April
2008
Cheating
Tanzania is not the first place I’ve ever had to deal with the issue of students cheating. As a university professor, I have received research papers that were copied in full from articles available on the internet. The thinking must be that historians don’t know how to use search engines. As an adjunct professor, however, my protocol in such matters was rather straight-forward. I assembled the evidence, turned it in to the department chair, and recorded my grade sheet accordingly. At that point, everything was out of my hands; case closed.
The situation is a bit different in a Tanzanian secondary school. For one thing, there seems to be no standardized policy on cheating. With 60+ students crammed into a room that would accommodate 20-30 in the United States, stopping students from stealing glances at other’s test papers is difficult to enforce. Moreover the combined lack of adequate teachers along with lax invigilation of examinations only exacerbates the problem. I have for some time taken an austere view of the problem and stalked the classroom aisles, telling students to cover their papers and occasionally taking away tests from obvious cheaters. However, this only stops one classroom from cheating (or else simply makes it more difficult).
While grading weekly tests from my Form II students (about 180 in total spread out over three streams: A, B and C) I found 16 that seemed to have obviously copied from their neighbor. Wrong answers that used the same awkward phrasing and bad spelling were a fairly obvious tip. The only guideline I had observed before involved students that were caught in the act. They generally received 3 strokes with the fimbo (thin stick) and a zero on the test. Not a fan of beating (nor a believer in its effectiveness), I took an alternative approach. After writing all the correct answers on the offending students’ tests, I wrote which student/s I believed they cheated with. I then brought the test papers to morning assembly.
This period of the day before the first classes is usually reserved for cleaning up the environment, receiving announcements, short English-language speeches by the students and punishments. I decided to start with a speech of my own on honesty and the problems associated with cheating. I made a particular point about cheating on the national exams, which could cancel out a year’s worth of hard work and which are invigilated by local police and are more difficult to cheat in as well. I then explained my methodology for catching the cheaters. “Kumbe! Wamekosa kwa kamili na jirani!” (How about that? They made exactly the same mistakes as their neighbors!) I then called the students to the front and handed them their examinations. Explaining that we would have to meet together as a group to discuss this problem, I said that to remind them to show up after school, I would need to take one shoe from each student.
The students balked. Some immediately started trying to talk me out of it. Others made a break for it. I realized that this type of unorthodox punishment required some back-up from the teacher-on-duty (the teacher-of-the-week in charge of all discipline and general rule enforcement). The teacher was feeling more generous than I and he asked me to instead take a sweater or belt to ensure they would meet with me later. Getting trumped on this made me question both my choice of punishment and the seriousness with which other teachers viewed this problem. I told them they needed to come to the teacher’s lounge during tea time to apologize (or defend their case) and to retrieve their belongings.
I took my case to all the teachers. They agreed that an inquest needed to be conducted and demanded the students to remove one shoe and return to class while individuals were questioned one-by-one. Interrogations elicited confessions from everyone, though some initially denied it, until the logic behind the similarity in their answers was shown to them. All apologized and spent the remainder of the day cutting grass and cleaning up the environment. I tried to also talk to each one-by-one to stress the danger of falling into this habit.
So, instead of using corporal punishment, I tried shame. Even as I write this, I feel ambiguous about the appropriateness or effectiveness of my method. I was especially concerned that the new Form I students see what fate could await them if they didn’t stop this behavior right away. Have I dissuaded anyone from cheating? Have I simply encouraged others to use more effective cheating methods? Is shame any less distasteful in education than corporal punishment? I’m still mulling over all this. I feel like something (other than talk) was needed to address the cheating culture. We never got any good suggestions from our Peace Corps trainers on this issue. I’m playing it by ear. Any ideas? I could use the help. By the way, I don’t mind if you copy your suggestions from someone else.
Well, there’s always failing the whole class for cheating (effectiveness depends on the size), sometimes peer pressure can be an ally.
I would just tell them that I specially trained two students to provide wrong answers to cheaters.
That, or some complicated exercise in which the personal repercussions of cheating–on, say, a CPR training exam–were made painfully clear.
Hope I haven’t crossed a line.
As a student with learning “differences” I don’t see the difference between physical punishment and shame. Both are humiliating and abuse and neither address the underlying problem.
Those students that are caught cheating obviously don’t know the material so my suggestion would be to have them sit at a table together and go over the lesson with them again till they know and understand it. This is more work for you but having them smacked with a stick or cleaning up the school yard isn’t teaching and doesnt prepare them for anything but being humiliated! Oh, by the way, peer pressure rarely works unless you want angry kids and happy bullies. My 2 cents.
I appreciate your 2 cents. I do see an important difference between physical punishment and shame. Students who cheat, misbehave and disrupt the school environment should be ashamed that they are wasting the money of their parents, relatives and community when they could be helping out on the farm and at their homes. Students in a challenging school system in which only 10% of the population is able to continue with secondary school should be ashamed to waste that opportunity. All that being said, there are certainly many different levels of shame and ways of dealing with it.
As for spending extra time with students. I have preferred to use my time tutoring the large number of students who seek me out, do extra work and show their own commitment to their studies. Students who don’t care should go home. There aren’t enough teachers anyway. Better to wait, as I see it, until they appreciate and value their educational opportunity.
If I were able, I would have abolished corporal punmishment but been far more liberal in sending students home, for cheating, stealing from each other, and making school worse for their colleagues and community.
As for cleaning up the school yard, since there are no paid staff, students will have to do it anyway, punishment or not. This is certainly different from work detail punishments in American high school, which, as I confess, I had to do a couple of times myself as a student.
Interesting case and approach. Definitely WOULD NOT work in my teaching situation in Japan! One point that’s come up with plagiarism and cheating here is what cultural attitudes exist towards the practice.
Not saying this is what the Japanese think, but I’ve heard one justification is that since the student is necessarily imperfect in his/her knowledge, copying from reputed sources is not a problem at all. I’ve always thought this to be BS since, at least at my school, the rules for cheating and plagiarism are clearly spelled out in the school handbook, though it is likely that few students read it.
Anyway, I wonder what the other teachers do in their classes, and whether your punishment would seem unusual, especially with your status as a foreign teacher there.