The phenomenon of cheating in school exams: its causes, its methods and the ways of addressing it

By the psychological counsellor Shireen Al-Bayari. The problem of cheating in school exams is one of the most serious problems facing school education and the one with the widest effect on the pupil's life and on the society around him. Cheating is one link in a well-known triad of lying, stealing and breach of trust. Cheating is a betrayal of oneself and a betrayal of others, and it begins in exams and ends in every area of life. There is no doubt that cheating is a serious phenomenon and disgraceful behaviour, and it has many images and various forms, beginning with a ruler cheating his people, passing through a father cheating his household and ending with a servant cheating in his work. The phenomenon of cheating in exams, whose spread many teachers and educators now complain of, is not only at primary education level but has extended to the secondary or university stage. How many pupils have submitted a piece of research in which nothing is theirs but their name on the cover, and how many have submitted a project knowing nothing of what is in it. You may be astonished at the inversion of nature in some pupils, so that one who does not cheat is accused of being difficult, backward and rigid, and one of them may go so far as to accuse the pupil who does not help with cheating of not knowing the meaning of brotherhood or cooperation. The educational process is an interconnected whole that cannot be separated or divided and rests essentially on three pillars: the teacher, the pupil and the curriculum, and a shortcoming in any of them affects the others. So the pupil is not isolated from the other factors, and pupils are not usually rewarded for their honesty but are rewarded for passing exams in any way whatsoever. The spread of cheating in exams and elsewhere is among the most dangerous vices for society, since falsehood prevails in it and it is a loss of trust. The teacher is the cornerstone of the educational process, and to the extent of his competence education achieves its aims, while curricula play a large part in some pupils' aversion to their studies. The phenomenon of cheating in school exams is deviant behaviour that disrupts the educational process and destroys one of its essential pillars, namely assessment, since cheating in exams amounts to falsifying the results of assessment, which weakens the effectiveness of the educational system as a whole and hinders it from achieving the aims it seeks. Some explain it in the framework of "the end justifies the means", meaning that the individual is forced to resort to it for one reason or another, while others explain it as an avoidance response through which the individual tries to ease the pressure he faces in order to avoid the consequences of failing the exam. Some attribute this behaviour to the pattern of social upbringing the individual has been exposed to throughout the stages of his life, while others attribute it to the educational system in force, as well as to elements of the educational process such as teachers, the difficulty of the curriculum, or the nature of school life. Others lay the blame for cheating on the pupils themselves, who resort to it because of their neglect of study. Our schools in general suffer from the passivity of a number of parents in following up their children and leaving the school's administration to bear upbringing along with teaching. The truth is that these parents do not feel the real danger arising from their passivity until after harm has come to their children, whether behavioural deviations or repeated academic failure. The strange thing is that the fingers of accusation point first and last to the school's neglect and its failure to care fully for the children, while they forget their own important role in upbringing, care and engagement with the educational institution for the sake of protecting their children and protecting society. Let us not forget the words of the noble Messenger Mohammed, peace and blessings be upon him: "Discipline them for seven, teach them for seven, and befriend them for seven." Among all creatures, the human being has the greatest claim to care first and is the one for whose formation efforts and funds must be allocated, so that he may grow and follow the upright paths and give the utmost of what he has. Examinations are one of the means of assessment devised by educators in order to assess pupils and to see the extent of their benefit from the educational process. A pupil's practice of cheating in examinations is not only a sign of a lack of a sense of responsibility but corrupts the process of measurement and contaminates the exam's results, and therefore prevents the aims of assessment in the field of academic attainment from being achieved. The danger of cheating in exams does not lie in school matters alone, as some researchers such as Centra (1970) believe; rather it may go beyond them, in their view, to other aspects of life beyond school, since it is feared that those who become used to cheating and practise this behaviour throughout their educational life may develop the habit of cheating and falsification in many aspects of their working life after graduation. The school, at its various levels, is the educational institution concerned with building pupils' characters and developing them in all their aspects, so as to make them capable of social and emotional adjustment as well as giving them knowledge. The concept of cheating: it has several definitions, among them: Cheating in school examinations is a form of betrayal. Cheating is behaviour aimed at falsifying reality in order to achieve an unlawful gain, material or moral, or to satisfy a psychological need, and school cheating is the falsification of the results of assessment, which is one of the most important elements of the curriculum. A pupil's unlawful attempt to obtain information which he writes on the answer sheet in order to give the teacher the impression that what he has written on the sheet is the fruit of the knowledge he has gained during his study of this subject. It is all the activities not permitted in exams in order to obtain good marks or to meet certain requirements, examples of which are copying from books, helping another pupil, using copied scraps of paper, quoting without referring to the original author, stealing research prepared by another pupil, or some pupils writing for another pupil. It is the use of unlawful means to obtain correct answers which the pupil copies without right, and so it is a kind of theft and false claim; indeed it is a kind of injustice and falsification and a squandering of the value of equal opportunity and a blatant assault on trust, honesty and society as a whole. It is an educational disease that must be resisted with regulating laws, but the more important thing is a serious effort to reform the educational system for pupils who try to cheat in order to obtain a high total or a high grade. The methods pupils use in cheating are: Using small scraps of paper. Looking