Understanding Why Students Engage in Academic Dishonesty, and Pedagogical Strategies for Prevention
Deliberate Academic Dishonesty happens because students are afraid or indifferent. All students weigh the perceived/understood risks of cheating/plagiarism against what they stand to gain, and we can design courses that mitigate or eliminate the need for dishonest behaviour.
Fear of Repercussion
Challenge: For some students, the potential consequences of failing are so enormous that the risk of being caught cheating is lower than the consequences they associate with failure--like losing scholarships/standings/enrollment, or familial or societal responses
Strategies: Create opportunities for failure without consequence in the classroom, like ungraded quizzes or draft/invention work graded on completion. As well, consider allowing students to re-write a paper with a failing grade, or to drop the lowest test/quiz score from their grade, so that one poor performance does not represent their work in the course. Consider conferences or other interventions to ensure students are on the right track before large assignments
Challenge to Identity
Challenge: Some students have centered their identity on being "smart", or that work comes easily to them. Struggling with material or assignments becomes a challenge to their sense of self, and students may engage in dishonesty to ensure a grade that fits their sense of who they are
Strategies: Have conversations with your class about when you have struggled, or when material was hard for you. Find ways to award hard work and process--requiring drafts of writing, asking for metacognitive reflections where students share where they struggled and what they learned. Consider check-points throughout the semester to identify where students are struggling before major tests or assignments
Lack of Discipline or Information Literacies
Challenge: Some students struggle with assignments or material because they lack discipline-specific knowledge about the material or how to write/format an assignment, particularly if that information is assumed or unspoken, and may cheat or plagiarize to compensate. Similarly, students may lack time management skills, information literacies, or other student skills required to complete assignments on time and correctly
Strategies: Spend time unpacking the discipline specific features of your discipline--what thesis statements look like for your field, how papers are formatted, what kinds of research or information are considered valid for your field. Encourage students to mimic language from your field in low-stakes assignments. Consider assignments that ask students to analyze discipline specific writing from a format or literacy perspective. Break up assignments into step-by-step phases, with discussion of how each represents a "best practice" in the field. Share your own citation practices or your own work-in-progress
External Stressors
Challenge: Some students, particularly those who are not neurotypical, struggle with processing material or completing assignments. Others face similiar struggles when they are trying to balance full time employment, or are caregivers for family, or when they are struggling with poverty, disability, immigration status, or other stressors, and students in these situations may choose to cheat or plagiarize
Strategies: Consider flexible deadlines, or possibilities for students to get extensions for work. Create study groups or encourage shared note-taking for students who may have to miss classes. Be generous, kind, and inclusive when discussing poverty, disability, race, immigration, and more on your syllabus and in class, and create a safe space where students feel comfortable bringing their struggles to you. Create check-points throughout the semester for one-on-one conversation so students can share privately if they are struggling, and help students to create a study or writing plan that fits their situation
Lack of Interest in the Materials/Course
Challenge: When students are disinterested in what they are learning and writing, it may seem easier to cheat or plagiarize, particularly when assignments are generic and/or repetitive
Strategies: Allow students to direct as much of their learning and writing as possible--allow them to choose their own topics for writing and research, create assignment goals and rubrics with the students, create lessons that focus on student interests or allow students to explore the material from personal perspectives, design assignments that require a personal stake from the students
Additional Resources
Donnelly, M. (Ed.). (2012). Critical conversations about plagiarism. Anderson, S.C: Parlor Press.
Price, M. (2002). "Beyond “Gotcha!”: Situating Plagiarism in Policy and Pedagogy." College Composition and Communication, 54(1), 88.
Robillard, A. E. (2015). "Prototypical Reading:Volume, Desire, Anxiety." College Composition and Communication, 67(2), 197–215.
Valentine, K. (2006). "Plagiarism as Literacy Practice: Recognizing and Rethinking Ethical Binaries". College Composition and Communication, 58(1), 89–109.
Zwagerman, S. (2008). "The Scarlet P: Plagiarism, Panopticism, and the Rhetoric of Academic Integrity." College Composition and Communication, 59(4), 676–710.