First, a story. I'll use vocabulary to make this as short as I can.
As a new secondary school math teacher I tried to use the Socratic method. My favorite instructors in college math class used it, and it seemed most effective. Math Education graduate courses I took in the late '70s seemed to support the concept.
I used this in class, asking students questions during lectures, and individually after the lecture while the students worked on the assignments. During this process I got an idea where the students were in their understanding of the material.
Before each test, every two weeks or so, I emphasized that points would be subtracted if they don't show their work, intermediate steps they used to get the answer. And also they would get few points subtracted if they demonstrated they know a process towards an answer, even if there were arithmetic errors. I showed examples of the kind of work expected to be shown, at a minimum.
During the tests I observed many students copying off other students. Some of them were very blatant about doing this. They apparently knew, correctly I would find out, that there was little if anything I could do about it.
When I graded tests, I would
When I graded the test most copiers were very efficient at copying covertly. When I'd show the people above me the evidence of cheating, they would say it's inconclusive, which it was.
Robert M. Heffington
Exclusive: Former West Point professor’s letter exposes corruption, cheating and failing standards [Full letter]
Ethics Observations On The Dartmouth Cheating Scandal
Dan Ariely: Without Ethics, We Are Governed By Psychological Enablers of Cheating and Worse
Ethics Corrupters on The Web: Symptoms of a Cheating Culture
The SAT Cheating Scandal
As a new secondary school math teacher I tried to use the Socratic method. My favorite instructors in college math class used it, and it seemed most effective. Math Education graduate courses I took in the late '70s seemed to support the concept.
I used this in class, asking students questions during lectures, and individually after the lecture while the students worked on the assignments. During this process I got an idea where the students were in their understanding of the material.
Before each test, every two weeks or so, I emphasized that points would be subtracted if they don't show their work, intermediate steps they used to get the answer. And also they would get few points subtracted if they demonstrated they know a process towards an answer, even if there were arithmetic errors. I showed examples of the kind of work expected to be shown, at a minimum.
During the tests I observed many students copying off other students. Some of them were very blatant about doing this. They apparently knew, correctly I would find out, that there was little if anything I could do about it.
When I graded tests, I would
When I graded the test most copiers were very efficient at copying covertly. When I'd show the people above me the evidence of cheating, they would say it's inconclusive, which it was.
Robert M. Heffington
Exclusive: Former West Point professor’s letter exposes corruption, cheating and failing standards [Full letter]
Ethics Observations On The Dartmouth Cheating Scandal
Dan Ariely: Without Ethics, We Are Governed By Psychological Enablers of Cheating and Worse
Ethics Corrupters on The Web: Symptoms of a Cheating Culture
The SAT Cheating Scandal