Causes & Effects of Academic Cheating

Dusan Micovic EN105 Prof. Rutt 13/10/2012 The Causes and Effects of Academic Cheating Cheating has been an issue for years in academic settings, whether in the primary grades, high school or college. However, definition of cheating remains unclear. It is so widespread and it overlaps with so many academic activities that it does not have a specific, clear, uniform policy on what constitutes academic dishonesty. Parental pressure can also lead to cheating.

According to Professor Daniel J. Bauer, parents sometimes coerce their children into attending college by relating horror stories to them about people who never attended college. Parents will tell their teenagers that they will never succeed in life without a college education. These well-meaning parents may even expect nothing but A's on their child's transcript. This parental notion overlooks the possibility that a vocational program may indeed be a better fit for a student.

It also increases the pressure these individuals feel to succeed, whether in high school or college, or risk losing the love of their parents. Failing a test, for example, is not an option, so they feel they must pass at any cost, even if it means cheating. In a survey by Rutgers University, students felt that cheating is a necessary method to ensure success through high school, college and later in life. Education News has conducted a survey and found that students who are poorly prepared are more likely to cheat than those who studied or completed assignments.

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Poor preparation is usually a result of laziness, which is indeed one of the biggest obstacles towards academic success. Seeing as overcoming laziness and developing effective study habits might be long and tough road, students prefer taking a shortcut. According to Orment, attitude of the teacher or professor is another possible factor that could drive students to cheating. If the mentor is not prone to offering help outside of class, or is too harsh on grading, this could lead students to cheat.

Another practice that can lead to cheating, that researchers mentioned, was weighting a final examination so heavily that failing the test automatically fails a student. The ultimate goal of education is to teach students some crucial concepts and techniques. However, many students don’t have those academic foundations because of the excessive cheating. When cheating is successfully repeated, it easily becomes a habit. Their creativity and sense of responsibility will drop over time, and dependency of cheating will grow.

They will leave the education system, with a belief that things in life will always come easy, handed to them on a silver platter. Soon after they step into the work environment they will notice that they were wrong. Accumulated lack of knowledge and skill will make them realize that they are simply not ready. Although cheating can be just a harmless tool of support for years in school and college, it could also produce some serious consequences in the long run, due to its overuse and abuse.

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