Mercifully Strict

A Fool-Proof Guide to Stopping Academic Cheating

When I first started teaching ESL, it was 2006 and I had no idea what I was doing. The very first test I gave, one of the two students in my class cheated on the exam. I was wide-eyed and shocked. I had no clue how to handle it. When I caught the student, I took her to the Director’s office, where the student exploded into a flurry of her native language and negative emotions. I wondered what kind of cultural whirlwind I had stepped into.

My philosophy on teaching university students is that they are adults, but they are also at the same time emerging adults. They want freedom, and should be given the ability to handle freedom. My job as an instructor is to educate the student, but also to guide them into greater levels of self-directed learning and responsibility. The only way that happens is if they can feel the full weight of their choices.

A couple years after that disastrous first exam, I had a group of students who regularly shared the answers to their homework rather than do it themselves. This escalated into an incident where finally one of them decided to cheat on an exam by writing vocabulary words on his hand. If you have never felt that sinking feeling of catching someone cheat, then you aren’t really a teacher yet. It is a terrible feeling when a student puts you in a position that you have to confront them about cheating.

You go through all the stages of grief. 

1) Denial: No, he can’t possibly be cheating. He is smarter than that.
2) Anger: I cannot believe he thinks I’m stupid enough to not notice him cheating!
3) Bargaining: Okay…I’ll let it slide if he doesn’t look at this hand for the rest of the test.
4) Depression: I cannot believe he’s still looking at his hand. Why would he put me in this situation? Am I completely failing as a teacher?
5) Acceptance: He’s cheating. It’s my job to stop it. Here we go.

The key to dealing with a cheater is to simultaneously let them feel the full weight of their consequences, all while extending compassion to the person. Some teachers might try to guilt and shame a student when they’ve caught him cheating. They bring their own insecurities into the situation instead of just following through with boundaries and consequences that were previously set up.

I find that another approach to be more effective. The key is to show compassion on the student, showing your support for them as a person, all while being extremely strict on the consequences of their choice. This might sound oxymoron, but it’s effective.

What does this sound like? It sounds like this:

Teacher: I am so sorry that you have to deal with the consequences of your choice. These consequences aren’t fun in any way. As you know, it is clearly stated in my syllabus that anyone who chooses to cheat will fail the test. I am so sorry that you are having to learn the hard way that this rule is non-negotiable.

Student: Is there any way you can have mercy on me? I’m so sorry.

Teacher: I forgive you, and accept your apology. This is obviously not what we envisioned would happen at the beginning of the semester. I hate it when I have to catch someone who is cheating. It’s not fun for either of us.

Student: I know what I did was stupid. I won’t do it again. What can I do to fix this?

Teacher: I’m glad that you won’t to do it again. I’m sorry to say that this rule is not negotiable. It’s set up to protect the integrity of our program.

The key to ensuring that the student prospers from this event is maintaining honor for that student while enforcing the rules. It is not productive to guilt or shame a student when they’ve made a horrible decision. The key is to let their consequences impact their lives rather than our emotional manipulation towards them. If we honor the student and still speak positively to that student, they might be able to walk away from the situation with hope, rather than defeat. If we guilt and shame them, there is less chance for that student’s redemption.

What does honoring the student sound like?

Teacher: I know you are better than this. I believe that you are a good person who simply made a bad choice. You are bright and have the ability to work hard. I know that you can learn from the situation, and be a better person after this is all over.

Have you ever sat in class before and seen students eyes wandering and said out loud, “eyes on your own paper”? During my first year or two of teaching, I would sometimes have to say that five times in the same test. I learned over the years that five warnings is way too many. I give one warning now, but it comes before the test begins. The reason students continued to keep looking after warnings 1-4 is that I didn’t act after giving the warning. There were no consequences for cheating. I wasn’t following through with any real consequences if they continued to move their eyes around the room. How do I remedy this? I simply state at the beginning of the test, “If anyone looks around at other papers during this exam, you will give me your exam, and you will receive a zero. I don’t want that to happen. It would be terrible for you to have to call your mom and tell her why you failed my class. So please, keep your eyes on your own paper. Any questions?”

Then here’s the key: I follow through on what I say. If I see someone looking around the room, I called their name, take their paper, and they’re asked to leave. It takes one guinea pig in the beginning of the semester to do that for the entire semester to be cheating-free.

It sounds incredibly tough to follow through on those kinds of consequences. But being tough once prevents a semester of struggling through repetitive cheating. If you lay down the law once, the majority of students will not test you. This is not you being tough. It is you laying out a clear set of boundaries and allowing students to make their own choices. You love your students, and you want to make your classroom a place where the temptation to cheat is taken away.

Final Note: It’s important to note that when educating international populations, you need to make sure that your students are educated about what is and isn’t cheating. The cultural norms for plagiarism and cheating are not the same from culture to culture, so you have to be clear at the beginning, middle, and end of the term that your students know what is acceptable in your classroom.

Reflection Questions

What is my classroom policy about academic dishonesty? Who created the policy?

Did I clearly announce the policy at the beginning of the school year?

Have I always followed through on enforcing the policy? If not, why?

If I have always enforced the policy, has the policy been effective in preventing further cheating? If not, what should change about my communication of the policy? Should something change about the policy itself?

Have I ever used guilt or shame to pressure a student instead of kindly enforcing the rules?

In your own words, what does it mean to be “mercifully strict”?