Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty

by James M. Lang

Nearly three-quarters of college students cheat during their undergraduate careers, a startling number attributed variously to the laziness of today's students, their lack of a moral compass, or the demands of a hypercompetitive society. For James Lang, cultural or sociological explanations like these are red herrings. His provocative new research indicates that students often cheat because their learning environments give them ample incentives to try--and that strategies which make cheating less worthwhile also improve student learning. "Cheating Lessons "is a practical guide to tackling academic dishonesty at its roots.

Drawing on an array of findings from cognitive theory, Lang analyzes the specific, often hidden features of course design and daily classroom practice that create opportunities for cheating. Courses that set the stakes of performance very high, that rely on single assessment mechanisms like multiple-choice tests, that have arbitrary grading criteria: these are the kinds of conditions that breed cheating. Lang seeks to empower teachers to create more effective learning environments that foster intrinsic motivation, promote mastery, and instill the sense of self-efficacy that students need for deep learning.

Although cheating is a persistent problem, the prognosis is not dire. The good news is that strategies which reduce cheating also improve student performance overall. Instructors who learn to curb academic dishonesty will have done more than solve a course management problem--they will have become better educators all around.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

First published September 2, 2013

About the author

James M. Lang is a nonfiction author whose work focuses on education, literature, and religion. His most recent books are Distracted: Why Students Can't Focus and What You Can Do About It (Basic Books, 2020), Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning (Wiley, 2016), and Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty (Harvard UP, 2013). He writes a monthly column for the Chronicle of Higher Education; his essays and reviews have appeared in Time, The Conversation, the Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, and more.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of good and interesting points here, but the book could easily have been half as long without losing anything. In short: To reduce cheating in classrooms, increase the number and lower the stakes of the assessments, and improve the learning environment. Good reminders all, but not 230 pages' worth.

[Kiri · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a gem of a book! It's not only a fascinating analysis of what factors lead to cheating, but also an empowering guide with practical steps we as educators can take in our own classrooms to reduce cheating. The key advice I captured includes:
* Ground assignments in place, time, students' personal experiences, etc. so they cannot be blindly copied from others
* Assess more often and with lower stakes
* Help students build a good picture of their abilities and how long it takes to complete tasks so they can plan their studies better

Lang challenges us to identify answers to these reasonable and relevant questions, so we can provide clear guidance to students:
* What qualifies as "original work" in your discipline?
* Why is it important for a student to do "original work" on this assignment?

I also liked a lot of the other good teaching ideas that establish a positive environment, like reaching out to students by email before the course starts.

I look forward to trying out these ideas in my own class!

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every college (and probably high-school) teacher should read this.

[Ilib4kids · Rating 3 out of 5]

371.58 LAN
My review: cheating is the interesting topic, I pick up this book in order to know how to prevent my child and even myself from cheating. Author shifts from dispositional factors (e.g. gender) to contextual factors (e.g campus) to more focus on classroom environment. chap 9. On original work is most useful to me, it answer the question which always puzzle. , why do I need to produce my work when best answers are available. The most benefit of less cheating improve learning.

Summary:
5 features of cheating:
1. An emphasis on performance;
2. high stakes riding on the outcome;
3. an extrinsic motivation for success;
4, a low expectation of success.
5. Influence of peers.

Part one: Building a theory of cheating
Chap 1. Who cheats - and How much---75% students cheat in one way or another.
Chap 2. Case Studies in (the history of ) cheating
2.1 Ancient Olympics
1st condition of cheating: pressure on a single performance p21
2.2 Civil service exams of Imperial China.
China's Examination Hell: The Civil Service Examinations of Imperial China by Ichisada Miyazaki
2nd condition of cheating: an emphasis on performance within the context of extremely high stakes. p26
2.3 Atlanta, Georgia in 2008-2009 School Year. After No Child Left Behind.
3rd condition of cheating: extinct motivation
2.4 2010 Lab study for 5-9 years old children: Princess Alice Study
4th condition of cheating: a low expectation of success. There is low possible to success.
chap 3 "Fudging" learning environments.
Mastery versus Performance orientation; High stakes; Extrinsic motivation; Self-efficacy; Influence of peers.
p40 Focus on grade can lead to shallow or strategic learning. sometime refer as bulimic learning, binge-and-purge approach.
p48 self-efficacy ...break down 2 separate convictions about one's capacity to complete a learning task. Confidence in their ability to execute skills; their assessments of the contingencies between executing those behaviors and the the desired outcome. So first, students have to believe that they have skills or knowledge necessary to succeed on the task. Second, they have to believe that when they sit down to complete that task, they will be able to do so, e.g students do not have time, they feel sick.

