In my unintended series on students cheating in school, I covered a couple of reasons why I think students cheat in school. A recent comment, brought up another reason that I think is very valid and should be discussed.
One commenter (Tony Vincent) said:
Students cheat for a variety of reasons. Something not mentioned is that students don't see the value in what they are learning for the test. Too many times schools ask students to memorize useless trivia and students don't see the value in that (and neither do I in many cases).
I want to see schools assign projects that are authentic and meaningful to the student. Engage our students in something other than writing a paper. Have them make a movie or design a website about the topic at hand. If their work is personal and they care about it, they can't and won't cheat.
Sure cheating involves ethics issues and there is no excuse for that on the part of the student. But let's also examine the work we're asking students to do and make it something students wouldn't want to cheat on in the first place.
How spot on is this assessment?!
When thinking about the times I cheated as a teen, as mentioned in the article, Why are kids cheating in school, I distinctly remember being in a position where I just could not memorize the information needed to do well on the test. Geometry theorem just never stuck in my head, never mind the dates of every battle of the civil war. UGH! What torture memorizing that information was. If you read my article, you know I am not proud that I cheated, infact, I learned my lesson and studied harder in later years, but had there been another way to absorb the information besides memorizing it and spitting it out on a test, that dillema never would have been mine.
I would love to hear more on why people think students cheat in school. Please keep the comments coming.