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3. Prevalence, Types, and Methods of Cheating in College
- Johns Hopkins University Press
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35 chapter three Prevalence, Types, and Methods of Cheating in College Although we probably do not need to convince anyone that student cheating is a significant problem at colleges and universities today, we begin our discussion of college-level cheating with a very brief summary of some recent popular press articles that illustrate the scope of the problem and its global nature. Then, to establish a foundation for the rest of the chapter, we discuss some major research findings by other scholars on the prevalence of cheating, including the major types and methods of cheating. With a greater emphasis on our own work, we then address two frequently asked questions: “How widespread is cheating on college campuses?” and “Is cheating on the rise?” We organize these discussions historically, beginning with the early 1990s and continuing through 2010; we are also able to compare these findings with the work of Bill Bowers from the early 1960s. We then review what we have learned about a variety of topics such as the prevalence of cheating in cross-cultural contexts and among graduate students, changing perceptions of the seriousness of cheating, differences in the prevalence of cheating between two- and four-year colleges, and the impact of the Internet. Much of this discussion includes analyses of data not previously reported . In undertaking the task of attempting to understand prevalence , we are reminded of the unattributed logic that the more you learn about something, the more you realize how little you really know about it. Certainly, our two-decade effort to understand the issues associated with student cheating raises as many questions as it answers, and prevalence data remain particularly problematic. 36 cheating in college The Popular Press Perspective If any reader feels e-mail deprived, signing up for Google alerts with the keywords plagiarism and cheating will certainly help (although cheating will also generate links describing instances of marital infidelity). Rather than attempt to provide any comprehensive summary here, we simply review a few recent headlines and capsule summaries that appeared in Google news alerts during the last two weeks of November 2009. • “49 Disciplined for Plagiarism”—The Otago Daily Times in New Zealand reported that, in the previous two years, 49 students had been found responsible for plagiarism at the University of Otago (Rudd 2009). • “Poll: 17 Percent of Students Say They Have Cheated”—The Brown Daily Herald, the student newspaper at this Ivy League stalwart, reported the results of a study of 687 students that it had conducted, which revealed that close to 20% of Brown students self-reported cheating in the previous semester (Simons 2009). • “Checks Catch Thousands of Uni Students Cheating”—The Courier-Mail in Australia reported that “about 2000 students studying at universities in Queensland have been found guilty of cheating during the past three years. Figures made public for the first time following an investigation by the Courier-Mail show the number of students caught cheating is rising at most universities, despite the introduction of sophisticated text-matching software” (Wenham 2009). • “Case of the Purloined Term Paper; When Work Is Resold”— Although it doesn’t contain any estimates of the size of the problem, this USA Today article discusses the practice of students simply buying term papers online for submission as their own work (Marklein 2009). • “Academic Dishonesty—Day 2: 100-Level Courses Rife with Cheating”—The Exponent, the student newspaper at Purdue University, notes that 47% of the cases of academic dishonesty reported in the 2008/2009 academic year occurred in 100-level courses. Of course, this implies that students leaving high school and entering college are already predisposed to cheating. It seems that at least some campuses use such data to justify throwing up [44.221.45.48] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 13:21 GMT) Prevalence, Types, and Methods of Cheating 37 their hands and claiming there is nothing they can do (Hammer 2009). Clearly, the perception is that academic cheating is a problem, and it is not limited to the United States. So, let’s see what we know about how serious a problem it is. What Others Have Taught Us A significant amount of empirical research supports the conclusion that cheating in colleges and universities is widespread. For example, Genereux and McLeod (1995) reported that 83% of survey respondents self-reported cheating in college. Roig and Caso (2005) found that 72% of undergraduate students participating in their study claimed to have used a fraudulent excuse in college at least...