Why US College Students Cheat and How to Fight It

All those who have been students have probably experienced something like this:

It's the night before a big test in one of your most difficult classes. He has done his best to study all the information he thinks is included in the test. But you always worry that you have not studied enough.

If the test is not passed, the class may fail. You start worrying so much that you start thinking about doing something you know is wrong. Think about writing some of the information that you think you are testing on a small piece of paper and hiding it in your clothes.

Do you think, "My teacher can really see what I'm doing, and in the end, does it hurt someone?

Eric Anderman says he has met many young people who have had these thoughts or similar thoughts in their teaching career. He started when he was a high school teacher, where he saw many students cheating in their classes.

Now, Anderman works at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. He is Professor of Educational Psychology and Head of the Department of Educational Studies in the State of Ohio.

Anderman says that cheating occurs at both the college and secondary levels.

In fact, the International Center for Academic Integrity found that most American students cheat. In 2015, more than 71,000 students were questioned about cheating. About 68 percent of them admitted to doing it at least once.

Anderman has studied why students cheat and how they do it for over 20 years. His most recent research, published in September, provides interesting insights into when students think copying is acceptable.

His research involved more than 400 students at two major research universities in the United States. They were asked to cheat. The study found that students said that cheating is more acceptable in the classes they hate. And courses where students have the impression that copying are acceptable are often subjects such as math and science.

Anderman points out that it is difficult to say what makes students like a class or not. This could be the subject or personality of the teacher. And in the end, it always depends on the student to make the decision to cheat or not.

However, Anderman argues that university professors can design their classes in a way that reduces the students' desire to cheat. Students have the impression that cheating is less acceptable in classes that focus on learning to do something instead of memorizing information, he says.

"If you think about it," he told VOA, "it makes sense that if a course is organized so that you can demonstrate mastery ... of the content, the deception will not buy you anything." One other side of that is ... a focus on testing. And then, when a student attends a class, and ... everything he thinks or what he hears is proof ... and "if you do not pass the test well, you will never pass" on the second level "... cheat with more often. "

So, says Anderman, when students are given a math test, teachers should not evaluate whether they have memorized the necessary formulas or not. Students can be so preoccupied with remembering formulas that they feel the need to cheat to succeed.

The more students cheat, the more their understanding of the subject will fail, says Anderman. Instead, it suggests that the teacher can provide students with mathematical formulas and test if they know how to use them to solve complex problems.

After all, according to Anderman, in the real world, many professionals use computer programs that already have formulas. It depends on the professionals to know how to use the formulas and their knowledge of the subject to solve the problems that are presented to them.

Anderman says that teachers should do everything possible to explain why they are passionate about a particular topic and why students might need this knowledge in the future. In this way, students will feel more connected to what they are learning.

However, David Rettinger suggests that even with a connection to the subject, there is still more to the fight against deception. Rettinger is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He is also a leader of the International Center for Academic Integrity.

Rettinger says that cheating is so difficult to prevent, in part, because of the examples students see in the world around them.

"Cheating is deeply rooted in our culture," he told VOA. "And when students turn to politics, they turn to the business world, and ... they see dishonesty rewarded, it's very difficult for those of us to argue that they have to do things the way they should."

That's why Rettinger believes that teachers need to clearly explain cheating rules. For example, actions such as plagiarism - copying the work of others - will likely result in the expulsion of a student from any college or university in the United States.

Understanding these rules can often be particularly difficult for international students, says Rettinger. The education systems of some countries do not give the same importance to individual work and do not present creative ideas in writing projects, for example. Therefore, some international students may cheat without even knowing that they are doing it.

But most importantly, according to Rettinger, teachers should explain that finding acceptable cheating can cause problems for students long after high school.

"You can, maybe, get a job cheating," he said. "But this job is not going to be maintained, and over time it will become clear to the people with whom you work that you do not really know what you are doing, and the knowledge that you demand will not arise, and they will look someone who can really do the things you say you can do. "