THIS cheating study ought to ruffle some feathers:
Thirty-eight percent of undergraduate students surveyed last year said they had engaged in "cut-and-paste" plagiarism from the Internet in the previous year, according to a national study led by expert Donald McCabe of Rutgers University in New Jersey. That was up from 10 percent in a 2001 study.
Twenty-two percent of undergraduates in the 2003 study — the largest survey of its kind — acknowledged serious test cheating, such as copying from another student or using crib notes.
Business students across campuses generally self-reported some of the highest levels of cheating...High levels of cheating also were reported by those majoring in education, communication and journalism, while the lowest levels were reported by science majors.
That's not surprising. I don't say that because I think people in education and journalism are necessarily more stupid or lazy (although I'm sure one could argue that students in these courses might be given inadequate instruction on how to do proper research and exam preparation). I say that because science and math courses are cumulative in a way that journalism and education course are not. What's the point of cheating on a math exam when the next exam will require you to have mastered all the previous concepts? What's the point in copying down your roommate's chemistry homework when your inability to balance equations will quickly become evident in other areas?
In classes where the grades are based on papers or oral reports on non-cumulative topics, downloading an essay from the Internet would be a useful way of cheating. But in science courses, you learn the equations or you get the heck out. Anyone who tries bending these rules won't last long.
More cheating links from Caveon's Cheating in the News update.
Posted by kswygert at July 16, 2004 07:26 AM