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From: gilbert@aimmi.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Cheating vs. Learning
Message-ID: <32@aimmi.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 23-May-87 05:25:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: aimmi.32
Posted: Sat May 23 05:25:05 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 29-May-87 00:41:05 EDT
References: <170800003@uiucdcsb> <235@sas.UUCP> <863@gvax.cs.cornell.edu> <305@phoenix.PRINCETON.EDU>
Reply-To: gilbert@aimmi.UUCP (Gilbert Cockton)
Organization: Heriot-Watt/Strathclyde Alvey MMI Unit, Scotland
Lines: 57

In article <305@phoenix.PRINCETON.EDU> mmtowfig@phoenix.UUCP (Mark Mehdi Towfigh) writes:
>...................................  Cheaters are those people who care
>SO much about these grades that they turn to desparate acts to get the
>grades they want.  I personally don't care about what other people think
>of my grades too much;  I'd rather pay attention to what I'm learning
>and let good grades follow, and if I get a good grade, it's not the
>end of the world, just an indication I should be working harder.

Has anyone every thought that perhaps cheating MUST be endemic in a
competitive society where the rewards do not come for being GOOD (i.e
learning what you're meant to), but for being BETTER than everyone
who's after the same job/graduate place/college place etc. A bell-curve
system for marking is GUARANTEED to make people resort to
cheating, as being good may not be enough to beat those who are
slightly better on the course, but not necessarily better at real world tasks.

The thing about any race is that people only remember WHO came first,
not HOW they came first. Can you imagine setting Driving or Music
examinations in this way? Or how about sports instructor exams?
Here there are clear criteria for competence - you cannot pass merely
by being one of the best, nor are you automatically failed for being
one of the worst in the current test population (examiner expectations
apart). In a criterion-based examination, everyone who meets the
standard passes. Unfortunately the design of such examinations
requires educational expertise which is rarely encouraged by the
authorities in higher education. I've helped on a course where the
students' department complained that too many students where getting
almost full marks! Looks like no-one is interested in the development
of courses which can be taught effectively and absorbed completely.
This only reinforces the case for the sociologists' argument that the
purpose of education in modern society (state-socialist, capitalist
and tin-pot corrupt dictatorships all included) is not primarily to
pass on essential knowledge, but to preserve a stratified society by
pumping out cohorts with the proper discriminating labels.

The problem with the attitude of the author whose posting I'm following
up is that, while it is highly commendable and for me the ONLY sane
attitude to learning, there are few occupations in life where this
attitude will bring its just reward. Smooth talking bullsh*tting and
self-ascribed ability seem to get people much further than real talent
in this world.

P.S. The above is intended as a description of society and not a
reflection of my attitudes towards life (positive!), my current state of
happiness (very!), the labels I left college with (why fill in the
rest of the CV? :-)) or a party-political or religious orientation (no
off the shelf beliefs!). My intention is to encourage USENET readers
to try to analyse phenomena like cheating in their wider social context.
Ask not whether it is moral (motherhood and apple-pie), nor whether it dooms
the soul of the miscreant (so what?), but whether it makes good sense within
the cheater's social context. If it does, and you are an educator, you should
be in a good position to redefine this social context if you really do care
about the inevitable effects of competitive education.
-- 
   Gilbert Cockton, Scottish HCI Centre, Ben Line Building, Edinburgh, EH1 1TN
   JANET:  gilbert@uk.ac.hw.aimmi    ARPA:   gilbert%aimmi.hw.ac.uk@cs.ucl.ac.uk
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