The Study On The Students Cheating On Exams

Student cheating, which has greatly affected the normal operations of education management and the improvement of teaching quality and effectiveness, is the product of the imbalance between cultural goals and institutionalized means. According to Merton, emergence of anomie is due to the inconsistencies between socially acceptable goals and the possibility of applying socially acceptable means to achieve these goals.Based on the literature study of a university's recording of about the cheating in examination during 2001-2009, a global description of status in quo and feature of cheating, as well as its type, tendency, and psychology of the cheaters, is presented in the dissertation. The author finds that college students'cheating is of such characteristics as diversified means, small scale and diversification of cheaters. Differences in sex, age of cheaters are significant, with male students more than female ones, and the rate of sophomore and junior higher than that of freshman and senior. Numbers of cheating decreased, but the new means of cheating, such as the use of communication tools, increased. Lack of education and guidance from educators can cause the occurrence of students'violation of discipline, and if educators do not attach importance and containment to students'minor cheating behavior, a second cheating among students would increase.From points of view of both the macro social structure and the micro individual behavior, this dissertation explores factors that influence behavior of cheating students, and then explains the causes. At the micro level of individual behavior, this dissertation in-depth analyzes cases of students cheating from such factors as individual factors, peer groups, family expectations. The results show that:there exists cognitive bias among students on university discipline and regulations; although most cheaters recognize that cheating is a dishonest behavior, still many students cheat, which reflects a mismatch between perception and behavior and an inadequate constraint of their actions; at the same time, speculation is also an important factor of cheating. Cognitive bias, lack of self-restraint and speculation constitute individual internal factors of students cheating. At the macro level of social structure, from the perspective of cultural objectives, the author exams such causes as the examination system, evaluation system, the integrity mechanism and social dominant values. The author believes that:Dude loyalty, comparison psychology, family stress and the lack of a sound return system on the integrity and the integrity environment in university or society, constitute external factors of cheating.The dissertation suggests that cheating prevention and control measures would be the solution to this problem. The strategy is to promote a reasonable education system and establish a scientific evaluation system. Meanwhile, university should strengthen the management of examination to improve and perfect the examination administration rules and regulations to prevent cheating, which involves reforming cheating punishment, with full use of collective force of public opinion and the legal system and strengthening the examination invigilation to foster good study and examination atmosphere. It is university's responsibility to strengthen and improve the moral education of students, establish an effective mechanism for integrity and moral education, and improve students ability to self-restrain.This dissertation explores cheating from the inconsistencies between goals and means and the deconstruction of institutional environment enrich the connotation of research on students cheating. The cheating control policy discussed in this dissertation helps to improve the quality of teaching and the teaching management system, which contributes to students'establishment of moral value.