Abstract, Bibliography and Link to paper

Economic Disparity and the Cheating Prevalence

https://docs.google.com/a/scarletmail.rutgers.edu/document/d/1L_lkTgeNVWHoXe1UvcZBNf4nmM68pPENoDImnuZCk7w/edit#

Abstract

This paper dives into the culture of cheating, specifically in school settings. Academic Dishonesty has become more prevalent today than it was years ago. I will argue that this is because of an economic gap between social classes, a lower moral standard today, and because of the competitiveness of schools and the job market today. This cheating culture does not only apply to those in school today, but those in their careers, such as teachers, who also have acted dishonestly. To combat the stressful demands of school or work, people often times take on a “neutralizing attitude”. This attitude is a way for these people to justify their actions so that they can live with the decisions they have made, especially when is comes to cheating. While there is a cheating prevalence today, there are still actions that can be taken and methods that can be used to at least curtail the prevalence of cheating behavior.

Bibliography

Bouville, Mathieu. “Cheating and Neutralization.” Diss. University of Cambridge, 2008. Cheating and Neutralization. University of Cambridge. Web. 1 Dec. 2013. <http://www.mathieu.bouville.name/education-ethics/Bouville-cheating-neutralization.pdf>

Callahan, David. The cheating culture: why more Americans are doing wrong to get ahead. Orlando: Harcourt, 2004. Print.

“College, Inc.” PBS, Frontline.  4 May 2010. Web.  

Haines, Valerie J, George M Diekhoff, Emily E LaBeff, and Robert E Clark. "College cheating: Immaturity, lack of commitment, and the neutralizing attitude." Research in Higher Education25.4 (1986): n. pag. SpringerLink. Web. 26 Oct. 2013.

Josien, Laurent, and Britton Broderick. "Cheating In Higher Education: The Case of Multi-Method Cheaters." Academy of Educational Leadership Journal;2013 17.3 (2013): 93. Ebsco host. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.

Lang, James M.. Cheating lessons: learning from academic dishonesty. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2013. Print.

McCabe, D. L., Trevino, L., & Butterfield, K. D. (2001). Cheating in Academic Institutions: A Decade of Research. Ethics & Behavior, 11(3), 219-232.

McCabe, Donald L., and Kenneth D. Butterfield.Cheating in college: why students do it and what educators can do about it. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012. Print.

NEA Higher Education Research Center.  “Higher Education and Privatization.”  NEA Update.  10.2 (March 2004). Web.

Ornstein, Allan C.. Class counts: education, inequality, and the shrinking middle class. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Pub. Group, 2007. Print.

Tomar, Dave. The shadow scholar: how I made a living helping college kids cheat. New York: Bloomsbury, 2012. Print.

Counter-Argument

Counter Argument and Argument

My argument that I would like to discuss in my paper is the culture of cheating around academic institutions. Their is an overall culture to not follow the rules or guidelines in society today. This is driven by the economic disparity and propensity of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Many people feel the need to cheat to get where they need to be and it is overall not seen as taboo anymore. People do not feel a sense of wrong doing when they cheat to do something that is necessary for them to thrive. Many people would like to argue that the cheating culture is not driven by anything more than a failure in the morals of society today. While there may be a shred of truth to that statement, the overwhelming factor that leads to cheating seems to be the want and or need to get ahead in society. Another argument that may arise is the question of where is the motivation coming from for students to cheat. Some people may argue that their is an intrinsic motivation for students, something that they feel in themselves that drives them to cheat. This also does not seem to be the factor that is really pushing people to act dishonestly. Extrinsic motivation from outside factors such as job security, competition for programs, and many other situations are the real motivations to act in a dishonest way. 

Literature Review #5

Cheating Lessons: Learning From Academic Dishonesty

James Lang

MLA Citation: 

Lang, James M.. Cheating lessons: learning from academic dishonesty. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2013. Print.

