What would you consider cheating in homework?

I came across this question and as I am not a teacher I am a bit puzzled here. What is considered to be cheating in homework? I know that students may copy homework at the last minute from other students. But what if two kids submit the same homework, claiming they did it together? Is this legitimate? Or is it also cheating? (I am not referring to assignments that are meant for groups of students, but to regular assignments given to students routinely).
I also wonder, if there is a difference between copying your homework from Wikipedia and copying homework from another student?

When your students are concerned, do you prefer individual tasks or joint ventures? What are the considerations?

(cross posted on firesidelearning)

Tags: assignments, cheating, copying, groups, homework, wikipedia

2 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Connie Weber on March 20, 2009 at 6:03am

Nice discussion, Or-Tal, Matt, and Kev,
and Nancy: I think you've got it spot on, with "given them assignments they can't plagiarize." Why should we be asking them to regurgitate something, anyhow: the idea is to be remixing within our heads, (formally called synthesizing, a cognitive skill ;-) and having people sharing thoughts that actually require some processing--

Here's the same discussion running at Fireside Learning; comments to see there as well.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Cameron Foster on March 21, 2009 at 5:29am

As a language teacher I find this a bit tricky (and welcome any advice!).

The idea of discovering and re-interpreting knowledge is less likely when dealing, for example, with verb conjugations. In most cases the content is not so much discovered because it is already established....force-fed.....crammed into brains over and over until they can't escape.

For all subjects taught in school except LOTE (Languages other than English) there is are real-world situations and applications for students day-to-day. They use maths at the shops, English in texting, science in thought, SOSE for the news....

I use homework for my Japanese students because of the 'use-it-or-lose-it' factor. The students who practice regularly gain communication skills faster than those who don't, in my experience.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Julie Baird on March 22, 2009 at 7:59am

Teachers and students have different views of what cheating is, at least in my school. Few students think they cheat on homework. In the teachers' eyes, if student B simply copies the answers from student A's homework paper, that is seen as cheating by the teacher. However, if student A and B are doing the work together and student A knows all the answers and explains them to student B, that is collaboration. Unfortunately, unless the collaboration takes place during class time, teachers can't tell the difference.

If a student copies from Wikipedia and learns something in the process, then I personally don't consider it cheating. To me cheating means obtaining answers to get a better grade and there is no learning taking place.

Like Cameron, I teach a foreign language and it is necessary to give my students some homework that relies on rote memorization instead of individual, creative answers. Because of this, homework isn't counted heavily in my class.

Sadly, any writing in the foreign language must take place during class time or else I have students who do cheat. They will use an online translator or ask our foreign exchange students "How do you say...?" or "Will you read my paragraph and tell me what's wrong?" They end up using vocabulary and structures that are way beyond their learning level. If I want to make sure I know how well students can write in the foreign language, I have to use class time to allow them to write and the assignment is due at the end of the lesson.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Or-Tal Kiriati on March 22, 2009 at 8:09am

Hi Julie, this is interesting. What you are saying is that collaboration is acceptable while copying isn't but teachers can't tell the difference if they got two homework assignments that look the same. But what if the students handing them will come forward and say - we worked on it together??
You also say, that if a learning process is involved in the help or copying - you wouldn't mind it. But then - 1- how can you tell, when you get a page copied from wikipedia, if the student learned from it and didn't just copy it? and 2- if your students get help from an exchange student, which introduces them to new vocabulary or expression possibilities - why isn't that acceptable??

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Sarah Taylor on September 5, 2018 at 2:31am

I think the individual task is best because if a student solves their problem without any other student help then that is the best, it increases their ability to solve more questions but nowadays it becomes too hard for students to do homework without any help. That's why there are online assignment help services also which is very beneficial.
If any students search for the most trusted and get instant answers to the site then, Fast Assignment Help is the best Site for student help.