Lifestyle
Stolen words
Spring 2011 |
Cheating in Canadian high schools and post-secondary institutions is growing, according to the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL). Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of first-year students admitted to committing one or more serious acts of academic dishonesty on written work while in high school (including cheating on essays or assignments) and nearly 60 percent admitted to serious acts of cheating on tests in high school, according to a survey of 20,000 students at 11 post-secondary education institutions. "Over the past decade internet and high-tech devices have enabled a virtual explosion of classroom cheating," says Dr. Paul Cappon, president and CEO of CCL. "Educators, parents and students have to work together in order to properly address what has become a serious and widespread problem," added Cappon, who is a former vice-president, academic at Laurentian University. A report from one Canadian university shows that instances of cheating and plagiarism ncreased by 81 percent between 2003 and 2006, while reported cases of internet-based plagiarism nearly tripled from 54 to 153 over the same period. The survey of 20,000 university freshman revealed students perceived many acts of academic dishonesty such as “cut-and-pasting plagarism potluck” as "not cheating" or "trivial cheating," while faculty perceived these same acts as moderate or serious cheating. As well, in surveys of post-secondary institutions in the United States and Canada, 41 percent of faculty admitted to ignoring incidents of suspected academic dishonesty.
