Student Cheating: A Defensive Essay

Abstract

Recently, while monitoring a test, I recalled a story told by Pat Hartwell about a pair of linguistic anthropologists working among the people of Africa. They went to an illiterate farmer with several items, kitchen utensils, say, and fruits, asking the farmer to group the items. The farmer grouped them using what educational researchers might call an operational schema: the knife with the orange, the spoon with the broth, the tea ball with the tea. Why did you do like that? they asked. After some thought, the farmer replied, That's the way smart people do Next, the researchers asked, How would a stupid person do it? The farmer immediately regrouped the items into more abstract groups-tools, fruits, vegetables. That's the way stupid people would do it (1987, 4). I remembered this story when I stepped out of my classroom while students were taking a test. On returning, I looked in the window before opening the door. I saw several students talking among themselves and looking over items on the test. Quickly, I considered all my options, the usual ones first: I could go in, make a scene, and throw the culprits out; I could talk to the students individually; I could see that points were deducted from the offenders' scores. I stood there, my hand on the doorknob, considering my next step. What I began to realize, as I stood there watching, was that the students weren't copying answers; they were discussing options. They weren't avoiding the test; they were solving it. Faced with an approaching deadline, a difficult task, a threatening situation, and a system that valued outcomes, they were putting their heads together to work out the best solutions they could. As I watched and saw and understood-over about fifteen seconds, my