How to stop kids from cheating (or realize that you can't):
I got pulled aside on Saturday by one of my pedagogical directors who told me that he has heard from the night class students that I'm giving excellent lessons and better, that the tested material is clearly presented and reviewed so that there's less reason to bring in a cheat sheet; and when you factor in that I give variants of the same test inside the classroom and crack down harshly on cheating, the students say it's NOT WORTH IT to cheat.
Well, I've been here long enough to consider that a complete victory, but as my mother said, they still don't see cheating as WRONG. Right. Well, it's not wrong until the majority of people aren't doing it, and that won't happen until it's not worth it to cheat on a consistent basis, across the different subjects, from 1st to 12th grades. If it ever happens, it will take at least a decade to permeate and depends upon testing procedures and curriculum changes, among other things. For the time being, however, I offer up this how-to guide as a checklist to cut down on cheating, based upon personal observation and the comments of many of my students and of course this pedagogical director. Like usual, I can't claim any scientific basis for this, only my very specific, tortuous experience, in a Southeastern African country, in a large city school.
1. Simplify
Whether it's English, Biology or Chemistry, I've found that students don't acutally understand 95% of what they're told because it's just too damn complicated. Make one objective for the lesson that encompasses one topic that you can explain in 10 minutes. You'll need twice that time to explain it so that 75% of the class can understand it (remember, 25% will NEVER understand no matter what you do) and the rest of your 45 minutes (or whatever it is in that range) to take care of normal day-to-day activities such as homework and practicing the information explained in those 20 minutes. Of course, every lesson is different, but always seek out ways to simplify.
And don't worry about the curriculum, but DO worry about the testing you don't control. When you have to depart from your style of teaching in order to get students to remember information for standardized testing, let them know that is what you're doing. If you can't explain it so that they understand it, let them know you're not expecting them to understand it but don't leave them without an opportunity to try. Which leads to the second point...
2. Extra help
Whether it be office hours, extra sessions, home tutoring, worksheets that are optional, organized group study, or any other form of extra help, it is critical in fighting cheating. Students are less likely to cheat when they understand the material, which simplifying accomplishes to a certain extent. But even the best students don't always get it or can get someone else to explain it when they are absent - and you could always have a bad lesson or two ):! I offer extra sessions for the students who have to take national exams in November, and I require that they come up with THEIR questions and don't just ask me to explain something over again. This contributes to overall understanding, which is really the biggest contributor to avoiding cheating. And it's necessary. How can you justify giving a zero to a student for copying off of their neighbor when you gave a complicated, difficult to understand explanation of something in class and made no effort to try and clarify what you had said?
3. Test preparation
Unless you give tests every three lessons, you need to limit the scope of your tests and give students an idea of HOW you are going to evaluate their comprehension of the material. Many teachers like to use games for their test preparation, but I find that games only serve to motivate the unmotivated to participate and not necessarily to study, rewarding those who already have study skills but not offering any assistance to those who don't. Moreover, games associate knowledge with the game, not with previous knowledge or practical examples. I've found that giving broad questions which require well-researched responses and declaring that the student is not responsible for material outside that research seems to work decently well. I think this aspect is the weakest of my approach to stop cheating, and that a bad preparation means more cheating.
4. Test writing
Write your tests like you write your lessons - don't try anything new on the test (or try not to). Surprise in a testing situation leads to panic and panic leads to cheating. Be consistent in your testing from evaluation to evaluation. If you want to change something structural in your tests, let the students know - they notice patterns in your tests better than you do. Make the test hard enough so that the best students will have to spend at least half the time allotted to it, and the worst students can still finish it up. A de-motivator is seeing a student get up and leave 5 minutes after receiving the test. The most important thing, however, is to write something simple that springs directly from what you did in class.
Though I hate memorization, I still make my tests half-memorization because students tend to memorize (or try) 100% of what you give them.
5. Variants
Give as many different variations of the test that you can get away with. This depends upon tons of factors, but you can almost always give two variants, alternating students who get each variant. I work in a school that has two-seat desks, so I often give two variants, one to each side of the desk. In the case of three sitting at the same desk, I tell the one in the middle to do a different variant than the ones on the ends. More than anything else, this diminishes cheating by lowering the amount of opportunities.
6. Proctoring
Make a few simple rules and stick to them, 100%. Don't let up - don't make the consequences of cheating a question of value. For example, don't take 25% off if someone is caught, because the student will just weigh that against the points they could gain by cheating. Give them a zero, no questions asked. Even if they weren't cheating, they need to learn how to stop LOOKING like they are.
There's no bigger gray area than in proctoring. There are thousands of ways to cheat and one way to NOT cheat. And you can't get all of your students to act in that one way 100% of the time, or even 50%. I let my students' eyes wander, but as soon as I notice that they are using that information, I take their test. No mercy.
In theory, and in my practice, students cheat relatively rarely when you do all this successfully. And the result is contagious. When students know it's not worth it, they tend to take the "coolness" out of it, making it into an issue of respect for the teacher. And that is the most powerful force, as far as I'm concerned. When you can turn cheating into disrespect for the teacher, and the students agree, it creates a personal responsibility for every single student to respect the teacher or to be ostracized...in this culture. Which is to say that this advice is specific, but I hope is't useful to teachers (and students) anywhere.
Today was city day and I got to participate in a skit that the HIV/AIDS activist group put on. I was the doctor and I had a great time being the arrogant Portuguese white guy.
I gave my 8th graders an assignment to keep a dream journal for a week and promised I'd do the same. We'll see how it goes.
Peace
John