Part Two: The nearly cheating-free classroom (address the first four cheating condition)
chap 4. Fostering intrinsic motivation: the most important one.
What the Best College Teachers Do by Ken Bain
What the Best College Students Do by Ken Bain
Bain write: People learn best when they ask an important question that they care about answering, or adopt a goal that they want to reach... If we are not seeking an answer to anything, we pay little attention to random information. p62
First, you might engage students in your course by centering the course on questions or issues that you know the students already care deeply about.
Second, instead of trying to seek out and connect with the specific questions the students already have, is to present to the students intriguing or fascinating or puzzling stories and problems and encourage them to develop their own questions about those stories or problems. p64
Third, Engage with authentic assessments. p70
case study: Andy Kaufman's Book Behind Bars for juvenile correctional center by teaching Russian literature.
case study: grounded assessment with Sarah Cavanagh psychology class.
chap 5. Learning for mastery
Emphasizing on mastery over performance should establish a clear learning objective for the students and then give them choices in how they could best meet that learning objective, as well as providing them with multiple and perhaps even repeated opportunities to do so.
case study: John Boyer, Geography World Regions course with 2,670 students at Virgina tech p89
case study:
chap 6. Lowering stakes
p107 Repeated studying promotes learning and testing represents a neutral event that merely measure learning. (it is wrong)
testing effect promote retrieve and rehearse materials. Neron that fire together, wire together.
p125 First, provide frequent opportunities for students to practice retrieval and rehearsal of the information that you want them to learn.
second, faulty should provide at least some of those opportunities for retrieval and rehearsal in low-stake formats, and particular in the formats on which students will have to engage in their high-stakes assignments or exams.
Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn by Cathy N. Davidson
chap 7. Instilling Self-efficacy
Improve student metacongition: how to correctly assess your knowledge level.
Flipped or inverted classroom method.
Improve faculty communication.
Joe Ben Hoyle Case: p153 I have something wonderful to teach you; I am going to challenge you; Your are capable of meeting that challenge.

Part Three Speaking about Cheating (address the 5th cheating condition : peers)
chap 8. Cheating on campus
summary: academic honesty discussion instead of honor code reduce cheating. One problem feature of honor code is being required to report on other students' violation. Use priming (prompts or reminders) immediately before test effecting prevent cheating. Ethic teaching does not reduce cheating. Students understand general cheating behavior, such as purchase essay, but they need to clarify more tricky areas, such as student citation norm vs. academic citation norm, whether collaboration is allowed, what count as student's own work, all these should be addressed by faculty since requirement vary differently.
4 basic strategies: Begin the conversation among faculty; Continue it into community; Time it well; Focus academic integrity campaigns on education, not ethics.

chap 9. On original work
What does it mean for students to do their works in my discipline? Why does it matter? Specifically there other people does much better than me, and information is available any time?.......
p200 Original or innovative or creative thinking is this: connecting in new ways with pre-existing concepts or facts or theories, and using these connections to experience productive new ways of thinking or acting or feeling. Simply repeat words is what label as "rote", "uninspired", "unoriginal", or sometime "dishonest" -thinking. (my words: Connections can be any kind, simple such as what you learn today relating with yesterday material, or summarized as to be a good synthesizer.)
p201 One main difference between experts and novices in any given field will be the number or density of connections among the concepts, facts, and skills they know. ....

chap 10. Responding to cheating
author oppose harsh and uniform punishment.
a. The response is consistent with the seriousness of the offense.
b. The response allows for discrimination in apply penalties to both first-time and repeat offenders.
c.The response contribute to the student's learning.
d. The response reduce bureaucracy.