Summary: 

The book does a good job at breaking down just about everything there is to know about cheating in education. The author investigates who is cheating and why they are cheating. He does a great job at also looking down other avenues to find answers as to why there is a culture of cheating in today's academic world. James Lang doesn't only talk about cheating in today's world, he also begins with the history of cheating and ends with the future of academic dishonesty. Lang talks about how this culture of cheating can be stopped, and if not stopped, at least slowed down. He discusses methods for how to approach students in a way to prevent cheating form happening.

Authors: 

James Lang has been discussing topics in Education for what seems to be his whole career. He has wrote three books on topics in education and has a monthly column on teaching and learning in The Chronicle for Higher Education. He also lectures and gives public talks about education and cheating around the country. 

Key Terms:

Self Efficacy: How much a student believes he understands the material. This also relates to the confidence a student has in his/her ability to get a good grade in a class.

Meta Cognition: A persons awareness of his or her own level of knowledge and thought processes

Quotes:

"But it can create a significant problem for college students, in that  poorly gauged overconfidence in their knowledge of course material can lead them to understudy- and hence might be as likely to induce cheating as a lack of confidence in their abilities" (129)

"teachers admitted to placing lower performing students next to high achievers so they could cheat more easily, pointing to correct answers while students were taking tests, and reading aloud answers during testing" (29)

"By marked contrast, in the case of both the Chinese civil service exams and the Atlanta teachers, the motivation was purely an extrinsic one; a strong performance on the exam brings either an extrinsic reward, or the removal of an extrinsic threat." (31)

Value:

This book is of great value to my paper. Lang details parts of my argument in length and also brought a great point that can add to my argument. The case of the Atlanta teachers who cheated on the state tests for their students for their own job security is a great example and link to the cheating culture described in another book that Im using for this paper. This book should be a pivotal part of my paper.

Interviews

 I chose to just interview some of my friends to see what their opinions were about cheating and how they have approached cheating throughout their schooling career. I feel that these first hand accounts and opinions are quite valuable to what my final topic is on. 

Have you ever cheated?

Mike: Yes

How many times? When did you do  it most? How did you cheat most often?

Mike: Middle schooled=too scared, raised not to cheat.

High School: Cheating was more prevalent. Mainly cheated off of other students if he was struggling on a test.

College: Never plagiarized, still cheated off other peoples tests if he was struggling.

What was your reasoning as to why you cheated? Did you feel the need to rationalize your decisions?

Mike: I needed good grades, “If I didn’t know the answer, I’m going to look somewhere else”

He doesn’t feel the need to rationalize his decision. Is completely okay with it.

“Everybody cheats, if you don’t cheat you are a liar, and nobody likes liars”

Have you ever cheated on online exams or assignments?

Mike: Yes, even if the course said specifically not to use a textbook or collaborate with anyone, it was too easy not to use my textbook or ask someone if they knew the answer. It would not have been that easy to cheat if the assignment or test wasn’t online.

Do you look at cheating as a hindrance to education, or do you see your classes as just an obstacle to your end goal?

Mike: tough question… Ideally, I would learn everything that the course has to offer. After a while though, I just want the class to be over. Realistically, I’m going to resort to cheating because the workload often becomes tedious and heavy and it’s just not worth dealing with.

Have you ever cheated?

Joey: Yes

How many times?

Joey:  First time he cheated in Elementary school.  Cheated the same amount in middle school and High school. Has only cheated on online tests in college.

What was your reasoning as to why you cheated? Did you feel the need to rationalize your decisions?

Joey: I just wanted good grades. I just did it. I never thought of to even rationalize it. It was never even really a thought. I did it and never looked back. The only reason I would have felt bad is if I got caught, because then my parents would make me feel bad about it.

Have you ever cheated on online exams or assignments?

Yes

Do you look at cheating as a hindrance to education?

It depends on the extent of the cheating. If you are just getting a couple questions from someone else then its not really a hindrance. If you are cheating more than you are not, then it is a hindrance.

Do you see your classes as just an obstacle to your end goal?

