View Full Version : An Academic Question
We have a few former/current educators here-a-bouts. I was wondering if any of you have had any experiences with students/staff cheating or experiencing test anxiety?
I assume so and would find it interesting to hear your best/worst stories about them. :munchin
Cake_14N
01-09-2013, 10:52
In 1993 I had a student that was the starting point guard for our Varsity B-Ball team (I was both the Chemisty teacher and the 9th grade B-Ball coach at this school). One of the other students in the class came to me and told me this student was bullying her for her homework so he could copy it every day. As 70% of the course grade was based on the homework he was passing the class by turning in all of the homework while failing every test. I guess it was my mistake in setting up my grading scale, but I figured that if the tests were only 15% of the overall grade, test anxiety was not an issue to passing the class. ( 70% homework, 15% tests, 10% labs, 5% final exam).
Well, to get to the cheating part.... this kid was simply copying somebody else's homework and turning it as his own. I went to the head coach and told him about the accusation of cheating. We crafted a plan to give this student the benefit of the doubt. I would assign the class 5 homework problems on the board and work the first with the class in mass just to make sure every student had the same explanation. After that, I sent this student to a "meeting" with the head coach just to get him out of the room. I gave the rest of the class the 4 additional problems while he was out of the room. When he returned, I had erased the board, but I had 4 additional problems just for him on a notecard. As the topic was stoichiometry, it was easy to alter his problems just a bit (different masses of starting reagents..) so that he would get different answers to the same chemical equations than the rest of the class.
All the students were required to turn in the original problem set with their homework.
Sure enough, this student only got the first problem correct (because we did it as a group in class) and it was obvious that he copied another students homework as his answers were based on the starting reagents given to the class, not those on his notecard.
Thankfully, I had an administrator with a science background that understood stoichiometry and could verify that this student did in fact cheat.
This student failed the semester and was no longer a part of the B-ball team. Not because of a school rule, but because the head coach removed him from the team for cheating.
The other student was not punished because she was the victim of bullying. The bully was suspended from school for 5 days for this in addition to failing Chemistry.
Lots - with both issues.
Identifying test anxiety can be difficult as many students have developed a number of mechanisms to hide it from their peers, family, and teachers. When I suspected test anxiety as an issue, I'd have the student take the exam with everybody else, grade it (which usually resulted in a failing or near-failing mark), and then have them come in for a one-on-one verbal Q&A over the topics of the test w/o forewarning or letting them know they were being quizzed. Most students whose primary issue with exams was test anxiety could readily answer the questions asked in an informal session like that, and I'd then take their original test score, add it to the results of the verbal quizzing, divide by 2 and post the resultant grade. Once I'd identified the test anxiety issue, I'd then work with them to help them overcome it through preparation, confidence and self-advocacy building, family and faculty awareness, and - sometimes - with proper antianxiety meds when necessary.
Cheating - whether on an exam or plagiarism - was not tolerated and I dealt with it harshly. I had a number of students over the years who, for a variety of reasons, chose what they thought was the easy or necessary path offered by cheating and it cost them - lowered GPAs, having to redo a core course and with both grades remaining on their transcripts, the embarassment of being labeled a cheater, having to redo a course in summer school post-graduation of their year group to receive their diploma, loss of faculty recommendations for post-HS studies, and - for repetetive behaviors - expulsion.
Like so many things in life, it's complicated.
Richard :munchin
longrange1947
01-09-2013, 16:22
Cheating and exam anxiety is also present in the military academic world. As with Richard, cheating was not tolerated and immediate dismissal was the result in our courses. NO excuses, not second chance, gone. That included the paperwork that showed an integrity drop due to cheating and person not to return to SWC for any course without approval of the CG.
On exam or test anxiety, in the course, we had re tests, and I would sit and go over the exam with the student and show where he really did know the material and attempt to reassure that there is no need for any anxiety. After, about an hour of going over different points a new written exam was given and Very seldom was there a failure from the written exam. As Richard mentioned, it is mostly giving confidence to the student so that he is not so nervous that he screws up the directions, misreads the question, does not read the question completely, or jumps on the first answer that "seems right". Normally I could tell the ones that would fail due to just not knowing the subject matter and the ones that were nervous about the test but were knowledgeable.
One thing in the SWC environment that I would remind them that if stress bothers them this much, then they need to get a grasp as the stress of a round by your head is much worse. Of course, now most of them know that very well. :D
On 25 September 1986 (IIRC), Stephen E. Ambrose looked at a lecture hall filled with anxious undergraduates who were to take a difficult midterm the following week.
He asked, "Who wants to be big time?" A number of students raised their hands reluctantly. "Then don't cheat," he said.
Later, Ambrose would be at the center of a spiraling debate over his research, writing, and retelling of his own experiences. Even though he dismissed the allegations to the end of his life in 2002 as jealously, the controversy has recently deepened <<LINK (http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2010/04/26/100426ta_talk_rayner)>>.
Trapper John
01-19-2013, 09:53
On 25 September 1986 (IIRC), Stephen E. Ambrose looked at a lecture hall filled with anxious undergraduates who were to take a difficult midterm the following week.
He asked, "Who wants to be big time?" A number of students raised their hands reluctantly. "Then don't cheat," he said.
Later, Ambrose would be at the center of a spiraling debate over his research, writing, and retelling of his own experiences. Even though he dismissed the allegations to the end of his life in 2002 as jealously, the controversy has recently deepened <<LINK (http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2010/04/26/100426ta_talk_rayner)>>.
This transcends "cheating", IMO, and rises to the level of criminal behavior that is no different than embezzlement or fraud. If true, the real damage is the example this sets for our youth. How do we combat a 'means justifies the end' value system in our youth? I think this is a perpetual problem. The reality is as Bush the younger said in your signature line.