David- My experience is out of phase with that of your son- perhaps it was a different time- perhaps it is the difference in schools. I have exerience teaching at more than one school with an honor code and as a student (Mercer University). I found that most of the students (just my limited sample!) followed the code and did not cheat. There were some who did and some were reported. In both those cases the campuses are small, the code is owned and enforced by the students (at least when I was there), and is a source of pride to the students even more so than the faculty. I wouldn't hazard to generalize to all situations but I can say that I don't agree with your statement that it is ease of cheating that leads to it- I'd actually contend that cheating is always easy but it is difficult to do it well. But don't get me wrong- the students always have more time to plan to cheat than we do to think of ways to stop it- there are far more of them- and, in terms of what is at stake, they have more to gain than we do to loose- No, they really don't but it seems that way to them, at least I suspect so. I think your statement that extremes of "what's at stake" may well play into increasing cheating- my experience did match that the majority of problems we saw seemed to be from groups like the pre-professional programs. Just another view. Tim Shearon
-----Original Message-----
From: David Campbell [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tue 5/4/2004 4:56 PM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences
Cc:
Subject: Re: cheating and honor codes
Shane Pitts wrote:
>...Students sign on an honor code signature line on each exam or
>assignment they complete. Professors are not allowed to stay in the classroom
>while exams are taken by students. We are free to pop back in from time to
>time, but we are not to stay in the testing room. Students themselves are
>bound by the honor code to report anyone they see or suspect of cheating in
>any way...
>
My son tells me that this was the precedure he experienced at
Stanford--honor code, no proctoring of exams, and students honor-bound
to report cheaters. He says that it was ridiculous. Many of the
students cheated under such tempting conditions. And no, they rarely
ratted on other cheaters. I think it comes down to a simple rule: The
easier you make it for cheating to occur and the greater the incentive
to cheat, then the more cheating that will occur.
--Dave
--
___________________________________________________________________
David E. Campbell, Ph.D. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Department of Psychology Phone: 707-826-3721
Humboldt State University FAX: 707-826-4993
Arcata, CA 95521-8299 www.humboldt.edu/~campbell/psyc.htm
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