chap 11. Cheating in your classroom
a. Speaking about cheating.
b. Confronting cheating.
p221 Do not take cheating personally as a personal affront...Cheating violations are not violation against you; they are violation against the code, the policy, the course, or the assignment. You are connected to all of these things, but you are co-equal with none of them. You may have to work hard to remind yourself of this when you fist suspect or confront a cheating student, because feeling of anger are perfectly understandable. Typically when I first meet meet a cheating student, what I most want to say is: Do you think I'm idiot ...we tend to think a lot less clearly when we are angry....
c. Responding to cheating.
My words: There maybe a lot of reasons to treat first violator a lighter sentence. But there is "That the hell" effect. Once you commit first act of dishonesty, you go down slippery slope, then begin self-definition of a cheater, and cheat every opportunity. If possible, let cheating students finish revised and honesty complete assignment, give them late penalties for assignment, give first-time violators opportunity to amend mistake.
p223 We should not view a single act of dishonesty as just on petty act. We tend to forgive people for their first offense with the idea that it is just the first time and everyone makes mistakes, And although this may be true, we should also realize that the first act of dishonesty might be particular important in shaping the way a person looks at himself and his actions from that point on.

Books:
Cheating in College: Why Students Do It and What Educators Can Do about It by Donald L. McCabe
Cheating in School: What We Know and What We Can Do by Stephen F. Davis
Academic Dishonesty: An Educator's Guide by Bernard E. Whitley Jr.
How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching by by Susan A. Ambrose
The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone--Especially Ourselves by Dan Ariely
The Art of Changing the Brain: Enriching the Practice of Teaching by Exploring the Biology of Learning by James E. Zull

Cheating researchers:
William Bowers: in his study, he try to identify the sources of cheating,evaluating remedies, estimating rate.
Donald McCabe

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

My colleagues and I have received some pretty spectacular cases of plagiarism in our careers. One student turned in an article from Science for her research proposal (e.g., "There will be 257 participants initially, although seven will drop out before the post-test"). Another left a copy of the original student paper below his desk, the same paper that he'd turned in – with his name.

I identified those papers before widespread use of the internet and Turnitin (software that matches words from the student paper with other articles). However, as I've taught longer (and gotten wiser), I've focused on other kinds of issues, especially whether I've been clear about my expectations. Was it clear that students could work together on this assignment but not that one? Was it clear when and how they could use material from other sources?

I've enjoyed James Lang's columns in the Chronicle, as well as his other books. He combines a nice mix of research articles, case studies from several disciplines, and personal stories, that make his books accessible and readable, punctuated by clear, reasonable, and sometimes unexpected conclusions.

Here, though, the conclusions are both predictable, if you have read his other books, and unpredictable, if you have focused only on student behavior in plagiarism/cheating. For example, he concludes plagiarism is more frequent when (a) there is an emphasis on performance rather than learning, (b) it is a high-stakes assignment, (c) the student has extrinsic rather than intrinsic motivation, and (d) the student has a low expectation of success. In other words, he observes that plagiarism/cheating is a state that faculty have some control over, rather than a student trait.

Lang recommends, in perhaps the briefest section of Cheating Lessons, that our responses to instances of cheating discriminate between first-time and serial cheaters, be flexible and consistent with the seriousness of the offense, contribute to student learning (!!!), and reduce bureaucracy. Most academic integrity policies would fail on most, if not all of these recommendations.

In sum, I received all that I'd hoped for and more, especially a new perspective on an old problem.

I read this with my university's center on teaching and learning.

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lang seeks to empower teachers to make concrete changes in their classrooms in order to reduce cheating. Too much of the discussion about cheating has focused on areas that are largely out of the control of the individual teachers leading to frustration and apathy in regards to cheating. Instead, Lang discusses 5 features of the classroom that, when addressed by the individual structure of the class, can reduce cheating in the classroom (emphasis on performance, high stake assessments, extrinsic motivations, low self-efficacy, influence of peers). Not only do addressing these features reduce cheating, but practices that increase learning parallel those of reducing cheating. In the end, these are practices we should all think to implement regardless of whether we have a "problem" with cheating because these are practices that help our students become better lifelong learners.

