Student Ethics Reflection

Cheating can be defined as an act of deceiving or to deprive through deceit or fraud. (Merriam- Webster's Dictionary)Students may have a different view of cheating at times. Most students define cheating as stealing another person's ideas, answers, or opinions in order to benefit a grade in a class, but it may not necessarily benefit the student. Academic dishonesty is something students, staff, and other faculty members are forced to deal with practically on a day- to- day basis in schools everywhere.
Students, whether they be in college, high school, or even middle school, are faced with the temptation to cheat all of the time, and there are so many ways to do so. Cheating through plagarism, copying another students test, turning in an essay that has already been composed, or getting an exam from someone that has previously taken the same exam, are all examples of ways students get these perfect grades. They simply go through the motions of getting and memorizing all the right information, without actually learning what they need to, but why do students across the country do these things?
The competition between students has increased greatly over the last decade, and this pushes students to make these decisions to deceive themselves and their teachers. Good colleges, nowadays, are more difficult to get into. During high school, students need perfect ACT scores, SAT scores, or a grade point average of atleast 4.0 to get into the "top" schools in the United States, but it doesn't stop there. After getting into these "top" schools, students still feel the need to cheat themselves. It's like they've been trained to violate the rules dishonestly. The question is, how do professors, teachers, and other faculty members discourage this type of academic dishonesty?
The article "Student Cheating" by Bill Puka recommends that mentors not give the same exams repeatedly or use multiple choice and other types of mechanical examination formats. He also says that professors and teachers should ask students to compose several drafts for a paper to show progress, and that an oral face- to- face component between teacher and student would help to discourage academic dishonesty. Yes, using these methods could definately be beneficial to reduce cheating, but these methods may not create an environment students would enjoy learning and working in.
Students will need to learn on their own that academic dishonesty should not even be consided an option for learning, writing papers, or taking tests. They need to realize that they may get these good grades and feel good about themselves for a short time, and they can brag to other students about how well the did on a paper or a test, but in the long run it won't benefit them as a person in any way. Caring about the opinions of their peers, rather than your own opinions will only end up hurting you in the long run, and by showing students this, they will be more aware of the effects of cheating.