at the wall and copying from it. Writing on the desk they sit at. Copying from the book. Using written sheets from a classmate nearby. Writing on the back of the notebook the pupil writes in. Writing on the palm of the hand. Writing Arabic words in English letters. Using signals with the hand or otherwise. Writing the first letters of some words. Writing on the ruler. Swapping the book's cover for another. Getting help from the teacher. Writing on the back of the classmate sitting in front. Writing on the foot. Exchanging papers with another classmate. Using programmable calculators. Going to the toilets on the pretext of need, with writing done in advance on the toilet doors, or taking out papers to read that are already there. Putting papers inside the headscarf the female pupils wear. Copying from the school textbook. Talking with a classmate. Using signals agreed on with classmates. Using a mobile phone in more than one way, by hiding it in the clothing and connecting it to an earpiece when needed and switching the ring to vibrate so that no one hears the ring. There is also the method of writing on geometry tools such as rulers and transparent plastic set squares, on which the writing shows only when placed on white paper, in a way resembling invisible ink. Causes of cheating: The pupil's sense that his mental abilities are weak. The pupil's low level of academic attainment. A lack of desire to study. The pupil's failure to appreciate responsibility. Excessive demands for homework. Boredom with school. Insufficient preparation for the exam. The existence of a problem between the pupil and the teacher. Fear and anxiety about exams. The invigilator's laxity. Boredom with a particular lesson. Dislike of the subject. Insufficient time to answer. The existence of opportunities for cheating. The absence of interesting elements in the curriculum's subjects. The absence of careful supervision. A mistaken perception of cheating behaviour in exams. Discrimination in the treatment of pupils by some teachers and by the administration. The pupil's ignorance of the penalty he faces in the case of cheating. The weak character of the teacher. A strong desire to obtain a pass mark and move to a higher stage. The absence of serious security measures inside and outside the exam rooms. The pupil's failure to understand the pattern of questions the teacher uses. The surprise of an exam and the absence of prior notice of it. Challenging the authority of the invigilating teacher and his instructions. The pupil's inability to organise his time and use it in a useful and constructive way. A lack of firmness by the administration and some teachers in holding cheating pupils to account. The absence of the practical side in teaching. The type of questions the teacher sets helping cheating. Intense competition among pupils. Poor coordination of the school timetable. The teacher's severity in marking. The difficulty of some subjects, partly or wholly. Lack of time to revise. The pupil's complaint of an inability to memorise. Weak social control through the absence of a good example from those in authority. Failure to understand the subject. A lack of coordination among teachers regarding the timing of exams. Keenness to obtain high marks. Fear of failing. The difficulty of the exam questions. A love of adventure. The pupil's lack of confidence in himself. The wish of parents and of some school administrations to obtain high pass rates for their schools or administrations to boast of. The pupil becoming so used to cheating that it is hard to give it up. Large numbers of pupils in a single class. A weak religious sense in some pupils. Some teachers' inability to control and supervise the class. The prevalence of a culture that glorifies cheating (cheating is a kind of cooperation among pupils). Exaggerated focus on written examinations as a measure of a pupil's academic attainment. The weak character of the pupil. Dependency and laziness. Imitating classmates. Laxity in applying the penalty for cheating. The closeness of the seats in exam rows. The absence of a sufficient interval between exams. Ways of addressing it: Activating the role of parents' councils with the teachers and the administration, exchanging information and strengthening trust between home and school in order to reduce and limit the spread of mistaken behaviour among our pupils and to be rid of it. Activating the role of the educational and psychological counsellor in helping pupils with how to prepare for an exam and in easing the anxiety arising from it, given its effect on the pupil's performance in the exam situation. Reviving the moral sense and developing the inner conscience that God watches over His servants and holds them to account for the deeds they perform. The school principal, in cooperation with the members of the teaching staff, setting specific programmes from the beginning of the school year about the rules on cheating in exams, particularly in public examinations. Making pupils aware of the harm arising from this mistaken behaviour in order to reach a high level of morals and positive behaviour. Holding religious seminars to explain the dangers of cheating and its conflict with the principles of religion and with educational values and aims, making pupils aware of adhering to the teachings and morals of the true religion and making them a practice in daily life, and focusing on honouring outstanding pupils for their performance and their activities inside the classroom and not only for their performance on the exam paper. Reminding pupils of our example and our beloved, the Messenger of God Mohammed, peace and blessings be upon him. The possibility of making use of the various media in preparing purposeful programmes that address the phenomenon of cheating in school exams and its effect on the pupil and on his educational, academic and behavioural level, and acquainting parents with the measures a pupil faces in the case of cheating in school exams. Holding seminars inside the school with parents and honouring the pupils and families who strengthen their children's engagement and regular attendance at school, with certificates of honour, moral and material, which may help to limit the spread of this phenomenon. Encouraging teachers to keep away from surprise school tests, because they help the phenomenon of cheating to spread among pupils, as well as relying on essay questions at higher levels such as analysis, synthesis, discrimination, evaluation and criticism, and spacing pupils' seats in exams with an interval between tests. Addressing the phenomenon of cheating is confined to eliminating the causes, so that each cause is studied separately in order to reach a remedy, for if the causes cease this phenomenon will end with the ending of its causes, along with the joining of the efforts of all the concerned bodies, seriously, in applying a system for preventing cheating. Developing the system of educational assessment and examinations so that it rests on solid foundations in which there is no place for cheating, and using modern means in assessment.