Comments on: Who are you cheating?

By: Beth Landau

Beth Landau — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:31:59 +0000

It’s true that looking up information on a given topic is research and not necessarily cheating. However, the term research implies that you are synthesizing information from multiple sources in order to create your own response. It also requires that you cite the sources of your information.

Are the people who are typing test questions into search engines verbatim doing so, or are they looking for the bit of information that most closely resembles the test question and then either copying it or paraphrasing it w/o any synthesis or personal contribution? Are they citing the sources they find? Without doing both, it’s not research, it’s plagiarism.

For those reasons, I think Steve’s instinct is right, here. It’s the verbatim search term that lends doubt to the ethics of the searcher. He or she isn’t even thinking about the question hard enough to pull out specific search terms. Why would we assume that he or she is going to do the extra work that would really make the search qualify as research?

By: Describe the skills or attributes you believe are necessary to be an outstanding teacher - Teach42

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:37:58 +0000

[…] few years ago, I wrote a post last year about how surprised I was that so many people arrived at my blog by doing a search for the question […]

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:15:21 +0000

@James Obviously since I don’t know the people arriving at the blog from search personally, I’m working off of assumptions. And based on my own reasoning, I would assume that people searching for that specific string of words are looking for direct answers, quite possibly with the intention of copying and pasting them in as their own. If you are looking for a variety of answers to use as research to base your own ideas off of, then there’s nothing wrong with that. However, I do assume that you will cite your sources! If you don’t… well, we’re back at square one, aren’t we?

Offhand, I would imagine that if one were simply doing some general searching for general ideas, they’d search for “outstanding teachers” or some variation there. But in my logs, I’ve seen people who have simply cut and pasted the entire question on. And that’s what I based my assumption on.

To be honest, your comment seems to be a better basis for an answer than you’d find in a Google search. “Having faith in other people, learning from them, and not pretending to know it all are qualities that I think makes for a good teacher.”

By: James Todd

James Todd — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:47:01 +0000

I came to this site for that very reason. However, although I will read your response, I will also read the responses of a couple of dozen other people as well. I will then think about them and take what I have learned to write the best response I can. Why is it cheating to find out what other people have written. Having faith in other people, learning from them, and not pretending to know it all are qualities that I think make for a good teacher. I hope you will consider rethinking your position.

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 01:52:33 +0000

I think to copy someone elses answer is LAZY. To look up what other people say is called RESEARCH! I don’t want someone elses answer, but reading what others have written helps me gather my own thoughts.

By: Rob Mancabelli

Rob Mancabelli — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 21:15:57 +0000

In light of your post, I thought you would appreciate this story. I have a colleague who does teacher hiring for her school. She had an applicant submit an educational philosophy essay that sounded vaguely familiar. When she rifled through her pile of resumes, she found out why. Another applicant had submitted the same educational philosophy.

But wait, the story gets better. She did a Google search and found that both had taken it from the same online example. Both had submitted it without changing much at all…

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 14:23:32 +0000

That’s a good point. However, I don’t think the person who offered up $2.00 on Google Answers a few years ago had the best of intentions

To me though, it just seemed telling that they were searching for that exact quote. Not general search terms “qualities of good teachers”, but that they wanted to find somebody else’s answer to that specific question. I could be making a leap in judgement, but without any more details, my gut says that something stinks with it.

By: Traci

Traci — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 14:13:48 +0000

Call me Polly Perky, but I don’t necessarily believe that everyone who would do such a search is looking to cheat. Sometimes, especially for those who are not confident writers, people are simply looking for a model, not an answer to copy. And there is a difference. I do realize that some were probably seeking an easy way out, but just because someone did such a search doesn’t make him/her dishonest. I guess I would just hesitate to judge a person’s motives entirely by a Google search, absent any other information. Also, who’s to say some of those searches weren’t conducted by persons evaluating teacher apps, to catch potential cheaters? (By the way, I’ve been working for the same district for 20 years, so I haven’t had to complete a teaching application since the advent of Google:))

By: Chris Champion

Chris Champion — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 19:49:06 +0000

or… “The Most Important Qualities of an Outstanding Educator” (PA Application)… Scary.

By: Anne Reardon

Anne Reardon — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 19:45:42 +0000

I agree with you completely about those who would resort to such methods finding another career path. How could they model appropriate use of online resources to their students?

I got lucky…on my last teaching application there were six choices for the essay question. One was, “How Information Technology (i.e., computers, Internet) Can Be Integrated into the Instructional Process and Curriculum”. I’ll be you could answer that one with your eyes closed! :o)

Anne