Dr. James M. Lang, author of Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty and Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning provided faculty at the College of Veterinary Medicine insight into methods for promoting academic integrity, as well as small adjustments to teaching that impact student learning and retention.
Lang’s visit to the college began on Monday evening, Oct. 17, when he visited with a small group of DVM students in the second and third years of their program. The meeting was designed to present him with student perspectives on academic integrity and curricular experiences.
On Tuesday, he addressed over 50 faculty, staff and administrators, emphasizing that teaching excellence is the best deterrent to cheating, and that by exploring why students cheat, we have the opportunity to improve everything from classroom engagement to assessments.
“Cheating is not a technical problem,” Lang noted, and it cannot be solved by technology, which is like “plugging a hole.” By rethinking assessments, we might remove the incentive to cheat.
According to Lang and detailed in Cheating Lessons:
- There is no good evidence that cheating is on the rise. Nevertheless, research has shown there is a lot of cheating going on.
- The highest prevalence of cheating is in areas confusing to students, specifically when it comes to plagiarism and unauthorized collaboration.
- Cheating signifies a “failing in the teaching and learning environment.”
- Almost all people are willing to cheat a little (the “fudge factor”), and behavior can be nudged by the environment and how it is structured.
- Cheating is most likely to take place when the motivation is primarily extrinsic; when performance is emphasized over mastery; when grades are determined by infrequent, high-stakes testing; when students exhibit low self-efficacy; and when cheating is perceived as common amongst peers.
Actions that support academic integrity include the following:
- Providing students with smaller chunks of information and checking for understanding frequently through TopHat questions or other methods.
- Providing students multiple opportunities to practice before a high-stakes assessment through practice exams or question banks. “Multiple-choice test taking is a skill in and of itself,” Lang commented.
- Using student discussions as a time for them to wrestle with content (pair and share).
- Focusing on mastery as opposed to performance with multiple pathways to show mastery.
- Providing opportunity to earn points through lower stakes assessments or “lots of opportunities to try, fail, and try again.”
- Encouraging students to discuss academic integrity by focusing on why it matters and its relevance to their future profession.
- Revisiting the honor code after orientation and making it personally meaningful.
- Clarifying student expectations frequently.
WORKSHOPS OFFER TIPS FOR IMMEDIATELY IMPROVING STUDENT LEARNING
Two workshops on Small Teaching filled Epperson Conference Room the morning and afternoon of Tuesday, Oct. 18. Faculty attending discussed small changes in teaching that had the potential for making a big difference in learning. To be able to remember, Lang said, students must have the opportunity to practice remembering.
Lang assured faculty that higher-order thinking is not possible without foundational knowledge and skills, so while it is important that we acknowledge facts and data at our fingertips given technology, we must also identify and require mastery of what we consider foundational.
Examples of small teaching included:
- Pausing regularly during lecture to allow for instructor-student and student-student clarifications.
- Including a low-stakes pre-test or quiz during the second week of class that combats “fluency illusion” or the tendency to think we know more than we actually do, measures prior knowledge, and indicates to students what the course will cover.
- Seeking out student misunderstandings and addressing those. Students might be asked to post the “muddiest point” to a course discussion board, for example, or write down questions they have on notecards at the end of the class. Instructors may clarify those online or at the beginning of the next session.
- Engaging students in reflection activities at the end of a lecture; for example, assigning a minute paper asking them to identify the most important point they learned that day. (Reflection has a greater effect than a quick quiz or study guide.)
- Asking students to recap the last lecture at the beginning of class. (This has benefits for even non-responders).
- Modeling for students what they should do when they study on their own by articulating understanding, elaborating on or connecting concepts, and making inferences.
- Recognizing that students have difficulty transferring concepts from one discipline to another and helping them to do so through prompting.
- Encouraging students to explain a complex topic to a novice.
- Giving students incomplete notes to encourage them to explain content in their own words and identify gaps in their understanding or knowledge.
- Using TopHat (clicker) questions or activities paired with peer instruction intervals.
- Beginning class with an explanation of what you want them to be able to do by the end of class.
- Asking students to apply prior knowledge to a case or question (can be written or verbal), prior to first exposure to a concept. (Students may also be encouraged to brainstorm about their prior knowledge on a topic.)
Using “exam wrappers” or quick questionnaires that help students reflect on what they got wrong on a test and creates a plan to improve on the next one. (How did you prepare for this test? What errors did you make? How will you prepare next time?) These can be done online or in class.