Core requirement classes and classes that are forced upon me are just looked at as obstacles to an end goal. Classes for my major, or that are an interest to me I see as a way for me to educate myself on the stuff that matters.

Chris

Have you ever cheated?

Yes

How many times?

First time cheated was in early high school. Cheating off other peoples homework assignments.  As I got lazier, during a test I would just look off others peoples test. Sometimes I’ll look at someone elses test if I’m struggling during the test, but its much harder to cheat in college. Im definitely becoming more independent as to studying and test taking.

What was your reasoning as to why you cheated? Did you feel the need to rationalize your decisions?

I just wanted good grades. There was so much emphasis on the end result and grade rather than actual education.  Feels no real need to rationalize the need to cheat.

Have you ever cheated on online exams or assignments?

Never had an online test or quiz, but will use internet sources for  assignments

Do you look at cheating as a hindrance to education?

“Yes the education systems put too much emphasis on the grades rather than the actual content that you learned”

Do you see your classes as just an obstacle to your end goal?

No. Ultimately everything that you learn in college will help you in the future. I try to make a meaning out of classes even if I cant see one to begin with.

Research Blog #7

My Case

One of the main cases that I'm going to use for my argument is the case of Ken Ilgunas. This is obviously a book that we are all familiar with. His story really shoes the economic struggle that college students go through and the lengths at which people are willing to go to beat the system. Ken Ilgunas was determined to achieve his goal of graduate school and he really didnt care the methods he used to accomplish it. This seems to be the overall culture today in regards to schooling and I think that his case will fit in perfectly into the argument that I am trying to make. 

Interview on the Tonight Show about his story : http://www.nbc.com/the-tonight-show/video/ken-ilgunas-on-living-in-a-van-in-college/n38352

Research Blog Post #6

Neutralizing Attitudes

This table is from one of my journals that shows the the types of situations that students may find themselves in. The study is to determine what students will agree is a good enough reason to cheat which is called in this article the Neutralizing effect. One of the neutralizing effects that is the most influential is if the Professor seems to not care whether the students learn the material, or whether or not the instructor acts as if he is the only class that students have to worry about. This neutralizing statements offer a window into why students either feel the need to cheat or how they rationalize it at the end of the day. 

Literature Review #4

College Cheating: Immaturity, Lack of Commitment, and the Neutralizing Attitude

MLA Citation:

Haines, Valerie J, George M Diekhoff, Emily E LaBeff, and Robert E Clark. "College cheating: Immaturity, lack of commitment, and the neutralizing attitude." Research in Higher Education25.4 (1986): n. pag. SpringerLink. Web. 26 Oct. 2013.

Summary:

This article breaks down cheating into many the many different forms and shows how and why it happens. One of the stand out points of this article is the fact that it talks about a 'Neutralizing attitude'. The neutralizing attitude is basically just the rationalization that a student uses to feel better about cheating. The types of neutralization that are talked about are the denial of responsibility, denial of a victim, denial of an injury, condemnation of the condemner, and appeal to higher loyalties. The article also discusses the types of people who cheat and the reasons as to why they cheat.

Authors:

Valerie J. Haines, George M. Diekhoff, Emily E. LaBeff, and Robert E. Clark

Key Terms:

Neutralizing Attitude: The way that students rationalize their decision to cheat so that they can live with a clear conscience

Fundamental Factors: Some of the most important factors that determine why a student would cheat and the demographic that they fit in.

Quotes:

"In each case, the individual professes to support a particular societal norm or law but also recognizes the special circumstances which allow or even require the individual to violate the norm or law. This neutralization process is presumed to free the individual to deviate without considering himself or herself a deviant, thus eliminating or reducing the sense of guilt or wrongdoing" pg 346

"The use of such techniques conveys the message that students recognize and accept cheating as an undesirable behavior; however, its occurence can be excused in certain instances" pg 353

"A second factor related to cheating is the cheater's lack of investment in his or her education. The students in this study who admitted cheating were less likely to have paid for their own tuition and books than were non cheaters" pg 352

Value:

This article has a good amount of value for my paper especially since it talks about the idea of neutralization which has yet to have been discussed in my other articles. It also approaches the demographic side, causes of cheating, and how to prevent it in a different way from my other articles. It tries to make a link between the neutralizing effects and the cheating deterrents. I plan on using this article in my paper to particularly discuss the neutralizing effect.

