Why Students Cheat and How to Stop It

Cheating in schools has reached epidemic proportions. The vast majority of young people (and adults for that matter) believe that cheating is wrong. Yet, by nearly every poll, most young people cheat at least once in their high school career. Why students cheat poses a challenging question for educators and parents. Here are some answers to these questions followed by possible solutions to minimize or eliminate cheating. Why Students Cheat Everybody does it: Its disturbing to discover that young people in middle school and high school think that it is acceptable to cheat. But the majority of tests that educators give encourage this behavior. Take multiple-choice tests, for example. They literally invite students to cheat. Unrealistic academic demands: The public education sector is accountable to the government. State legislatures, state boards of education, local boards of education, unions, and countless other organizations demand action to correct the real and imagined failings of the nations public education system. As a result, students must take standardized tests so that officials and parents can compare one school system to another nationally and at the state level. In the classroom, these tests mean that a teacher must achieve the expected results or better, or she will be viewed as ineffective, or worse, incompetent. So instead of teaching students how to think, she teaches them how to pass standardized tests. The temptation to plagiarize: Years ago cheaters lifted whole passages from an encyclopedia and called them their own. That was plagiarism. Plagiarisms current incarnation is even easier: The students simply points and clicks his way to the website with the relevant information, copies and paste it, reformats it somewhat, and passes it off as his own. Possible Solutions Schools need to have zero-tolerance policies concerning cheating. Teachers must be vigilant and alert to all of the newer forms of cheating, particularly electronic cheating. Smartphones and computer tablets  are powerful tools for cheating. Fighting the tools that make it tempting to cheat can be challenging, but if the stakeholders are willing to take the necessary steps, they can help reduce cheating. Teachers:  The best solution is to make learning exciting and absorbing. Teachers should make the learning process student-centric. They should allow students to buy into the process and empower them to guide and direct their learning. Teachers can encourage creativity and critical thinking as opposed to rote learning. There are some specific steps teachers can take: Model integrity, no matter what the cost.Dont assume young people know why cheating is wrong, both from a personal and corporate perspective.Enable students to understand the meaning and relevance of an academic lesson.Foster an academic curriculum that perpetuates real-world applications of knowledge.Dont force cheating underground—let students know that you understand the pressures and, at least initially, be reasonable in responding to violations. Parents:  Parents have a huge role to play in combating cheating. Thats because children mimic almost everything parents do. Parents must set the right sort of example for their children to emulate. Parents must also take a genuine interest in their childrens work. They should ask to see everything and anything and discuss everything and anything. An involved parent is a powerful weapon against cheating. Students:  Students must learn to be true to themselves and their own core values. They should not let peer pressure and other influences steal their dreams. Parents and educators should emphasize that if students are caught cheating, there will be serious consequences. Also, this might seem simplistic, but students need to understand why cheating is wrong. Dr. Thomas Lickona, a developmental psychologist and education professor, defined a few points to emphasize to students about cheating. Lickona says that parents and teachers should explain to students that cheating: Will lower self-respect because you can never be proud of anything you earned by cheating.Is a lie because it deceives other people into thinking you know more than you do.Violates the teachers trust and undermines the whole trust relationship between the teacher and his class.Is unfair to all people who arent cheating.Will lead to more cheating in other situations later in life—perhaps even in personal relationships. Foiling Electronic Cheating When essay topics are generic, there seems to be more opportunity to cheat. By contrast, when the essay topic is specific to class discussions and/or unique to the courses stated goals, it becomes more difficult for students to go to web sources to lift material or download papers. When the teacher expects the papers development to follow a step-by-step process that requires students to document their topic, thesis, outline, sources, rough draft, and final draft, there are fewer opportunities to cheat. If there are regular in-class writing assignments, a teacher can come to know the students writing style, allowing him to recognize plagiarism when it occurs. There are a few steps teachers can take to combat and prevent plagiarism and other electronic cheating: Use a plagiarism detection service like  Turnitin.com  to catch plagiarism.Forbid the use of smart devices in exam rooms.Secure the grade program and database.Look for crib notes anywhere and everywhere. Teachers need to be vigilant. Trust but verify. They must be aware of the possibilities for cheating which are all around them. Sources Lickona, Thomas. â€Å"Character Matters: How to Help Our Children Develop Good Judgment, Integrity, and Other Essential Virtues.†Ã‚  Amazon, Simon Schuster, 2004.Niels, Gary J. â€Å"Academic Practices, School Culture and Cheating Behavior. Winchesterthurston.org.â€Å"NMPLB: Cheating. FlyLady.net.â€Å"One Third of Teens Use Cellphones to Cheat in School.†Ã‚  U.S. News World Report, U.S. News World Report.Sperling, Melanie. â€Å"Cheating: Todays High School Norm?†Ã‚  Wayland Student Press.Wallace, Kelly. â€Å"High-Tech Cheating On The Rise At Schools.†Ã‚  CBS News, CBS Interactive, 17 June 2009. Article edited by  Stacy Jagodowski

