Who's Cheating Whom Alfie Kohn Analysis

Student success is founded upon the encouragement teachers and parents give to students to have a growth mindset rather than have a fixed mindset and not accepting challenges. According to “Raising Smart Kids” by Dweck, “The helpless ones believe that intelligence is a fixed trait: you only have a certain amount, and that’s that. I call this a ‘fixed mindset’. Mistakes crack their self-confidence because they attribute errors to a lack of ability, which they feel powerless to change. They avoid challenges because challenges make mistakes more likely and looking less smart so.” (23).

They are intended to remind people of their moral standards and encourage students to do the right thing and complete every single assignment with a high level of academic integrity. However this is not always a practical measure. Sometimes trying to instill values in people does not work, and the success of an honor code is ultimately dependent on what types of people are in the classes. Some schools have a large population of students who do not care about academic integrity: “If a student enters a college with mostly “cheater” types, not only are the costs of cheating very low, encouraging fellow “cheater” types to cheat, but the benefits of cheating (or the costs of not cheating) are very high, encouraging even “honest” types to cheat” (Source C). Honor codes lack practicality due to the fact that even if a minority of students are cheaters, their influence can pull students who value integrity down the wrong path.

A student that has never been reprimanded for cheating will continue to engage in the immoral behavior believing they can get away with it. Honor codes in which students receive disciplinary action for cheating increases the risk of doing so and causes students to be less likely to cheat. According to Dirmeyer and Cartwright, “each student will decide whether or not to cheat by weighing costs and benefits.” Since the chance of getting caught is greater with an honor code in effect, this impacts the costs of cheating and leads to more students being honest rather than a cheater creating a feedback loop. In this feedback loop the impression of not being a cheater increases causing there to be a greater expectation to not cheat thus those who are caught cheating appear worse. Honor codes and the feedback loop “generates the culture of trust and integrity that students value so highly (Dirmeyer and Cartwright).” Schools would positively benefit from enforcing honor codes and reinforcing the expectation to be academically

In spite of the people who believe that standardized tests are a key factor to determine a student’s academic abilities, standardized tests distract students from their current studies, they are only designed for one way of learning and comprehending material, and they are biased to students. Standardized tests distract students from their current studies and take away any extra learning opportunities that they have to elaborate on a specific topic. Standardized tests take away time for students and teachers in the classroom to continue their studies or learn something with purpose

Although it isn 't, by any means, an honest way to accomplish something, but is commonly used to gain an advantage or improve one 's standing. There are several forms of cheating, and we 'll discuss three in this essay. Most people believe that cheating is wrong, placing their competitors at a disadvantage and ruining the competition 's purpose; it is never right to cheat, even if it would seemingly eliminate the problems and improve conditions involving the dilemma. Cheating on tests and plagiarizing is occasionally found in high schools, and would be a frequent occurring if all the cheaters were caught; it 's become a normal commodity for students who are no longer interested in obtaining sufficient grades by themselves, and would rather slack off, steal someone else 's work, and succeed that way. Not only does this apprehend their learning, it also appropriates a

The older students in high school don 't care for the test because it doesn 't affect their grades. This test is stressful but worth the stress. Students use the duh and foul method to answer questions. It 's official that this test is preparing kids for college. Standardized test is important because is shows

Flunk means to fail to reach standards; students, parents and teachers think it’s a bad thing, but is it really? Instead of thinking the negative of repeating a grade or class, people should see this as practice and becoming successful. Many students may not understand the material and making them retake it will improve their knowledge. In Mary Sherry’s essay, she talks about how teachers and parents should show that flunking is a positive teaching tool. I agree with her because we aren’t all perfect and sometimes we need that extra lesson or we need to repeat the material again.

This forgetful nature, then leads students to fill in random answers and receive a low score on the exam, but this score does not mean that they do not know the material. According to Ergene, “[t]est anxiety is specific to testing situations that impact a student’s performance on the test, thus inhibiting the test score as an accurate representation of academic knowledge and skill” (qtd. in Wood et al. 234). Test anxiety is not a rare issue that affects students’ scores; it is a recurring issue brought on by standardized testing and the

By STEVE MCCLAIN says, “Students at my school are doing worse than ever on state assessment tests… Perhaps less electives are required in order for test scores to rise.” That is a false statement. Just because there would be less electives doesn’t mean that it will cause tests scores to go up tremendously, because if there are less electives it’ll give the students an excuse to mess around more because they are bored. If a student is the type who loves to talk, their favorite elective most likely takes their mind off talking. With less electives the student has nothing to do but not pay attention and talk, because they have a lot of unused

“Such tests reward quick answers to superficial questions.” (FairTest). Standardized tests do not allow students to think creatively and encourages teachers to teach to a constricted curriculum instead of more depth of knowledge. Most students are able to achieve a proficient score to meet requirements, but for some it has become a hurdle that has kept them from achieving their diploma. Some at risk students feel overwhelmed and defeated and choose to drop out of high school without receiving a diploma. Trying to be meet a “standardized” test score now limits these students in achieving their full academic potential and may limit their career