Schools? obsession with performance measures spurs cheating

Classrooms that emphasize high grades and test scores may drive students to cheat, a new study suggests.

Students who cheat tend to believe that school accentuates academic ability and performance more than learning, found the study of 285 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders. The finding raises concerns about President Clinton?s proposed national testing program, which would likely fuel schools? performance orientation, says psychologist Eric Anderman, PhD, the study?s main author. He fears the performance focus would spur more cheating.

In the study, published in the Journal of Educational Psychology?s March issue (Vol. 90, No. 1, p. 84?93), Anderman and graduate students Tripp Griesinger and Gloria Westerfield at the University of Kentucky, asked students whether they copied classmates? tests, peeked at 'cheat sheets' or used other forms of cheating in science class.

The researchers found marked differences between the 40 percent of students who cheated and those who didn?t.

'Cheaters thought the purpose of school is to compete and show how smart you are,' says Anderman, an assistant professor in the university?s department of educational and counseling psychology. 'To them, what?s most important is doing better than others and getting the right answer.'

Cheaters also worried about school and resorted to self-handicapping behaviors?blaming others and making excuses for not performing well at school?more often than their noncheating counterparts. Many of them thought cheating would result in less homework and fewer academic demands.

By comparison, noncheaters expressed interest in genuinely learning science concepts, says Anderman. To better understand concepts, they tried various problem-solving methods and sought connections between ideas.

Anderman doesn?t propose that schools abolish grades, but he does suggest that they shift their focus from performance to improvement. Instead of an honor roll for 'A' students, for example, schools could post an 'effort' roll for those whose work improves the most.

'If grades functioned more as a self-comparison instead of a peer comparison, students probably would feel freer to try different cognitive strategies instead of cutting corners to get the right answer,' says Anderman.