Pan s Labyrinth And Heroic Ofelia Essay - 1407 Words

Pan’s Labyrinth and Heroic Ofelia The hero is one of the most commonly seen archetypes throughout literature and film. While there are many different types of heroes, there are particular characteristics that identify a character as a hero. These characteristics are largely not in regards to who the hero is: personality traits, beliefs, or values – rather, these attributes concern the hero’s journey and the actions the hero takes while on that journey. In Guillermo Del Toro’s film, Pan’s Labyrinth, Ofelia is an archetypal hero because she is born into royalty, leaves her family and land, goes on an adventure, receives supernatural help, proves herself many times, and is rewarded spiritually when she dies. The first indication that Ofelia is a heroic character is that she is born into royalty and then leaves her family and land. According to Bryan Davis, two characteristics of an archetypal hero are that their birth occurs under unusual circumstances – such as being born into royalty – and that the hero leaves their family and land, and goes to live with someone else (Davis). At the beginning of Pan’s Labyrinth, the narrator tells a story about a princess who dreamt of the human world. The princess escaped from her family and went to the human world, where she was blinded by the sun and her memory was erased. The story continues to state that the princess eventually died in the human world, but her father (king of the underworld) believed that her soul would one day return

Effects of Free Essays

Marina Less, an 18th century female writer, gets plenty of fan mail, yet she only rarely replies. She feels compelled to answer to one woman in particular, Pierce, an older female dreaming to be a writer. Less’ inspires Pierce by relating to her in many ways. We will write a custom essay sample on Effects of or any similar topic only for you Order Now Being a female writer in (1866), she appeals to her character and credibility by sharing personal experiences and shared values. She also informs Pierce about the qualities that she herself has that helped her to succeed. Time and wisdom is what Less feel is necessary to become a successful writer. By making a personal connection between the two women, Less is able to tell Price what it takes. The most important qualities that Less says are needed are wisdom and experience. With that being said, one gains wisdom through experience- you cannot make your writing believable without it. Using loaded words such as â€Å"genuine, trashy, and unripe†, Less expresses the importance of waiting until you have been more fulfilled in life. Less also appeals to Pierce’s emotions by â€Å"stooping to her level† to con next more strongly with Price. In this way, Price will take Less’ advice more to heart. Because this letter is written in 1866, the reader is lead to imply that women had very little rights. Women were given no respect in general, much less while being a woman author. Still today is the 21st century; women authors are using pen names so that their readers will see them as equals. They feared their male readers would not want to read her books because she is a woman. Considering all of this plus the time period, Price is at a disadvantage. In order to connect to on a more intimate level, Less uses feminism to unite their goals in a world run by men. Less reassures Price that even though she is a woman and although she is monotony she can still do whatever she puts her mind to. Although the reader is unaware of Pierce’s writing abilities, Less feels confident in her and uses her own credibility to relate the two writers together in order to boost Pierce’s confidence as a writer. Informing Pierce of their common ground, Less’ persuades her by tapping into her emotions. Because she feels compelled to respond, she also succeeds in motivating Pierce by using rhetorical schemes such as personal experience and the two women’s shared values. How to cite Effects of, Papers