Literature Review #3

Academic Dishonesty in the Canadian Classroom: Behaviours of a Sample of University Students

MLA Citation:

Jurdi, Rozzet, Sam Hage, and P.H. Chow. "Academic Dishonesty in the Canadian Classroom: Behaviours of a Sample of University Students." Canadian Journal of Higher Education 41 (2011): 1-35. Print.

Summary:

The journal begins with the analysis of many other people's works. They delve into how individual factors such as sex, age, and greek life could affect their decision to participate in academic dishonesty. Another topic that they touch are factors in situations that affect students such as peers views towards cheating. After they analyze everyone else's work, they break down their own study of 320 students in a Canadian University. They make sure that each student stays confidential so that they answer these questions truthfully. The authors also made sure to find out all about the students they were getting for their responses to see if their were correlations between things such as Academic studies, Religious feelings, self efficacy, their motives, and other components.

Authors:

Rozzet Jurdi, Sam Hage, and P.H. Chow all are professors at the University of Regina. Rozzet Jurdi has a list of published works nationally and internationally. P.H. Chow has done a lot of work with students in college and how they view things around them. He is also published on many works and is no stranger to research.

Key Terms:

Self Efficacy- refers to the level of control people feel they have over their capacity to successfully achieve their objectives.

Motives- refers to the variables that affected a students decision to cheat. They include a heavy workload, maintaining a scholarship, outside social pressure, other students are cheating, and there is a minimal chance of being caught.

Quotes:

"Peer related factors were the most influential predictors of students' self-reported academic dishonesty, lending further support for the influence of situational factors in predicting academic dishonesty" page 23

"Another significant finding of this study is that students' engagement in dishonest academic behaviours was influence by their attitudes toward academic dishonesty" 23

"That is, students with a high score in the instrumental motives to study subscale were less likely to behave dishonestly when they had a high score in the self efficacy scale, suggesting perhaps that they had greater confidence in their capabilities to achieve their academic goals without resorting to academic dishonesty." 24

Value:

This journal and study all together seems like it will be very valuable. Their are a lot of raw data tables that show the correlations between situational, individual, and outside variables and cheating. This journal also combines the data of many other studies done which is also helpful. Lastly, it is interesting to see the data from a Canadian University and how that may differ in their findings. While most of the findings they had were similar to America Studies, it is still an interesting viewpoint to see if academic dishonesty is viewed differently between American and Canadians students. I will definitely be using this journal as one of my main sources of information for my paper.

Literature Review #2

MLA Citation: 

Josien, Laurent, and Britton Broderick. "Cheating In Higher Education: The Case of Multi-Method Cheaters." Academy of Educational Leadership Journal;2013 17.3 (2013): 93. Ebsco host. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.

Summary: 

This Journal offers many raw numbers on the amount of people cheating and the demographics of those people. It also goes on to analyze the individual characteristics behind the people who cheat, and the motivations and reasons for why they lead a path of academic dishonesty. After all of the analysis of the raw numbers, Laurent and Broderick go on to show the findings of their own study that they pursued. They describe how they went about administering the study and what the limitations of the results were. 

Authors:

Laurent Josien and Broderick Britton of Utah Valley University. Both of these professors teach business and have a good background of credentials. 

Key Terms:

Ethical Conduct: The manner by which a student and or professor is expected to uphold in the face of academic dishonesty

Peer Related Contextual Factors: Factors that hold the strongest weight in deterring a student from cheating. Social pressure that shows a distaste for cheating is the best way to stop a student from cheating.

