Cheating phenomenon in English Examinations at the Iraqi Colleges: Causes, Styles, Effects and Treatments

Abstract

:
The educational system consists of three basic elements
which are: the instructor, students and curriculum. The defect of
each may affect negatively the two other elements. Cheating in
examinations in general and in English in particular may be
considered as the most dangerous phenomenon that effects
negatively this system.
In fact, cheating is a deviated behavior that totally destroys
the main spine of the pedagogy of the evaluation, because
cheating presents a false test score which suppose to be accurate
to keep the ongoing evaluation for the sake of fulfilling the
educational objectives.
There are different reasons behind cheating, some are related
to the students themselves, while others are related to the
instructors and some others are related to the psychological and
educational system. Whatever the reason behind cheating, all of
them represent the response to failing in the examination and its
side effects.
The researcher thinks that the educational institution is one
of the main fields in which the personality of the student may be
built and developed correctly. Thus the college as one of the
educational institution has to take on its part in this important
mission, and this is why the researcher conducted this research.
Introduction :
It is well known that during the last decade in Iraq, namely
after the American occupation, many social values have been
changed and others have been emerged and most of them was
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out of controlling. For instance, the social corruption became a
common phenomenon in almost all our institutions and is not
faced by serious punishments. The students are one of the most
important slices in the society, and they have definitely been
affected in a way or another by this corruption which has
transferred unconsciously by them to the colleges to be an
educational corruption.
The phenomenon of cheating in English examinations, for
instance is one of the educational corruptions. Jia (2009:1) states
that cheating is a wide word phenomenon, he adds that cheating
is wrong doing and should be reduced.
The researcher thinks that a deviational behavior which is
performed by some examinees definitely causes a defect in the
pedagogical system and draw it back demolishing one of the
main basic elements which is the evaluation.
It is well known that assessments are the main means that
not only allows specialists to acquaint with the extent to which
the students utilized from the pedagogical process, but also to
evaluate the instructors'' method and style and even the
curriculum as well. The researcher thinks that cheating in
examination falsifies the examinees' scores which will return
back negatively on evaluation.
The researcher agrees with Dolphin (2011:1) when he said
that cheating in examination means to take the examination or a
test by the student in a dishonest way. As perceived from
different instructors, the researcher may confidently say that
cheating in examination has became a popular dishonest
behavior phenomenon all over the Iraqi colleges especially after
the American occupation in 2003 and widely spread during the
second half of the last decade.
The problem of the study
As an instructor, the researcher has realized the spreading of a
certain dishonest behavior which is the cheating in English
examinations among the English students at the different levels
of the department at Al-Asma'i College/ DiyalaUniversity and at
the prirate Colleges as well. The researcher noticed that this
phenomenon has widely freshened and practiced by the students
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during any test even the final examinations as if it was a natural
feature of the test.
For example, during the last academic year, namely 2011-
2012 and at the second year English department - AlyaroukUniversityCollege (21) students from (68) students had
been caught during different examinations. This represents 31%
from the total number.
The researcher thinks that this represents a large percentage
deserve to be treated seriously and rapidly before it increases
because it is a serious problem faced by the educational
programme. The researcher's point of view offers a deceivable
appearance about the reality of the series of the pedagogical
program by its three rings which are:
1- The effectiveness of the curriculum
2- The students' progression
3- The instructor's method and style
The researcher thinks that the effectiveness of the three
educational rings mentioned above may be measured only
throughout the findings of the test. Testing is not only a means
to measure the students competence and performance but also
(depending on the actual students' scores) to measure the
instructor's skills, method and style that used to facilitate the
students learning task and curriculum comprehension.
The researcher summarized the problem of this study with
two dimensions; the first is the dishonest behavior which is not
suitable behavior of the college students. The researcher thinks
that this behavior will be reflected on the students future
personality in their career effecting negatively the whole society.
The second dimension is the loss of the correct evaluation which
is the most important element in the whole pedagogy.
Value of the Study
It is hoped that that the findings of the present study may
contribute to minimize the students' dishonest behavior in the
field of legal and honest affairs. It is also hoped that the findings
of this study may be of some value to the instructors involved in
the pedagogical field.