Critical Challenges Implications and Management Skills

Question: Discuss about the Critical Challenges for Implications and Management Skills. Answer: Introduction: In this article bigger organizations of New Zealand have been surveyed, where their chief executives of 265 large organizations belonging to various sectors have been surveyed (Boxall Purcell, 2011). This article tries to analyse the biggest challenges and risks that are faced by chief executives of these large organisations that belong to private, public and not-for-profit sectors, while examining the implications for their management skills. The article suggests clearly that the income and the productivity gap in comparison to Australia is major concern for New Zealand . The results of the survey indicate that with the rapid changes in technologies and markets the chief executives in New Zealand are also facing several challenges, on one hand they have to face war of talent both nationally as well as internationally and then they have to adjust to constrained funds on which they have very less control (Yukl et al., 2002). Thus in this economic environment where the costs are escal ating and the climate of higher demands prevails some major challenges that they have to face are : management of partners stakeholders; managing renewal and uncertainty as well as managing resources along with people . The article states that the HR specialists of the organizations have a major role to play in the entire development process. This essay will critically analyse the various aspects like strengths and weaknesses, thesis statement/ questions in the article along with my personal viewpoint on the subject. A particular statement that is able to provide the summary of the major idea of entire research paper while expressing it ion clear cut manner , what is the main purpose for conducting research in relation to specific topic of study is called as Thesis statement . Thus it helps in finding out the particular topic that is to be studied and analysed and the aim that the paper will serve (Purdue University, 2016). Thus on the basis of the definition given above the thesis statement or the research question that has guided the above article is: Finding and examining the highest level major challenges that the chief executives of large organizations in New Zealand face in the current business environment, while also discussing their managerial implications for the management skills of New Zealand, while considering the manner in which the human resource practitioners can promote and support such kind of skill development (Hutchison Boxall, 2014). Some of the major strengths and weaknesses that have been found in this article while analysing it in-depth have been discussed below: One major strength of this research article is that the topic chosen for study that is the critical challenges facing New Zealands chief executives : implications for management skills is very much conducted timely because after the global financial crisis ( GFC) that occurred in 2008-09 in New Zealand (Bcker Poutsma, 2010) , the country just like other nations has been experiencing lower economic growth. Then the literature review that has been conducted completely provides an outline of the organizational landscape as well as key features of New Zealand, while reviewing the maximum existing researches conducted on management capabilities. The article has also conducted a clear cut and valid comparison with not juts neighbouring countries like Australia but also the economically stable nations like UK and US. Then the research also considers various sectors that are very successful as well as the sectors in which the nation is lagging behind have also been considered (ResearchGate, 2010). The main focus of the literature review is to fund the research gaps while mentioning the previous research that have focussed on related topic of study , considering the various opinions of chief executives who are capable of understanding these challenges in much better way (Randolf, 2009). Chief executives have been chosen as the population for study because they are the major decision makers in the management and all the three sectors have been covered for study including private, public and not-for-profit organizations. Thus the sample chosen for study is well representative one comprising of wide range of organizational sizes as well as range of industries as well (Salant Dillman, 1994) . The survey used mixed methods for conducting research that is combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods was used. The quantitative section of questionnaire had questions on which respondents need to rate the challenges and risks on Likert scale. A pilot test was also conducted before sending the questionnaire to the respondents on MBA executives. The qualitative section of survey questionnaire has five open-ended questions that helped in getting elaborate responses from the respondents (Bergman, 2008). Thus by using qualitative method the researcher has been able to get different yet quite insightful perspective regarding the topic. It has been found that mixed methods provides an opportunity for exploring both the worlds permitting an in-depth discovery related to various kinds of indigenous practices, traditions as well as patterns that can be discovered (Collins O'Cathain, 2009). Moreover higher level of generalization done during mixed methods survey provides adva ntages through large scale empirical research at the same time. The article has major weakness that although it identifies the need to manage the uncertainty as the major and critical management skill but it has not been able to find out what all managerial