Quotes:

"They also ventured that there is a difference in the threat to the academic community from students cheating once compared to students cheating multiple times. Following that line of thought, we advance that not only students who cheat multiple times are a threat to academia but those who cheat multiple times with different methods are even more of a threat as it indicates a clear, conscious, active decision to engage in academic dishonesty. We formulate that these multi-methods cheaters are individuals that considers cheating as an acceptable mean to achieve their end, and that they adapt their method to the opportunity available to them at the time. This attitude should put these students in a different group altogether, as they are different than students who cheated only once." 

"More specifically, McCabe and Trevino (1997) found that cheating was influenced by age, gender, grade point average, peers, and Greek membership."

"Also, there is a developing body of evidence that academic dishonesty is increasing; with the increase in tuition, the advance in technology, and the increase in online class offerings, new ways to engage in academic dishonesty are available for potential cheaters"

Value:

This journal should hold up as a valuable source for my paper. It contains a lot of key statistics regarding demographics and raw material. It also breaks down the motivations behind cheating and how individual characteristics affect a students decision on whether or not they should cheat. I expect to be looking at this in the future. 

Research Blog #5

Working Bibliography:


Josien, Laurent, and Britton Broderick. "Cheating In Higher Education: The Case of Multi-Method Cheaters." Academy of Educational Leadership Journal;2013 17.3 (2013): 93. Ebsco host. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.

Jurdi, Rozzet, Sam Hage, and P.H. Chow. "Academic Dishonesty in the Canadian Classroom: Behaviours of a Sample of University Students." Canadian Journal of Higher Education 41 (2011): 1-35. Print.

Lang, James M.. Cheating lessons: learning from academic dishonesty. Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 2013. Print.

McCabe, Donald , Linda Trevino, and Kenneth Butterfield. "Cheating in Academic Institutions: A Decade of Research." Ethics and Behavior 3 (2001): 219-232. Ebsco Host. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.

McCabe, Donald L., and Kenneth D. Butterfield. Cheating in college: why students do it and what educators can do about it. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012. Print.

Research Blog #4 Proposal

Paul Cote

Professor Goeller

Research In Disciplines: College 201

10/8/13

Research Proposal

Topic/Overview:       

The topic I am choosing for my paper is academic dishonesty in universities. I want to investigate the motivations behind student’s behavior and how prevalent cheating is in college’s today compared to that of the past. I would also like to look at how social and economic pressures affect student’s decisions in college specifically towards cheating. The cheating culture in college seems so extensive today and I would like to see how it is viewed by professors and students as well as the general public. The debate that seems to be looming over this topic is the morality in question and if each student really is to blame for cheating. How far could we have pushed them to make this decision, or is it solely on their own shoulders.

Research Question:

In what ways are students motivated to cheat and how prevalent is it within universities? Also, how are people affected by outside factors?

Theoretical Frame:

My theories that I have are that academic dishonesty is more prevalent today than it was 30 years ago. I also think that socio-economic positions as well as other individual effects have an impact on why and how often students would participate in academic dishonesty. These theories are applicable towards my study.

Research Plan:

Some additional questions that suggest themselves are how often to do students cheat? How do they cheat? Do they just cheat in lower level courses? How old are they? What are the university punishments for cheating? Is cheating more prevalent in online courses? I am definitely going to look at the work of Donald Mccabe from Rutgers and some other online sources. The case study that I would be looking for is one that found out why students cheated when they did, and what background did they come from. 

Research Blog #3

Students cheat in college due to social pressures and economic pressures. Privatization of colleges has forced up the tuition rates which has made students take out larger loans to pay for it. This economic burden pressures students into making decisions they would not make otherwise. Students feel the pressures around them to do good in school so that they can get a good job after school. In the article "Higher Education and Privatization" they say that "We are relocating public funding for higher education away from support to institutions and toward individual student aid"(page 3). This just confirms that students are put under more economic pressure which in turn, makes them worry about getting good grades to get a good job. Some classes are often set on a curve. Since this curve only allows a certain amount of A's, when a student sees another student cheating, they often feel the need to also cheat so that they can even the playing field.