Very thought-provoking in evaluating my pedagogy and making some practical changes to the classroom experience and in formulating assessments and activities.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for a book club though Notre Dame's Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning. After struggling with two cases of academic dishonesty in my first course this spring, I was really interested to read and discuss more about this topic. I like Lang's style of writing (although it's a bit too heavy on the narration of how he writes) and the case studies he chose to illustrate at the beginning were very interesting. This book gave me a lot to think about as I plan to teach this course again next semester. The most helpful part was when he suggested thinking about what it means to produce your own work and why it matters - these answers will differ by field. I had a hard time answering that question in relation to two of the assignments I had given, which means that I need to rethink those assignments.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably unfair for me to rate this so low, but nonfiction really needs to knock my socks off to make me want to read a whole book and not just a detailed outline or wikipedia page. There were some good real-world examples, but some of the studies he cited at different parts of the book seemingly contradicted each other and he didn't address the disparity. He also didn't discuss any other possible causes of lack of self-efficacy like stereotype threat, learning or other disabilities, being first-generation students, or any others and seemed mystified at non-Western points of view. So basically, it felt like he was writing to teachers from a different era and gave off an "I don't see color" vibe.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book. There is some historical information on cheating as well as data from different studies. I love that when you reduce the opportunity to cheat, you create better learning. I also like how the author points out that plagiarism detection tools like Turnitin do NOT actually detect plagiarism; rather, they find matching words. It's up to a human, the teacher, to determine if plagiarism happened. There isn't an automated way to deal with cheating - we need human connection to effectively deal with it. The book is a little more long-winded than it needs to be, but it's a good introduction to cheating and how we best deal with it.

[Neal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very solid book that is of value to teaching faculty -- probably less interesting to others, though. The book is written less for flow but, rather, for providing key rationales and strategies to address the context in which cheating happens. The book is less about cheating (which makes me have some issues with the title) but, rather, about how to design a classroom and policies to mitigate or avoid instances of cheating. As any good "how to"-related book, there is a fair amount of examples (often quite long0 and a fair amount of repetition. I can't really say that I enjoyed reading the book but I did find the book valuable.

[Wiebke Kuhn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The message of the book is to the point: Getting students not to cheat is not about draconian measures but about educating in a caring and meaningful way, with authentic assessment, transparent procedures, and clear communications. So, no real surprises there. Where I found the book falling a little short was in its lack of discussing other reasons why students cheat - in particular because they feel pressured to succeed at all costs, fearful of making mistakes. While the strategies may help with this as well, more clarity and more suggestions would have been helpful.

[Brent Anders · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of great information is presented within this book. I also really enjoyed some historical aspects dealing with cheating. The book is excellent because it offers tips and techniques to help reduce academic dishonesty as well as helping the reader really understand why some students resort to this type of unethical behavior (it is actually a bit more complex than you might think). This book is definitely worth reading. I've used it as a reference on several presentations to university professors.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I continue to be such a fan of James Lang’s work. This is a practical, thoughtful approach to addressing cheating, beginning with why students cheat. He then discusses strategies to address these reasons, ending with practical steps for both individuals and institutions for creating environments where students are less likely to feel tempted to cheat—and how to best address students when they do cheat.

[Kate M · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would more likely be a solid 2.5 rating for me. I liked the information and the way it's presented, but feel, as I often do about books that may work better as longer academic journal articles, that there was not enough separate information to take up a whole book, and the important stuff just got repeated in different ways. Important research, though.

[Brien · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty good book full of ideas about how to decrease student cheating. I read it in bits and pieces over the last few months, but it was written in a way that I never felt like I had to go back to remind myself where I was. I would not say it’s a fun read, but it wasn’t very dense and gave me some good ideas to try next semester.

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read, though for the first few chapters (establishing motivations of cheating) felt like were passed articles (or perhaps should have just been articles). The gist is easily summarized and grasped, and there's not so many examples provided to flesh them out, nor are they really needed. So first half-ish left me a little impatient.

