, and functionally illiterate Functional illiteracy means someone lacks the basic skills like mathematics, reading, and writing where they lack basic skills for survival in such an environment. Morally illiteracy means a student fails to see that such situations of cheating require a moral response. Students fail to see it as a moral dilemma or do not see anything wrong with cheating. By the fifth grade, peer pressure leads to a lot of cheating where some students ask for answers from other students and such students are forced to comply to avoid it being a major offense among children. Most schools allow cell phones in schools, and this increases the chances of cheating using texts messages. Most fifth graders can copy information from the internet and sometimes they are unable to paraphrase the answers from the internet. Almost 30% of elementary children reported to have cheated, and this shows that the incident is rising at a fast rate (Nora 574). Cheating sometimes is seen as a tool for getting ahead, and this makes students develop cheating skills to be successful. Students cheat lot in schools where students engage in cheating, and it has increased its social acceptance due to moral illiteracy. Most schools are passive and allow the culture of cheating to grow. When cheating is, detected swift and appropriate punishment is not affected for the offense. Many schools often avoid punishment and fail to recognize cheating is occurring in their institutions. Most schools make excuses citing legal issues that may arise if they charge students with the offence of cheating and fear the attitude may obtain and might find other ways of cheating. Most students make excuses for cheating citing that they are unprepared for exams or assignments. They also place a lot of workload in school as an excuse for their unpreparedness and hence find cheating as the way out. There are schools that have established rules and guidelines to deal with cases of cheating. Some school boards and administrators ensure that their school discipline rules have established clearly that cheating is not allowed in the school and place sanctions and punishment that would be given to such students who are caught cheating. How to curb cheating Schools must challenge student’s culture of cheating and eliminate moral questions by replacing it with a culture that raises moral issues and enhances the importance of ethical issues among students. Schools must integrate issues like cheating, self-control, and justice in their curriculum. Teachers must believe that cheating is wrong and teach students about academic dishonesty and find ways to detect and punish students who cheat especially those that use new technologies (Jones 11). The best way to curb cheating is at the elementary level before it becomes widespread. Sometimes young children may be sophisticated and morally observant. Young children should understand why children are wrong, and way it upsets teachers and parents. Older kids know cheating is wrong, but another fail to know that copying a classmate’s work falls under cheating (Hulsart 33). Therefore, it is better to make it clear to kids that passing off another person’s work as theirs is cheating and, therefore, unacceptable. Kids should understand that cheating not only hurts others but also themselves. When such kids cheat, they are not able to learn where they do not understand materials that they use to cheat. Schools must engage in serious in examining the status of academic honesty in their district. They should have policies or an honor code that must be evaluated in its effectiveness. It includes administrators where excuses like legal concerns must be dismissed by pointing and enhancing honesty. This must go in line with instructional efforts that must be combined with tough policies and honor codes to make them effective. Schools and board administrators must analyze current policies and programs of cheating and decide whether they might extend or revise them by writing new policies on academic cheating. The board can examine other school policies on academic cheating and decide whether they are fit to use in their school policies. Parents need to teach and model decision making behaviors to their kids especially the younger ones. Such young children are becoming vulnerable due to peer pressure in their early ages. Parents should remain calm when informed that their children have created from eth school. They should communicate their disappointment and establish that cheating is unaccepted and should never be repeated. Parents can instill goals in their kids of mastery, doing their best and learning, and this can prevent cheating in schools. Development of honor code must be well thought and be efficiently and consistently applied. Addressing issues of decisions of how to create honesty and educate students must be addressed. Procedures must be addressed to resolve such situations of academic cheating. The board should incorporate informal resolutions where appropriate sanctions must be imposed (Hulsart 24). When policies are in place boards and teachers must be informed in full detail and encourage teachers to apply appropriate steps in reducing opportunities that allow cheating. They should incorporate specific measures that prevent cheating in schools especially students who use I-Pads for text messaging. School boards should provide consistent support for academic honesty policies, and this reduces parental cave under pressure. Time should be used to teach students against academic cheating. Teachers can provide students with different forms of academic cheating and teach about plagiarism, paraphrasing and citing sources so that they understand what falls under academic dishonesty. Schools should develop study skills and provide academic guidance that must be included in the course syllabus. .Schools should send letters to parents that stipulate dangers of cheating by students and the parents may adopt policies to help their children against cheating. Speakers could be invited to schools to speak about dangers of academic cheating and post such topics of cheating in school websites to create awareness about academic cheating in schools. Conclusion Cheating in school is increasing at a high rate due to lack of tough laws and regulations that deal with suspected students who have been accused of cheating. Schools have stipulated that cheating occur in different forms like plagiarism, copying in exams, assisting a student to do their exams or prohibiting a student not to finish their assignment. Curbing cheating should start at the elementary level so that kids can grow to know that cheating is wrong, and this creates a moral code in their lifetime. Some kids at the elementary level do not know that some form of cheating falls under categories of cheating and therefore it is the role of the teachers and parents to make sure that they inform such young children what exactly is cheating. This extends to submitting another person’s work as their own. References Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Hulsart, Robyn, and Vikkie McCarthy. "Educatorsrole in promoting academic integrity." Academy of Educational Leadership. Vol. 13. No. 2. 2008. Jones, L. "Academic Integrity & Academic Dishonesty: A Handbook About Cheating & Plagiarism Revised & Expanded Edition." Florida: Florida institute of technology. 2001. Nora, W. L. Y., & Zhang, K. C. Motives of cheating among secondary students: the role of self-efficacy and peer influence. Asia Pacific Education Review, 11(4), 2010: 573-584. Read More