As college students, we all went through the competitive excursion that is high school. But was it truly as effective as our educators had hoped?
Coming from a blue-ribbon school — one that prided itself on its excellence in education — the environment was far from excellent. The competitive nature of our school brought out the best, or should I say worst, in people. Instead of learning the material and understanding it, education became a game. It seemed like our school favored the students who could ‘finesse the system’ the best — the students who were willing to put their integrity on the line for an edge up in education.
In order to get an ‘edge’ in the game, students are willing to copy homework, bring a phone or notes into an exam, share exam information with friends who have not taken it yet, and plagiarize from the internet.
According to a survey conducted by the International Center for Academic Integrity, 64% of students admitted to cheating on a test, 58% admitted to plagiarism, and 95% said they participated in some form of cheating (on a test, plagiarism, or copying homework).
Some have admitted to cheating for the good grades without having to put in the work. But is this the only reason? Could the increase in cheating be due to an increased societal pressure?
We have grown up with the thought process that in order to get a well-paying job, we must succeed in school. Society pushes us to work hard for good grades due to the competitive nature of our world today. The idea that we need to do well in school to get into a decent college to get a good job has been ingrained in our minds since elementary school.
Yes, working hard is important; but will getting good grades pay off if students are cheating their way through it? How does this impact the students who are truly working hard and trying to learn?
For the students who don’t take the ‘edge’ up in the education system, it can be extremely frustrating. They’re putting in the hard work, however, the students around them attain the same grades as them, with little to no work.
So, how effective is the education system? Are the good grades truly worth it if the students aren’t retaining any of the information? What can we do to avoid the students who are attempting to finesse the system?
I think that you brought up some great and relatable points. Reading what you had to say about students diverting from actually learning content to instead find other ways to excel struck home. My high school psychology teacher was the first ever teacher I had that recognized the failure of the current education system for emphasizing true learning. Very boldly, she took action and flipped the curriculum of her class to put less emphasis on grades and more on learning. She made her tests all open ended and we would have to write everything we knew about the topic being asked. After the first round of taking the test we could go back to revise what we had gotten wrong in extensive detail. If we could prove a deep understanding of the content we could get full credit, no matter how many tries it took. This method, although difficult to implement in an education system with such an ingrained focus on achievement, proved to be highly successful in our classroom. I found my focus on the tests shift away from cram studying and move more to deeper exploration of what was actually being taught of me. I wonder if there would be any way to take these finding from my class in high school and apply them on a wider scale to see how it changes the system.
This is a very well written post and you make some really great points! I could definitely relate to some of the experiences that you described from my own high school experience. The statistics that you showed about the frequency of cheating really strengthened your points. They didn’t really surprise me, and I bet they wouldn’t surprise most students, but I totally agree that teachers don’t really know the extent that cheating takes place. You raise some really interesting questions about how well good grades really pay off if people just cheat their way into attaining them. This compounded with the competitive nature of high school which causes so many issues should be a strong reason for reform, yet there is not a lot being done to fix it.