Literature Review #1

Cheating in Academic Institutions: A Decade of Research

Donald Mccabe

MLA Citation: 

McCabe, D. L., Trevino, L., & Butterfield, K. D. (2001). Cheating in Academic Institutions: A Decade of Research. Ethics & Behavior, 11(3), 219-232.

Summary:

The Article presents a decade's worth of information on Academic cheating in Universities. It suggests that cheating is become more prevalent in today's culture. With this suggestion, it offers an explanation up to be because colleges are becoming increasingly competitive and the peer outlook is very laissez-faire towards cheating. Students who see other cheat don't really mind, and if they do, they see it as a competitive edge which gives them a reason to cheat themselves to level the playing field. The research in the article also shows how Honor codes at colleges affect a student's decision to cheat or not. What they found in their research is that it isn't necessarily the honor code itself, but more or less the general outlook towards cheating on campus and how the professors make sure to remind the students of integrity and consequences for cheating. The article then goes on to analyze the individual characteristics on cheating and how they affect each student differently. Lastly, they go over the many different approaches as to how institutions can prevent this type of behavior from happening.

About the Author:

Donald Mccabe is from Rutgers University and has his Ph.D. He has published multiple books on academic integrity and the steps to take against it. His expertise is in Academic integrity, Honor Codes, and Student Moral Development.  He has lectured around the world on the topic of student integrity, in many cases acting as a consultant to schools who wish to change their existing policies.

Key Terms:

Academic Dishonesty: The act of collaborating, plagiarizing, stealing, copying, or using some one else's work to aid in the completion of your own.

Window Dressing: When a school uses an honor code but doesnt really implement the code or remind the students of the consequences of cheating.

Quotations:

"the strong influence of peers’ behavior may suggest that academic dishonesty not only is learned from observing the behavior of peers, but that peers’ behavior provides a kind of normative support for cheating. The fact that others are cheating may also suggest that, in such a climate, the non-cheater feels left at a disadvantage. Thus cheating may come to be viewed as an acceptable way of getting and staying ahead." (page 4)

"With increasing competition for the most desired positions in the job market and for the few coveted places available at the nation’s leading business, law, and medical schools, today’s undergraduates experience considerable pressure to do well. Research shows that all too often these pressures lead to decisions to engage in various forms of academic dishonesty" (Page 2)

"Students who might otherwise complete their work honestly observe this phenomenon and convince themselves they cannot afford to be disadvantaged by students who cheat and go unreported or unpunished. Although many find it distasteful, they too begin cheating to “level the playing field.” (Page 2)

Value:

This article has opened up my topic in an interesting way. It has shown my how much students cheat and their motivations to do so. It has also showed my the individual characteristics around the students and how universities are responding to the rising amount of students doing it. This article helps show how and why students cheat which is very helpful.

Cheating In College

Yes my topic has changed since last post. My first ideas were not really enough for a research question. My new topic is going to the about cheating in College. Why do students do it? How often do students cheat? Have they had a past of cheating.

Some of the links I found just from google:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/08/03/how-college-classes-encourage-cheating/3Q34x5ysYcplWNA3yO2eLK/story.html
"We welcome students to campus with required classes that nudge them toward academic dishonesty from the beginning."

This quote from the article really shows a side of cheating that I never really thought about and could be an important idea in my paper. 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128624207
This 30 minute talk of the nation clip from NPR seems like it will be a good resource for this project. They will answer the question why, if not only the surface.


This issues that are going to be important with this topic are really why students aim to cheat on things, and whether or not it is more rampant in college or early schooling.

Project Ideas

I was thinking for my project to either go in a direction of college sports and the scholarships students receive or how different degrees fair in the job market. I was curious to see how colleges expand the degrees they offer to recruit prospective students especially since colleges are becoming more privately funded. I also wanted to see what degrees were the most successful after college, what degrees made the most amount of money, and how graduate school affected how much money you could make on average more than just a bachelors degree.