behaviours combine to form managing uncertainty and renewal (Hitt et al., 2010). Another weakness of this paper it that the scope of this paper does not discuss the manner in which all the managerial capabilities that have been stated can be best developed. Thus this analysis does have certain limitations that need to be addressed. A better and bigger picture could have been obtained by the researcher if the opinion of more than one respondent from one organization had been sought. Another weak spot of this study is that the data is very much descriptive in nature, so it does not directly measure the assessments of skill deficits or the needs of chief executives. On the other hand there might be few challenges and risks that might be different from the ones faced by chief executives of large organizations so further research can also be conducted on smaller organizations (Lin et al., 2013). Moreover just the top management chief executives have been included in the research; rather some people from middle management should also have been included in the research in order to get better insight into the research topic. As per my viewpoint the use of mixed methods for conducting study is best as it allows in depth analysis of the topic of research as it includes both qualitative as well as qualitative method of study. However I think that the reactions of chief executives regarding analysis of the management skill needs should have also been obtained by the researcher as this would have helped in finding out the presence of any kind of skill groups which this study has completely missed out. In order to further explore the extent up to which the New Zealand managers currently show the capabilities or skills that have been identified, the researcher should have added few more questions in the survey questionnaire. According to my perspective the researcher should have also included executives from middle management of the organization to gain better and in-depth view point on the topic. Moreover these are the people who are in direct contact with the employees so they would be providing much better s tance in relation to the topic of research. I feel that by implementing the right kind of policies and training modules for executives the organizations can handle the challenges and risks in better manner. This will help in making available better opportunities for the employees and this will also help in decreasing the migration of better workforce from country to Australia who move away looking for better jobs , thus making the business climate in New Zealand more innovative , stable as well as flexible for the executives. In order to handle the economic downturn as well as various other critical challenges that the current economic environment is posing for the businesses it is very much important to analyse the their implications on managerial skills so that the HR practitioners can follow the right kind of skills (Kamble, 2011). This will certainly be helpful to the organizations in New Zealand to handle the current situations like war of talent etc. and help in developing the right kind of skills. The main strength that is visible is use of axed methods and a large sample size which is very much representative of the population chosen. Moreover all the sectors of the economy have been considered for the research in order to find out the issues and risks faced by executives and their managerial implications, so that the HR practitioners can develop all these crucial skills amongst the employees with the help of proper training. However few weaknesses have also been found like too much descriptive na ture of data which does not allow direct measurement of needs or skill deficits of the chief executives of the organizations. References Bergman, M.M., 2008. The straw men of the qualitative-quantitative divide and their influence on mixed methods research. London Uk: Sage. Boxall, P. Purcell, J., 2011. Strategy and human resource management. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Bcker, J. Poutsma, E., 2010. Global management competencies:A theoretical foundation. Journal of Managerial Psychology , 25(2), pp.829-44. Collins, K.M.T. O'Cathain, A., 2009. Ten points about mixed methods research to be considered by the novice researcher. International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches, 3(1), pp.2-7. Hitt, M.A., Haynes, K.T. Serpa, R., 2010. Strategic leadership for the 21st century. Business Horizons , 53(5), pp.437-44. Hutchison, A. Boxall, P., 2014. The critical challenges facing New Zealands chief executives: implications for management skills. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 52, pp.23-41. Kamble, R.R., 2011. Managerial Skills for Organizational Performance :An Analytical Study. Indian Streams Research Journal, 1(1), pp.23-27. Lin, M., Lucas, H.C. Shmueli, G., 2013. Too Big to Fail: Large Samples and the p-Value Problem. Information Systems Research Articles in Advance, pp.1-12. Purdue University, 2016. Writing A Thesis Statement. [Online] Available at: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/print/general/gl_thesis.html [Accessed 16 September 2016]. Randolf, J.J., 2009. A Guide to Writing the Dissertation Literature Review. Practical Assessment, Research and Evaluation, 13, p.14. ResearchGate, 2010. The Literature Review. [Online] Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/file.PostFileLoader.html?id.assetKey. [Accessed 22 September 2016]. Salant, P. Dillman, D.A., 1994. How to conduct your own survey. John Wiley Sons, Inc.. Yukl, G., Gordon, A. Taber, T., 2002. A hierarchical taxonomy of leadership behavior. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 9(1), pp.15-32.