Second half, which gets into classroom/assignment strategies and case studies to circumvent students' ability or motivation to cheat, picks up the pace and, indeed, this is where you want elaborated examples. I'm not sure how scalable some of the examples are -- downward, even, I mean, to levels where there aren't TAs to help grade etc. And the more flipped classroom model or "students set own pace for deadlines" model scream to me: will not work for students lacking their own intrinsic motivation, which let me tell you, even when the topic is directly relevant to them doesn't always click into place. Or they're too disaffected to even be able to figure out what topics ARE meaningful to them at all ...

Anyway, quick read, could have been quicker, but some good insight to have stored away for discussions of academic integrity.

[Veevee · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the grand scheme of things this book is about a decade out of date, new studies and science have been published and ChatGPT has become the next big thing. That being said, I do think that the points and conclusions made in this book are still relevant and thought provoking.

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great discussion starter. Read it as part of a book club organized by the Center of Teaching and Learning on our campus.

[Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book and Small Teaching (both by James Lang) in the same month, and they work together to help me think of ways to be a more effective teacher. Thanks Dr. Lang!

[Michael Wolcott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very helpful review of cheating and how to modify classroom environments to minimize it. Very well written and a helpful tool for college educators.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the advice is challenging to apply to larger classes

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, I just wanted more.

[Ruth Poproski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book with a group of graduate students who were interested in the topic of academic integrity, so we had the opportunity to discuss much of the content as we went along.

In general I found the book engaging and thought-provoking, and I was left with several new thoughts as to how to manage and design my own courses. In particular, the chapter on motivation should be widely read.

The down sides of the book for me were three: it was often far too anecdotal in nature, the challenges of teaching more formal courses were left basically untouched, and I wanted more concrete and specific recommendations for strategy implemenration.

That said, I was inspired by this book, and have also found myself.with a more robust theory of academic integrity issues, challenges and solutions. I recommend it as a solid read amid the murky waters of higher education literature.

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nicely written book, as you would expect from an English professor.

The first part was good, where the basic ways to prevent cheating were discussed. The answer seems to be, happily, that the best way to prevent cheating is to follow good teaching practices. Some exemplary teachers were showcased, which is always interesting. The second part, about the nuts and bolts of dealing with cheating cases, was not so good, as it listed some standard techniques the author, and others, have used. It might be helpful for new teachers, or teachers whose school have no standard procedures for dealing with academic dishonesty.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible masterpiece of the history, research, and commentary on what some consider an epidemic in today's academia. If you are looking for a book to tell you how to deal with those nasty cheaters in your classroom, what punishments to dole out, how to make your course cheater-free, this isn't the book for you. Sure, Lang touches on those issues, but mostly this is a book about revitalizing your learning environment to engage students and make cheating less valuable to them. Well written and accessible, I highly recommend this text to all middle school, high school, and college instructors.

[Bonni · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that has stayed with me well past when I finished reading it in 2014. Lang writes in such a way as to be sympathetic to the feelings we can have when we experience students cheating in our courses, yet wants us to recognize that what we have discovered is far less about us than we often realize. Lang gives practical advice and examples for how to deter cheating in our classes and what to do when we find that a student has demonstrated a lack of academic integrity. Cheating Lessons should be in all faculty members' book collections.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aside from a disappointing analysis of the moral exchange between professor and student, this was a helpful book. His primary thesis is that better teaching tends to reduce (though it cannot eliminate) cheating.
Wise advice about institutional approaches to academic dishonesty, as well, although I'm a little puzzled by his association of honor codes with inflexible, harsh first responses to academic integrity violations. (The only institutions with honor codes I'm familiar with have exactly the sort of "grace the first time" approach he recommends.)

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Required reading for a class. This book is about how to design a course, assignments, and a classroom atmosphere that inherently discourage cheating. Nowhere in this book does it remind you that you should teach your children to be honest and, for better or worse, to take pride in doing your own work. I tell you what, going to BYU did nothing to open my eyes to the dishonesty in this world. Not that I'm sorry, but other people just don't understand.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lang has such a reasoned and smart take on this thorny issue, and all of the practical suggestions he has are spot on. Moreover, his writing is personal and a pleasure to read. I'd highly recommend this to anyone interested in higher ed and academic integrity.

[Jared · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very clearly written and an excellent discussion of how to reduce cheating and increase learning!