Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.....

I met with the plagiarizing student. I described two courses of action. Course #1: I pick up the phone and turn the whole thing over to the Student Conduct Officer and fail him on the assignment and the class as per the syllabus. (Course #1 could get this student suspended for up to three years and might result in expulsion). Course #2: He does a new speech from scratch with all original research and apologizes to the class. He can't make higher than a "C" on the new speech.


As I predicted, the student chose Course #2. In many regards, it wasn't much of a choice: fail and possibly be locked out of higher education or suck it up, own it, learn and redux. I hope that although it wasn't much of a choice that it will be a life-altering "teachable moment" for this student.


I told this student that he reminded me a lot of myself and that I was giving him this opportunity to correct his behavior and to learn something about what he'd done. I hoped that he would embrace this opportunity and take some agency in his education. He isn't going to get anywhere by taking the path of least resistance. I heard a wise man once say that, "Water and men both take the path of least resistance. That is why you have crooked rivers and crooked men." I encouraged this student to embrace doing the heavy lifting of getting and education and to stop looking at what is happening as a credentialing service. I told him if he can do that then he will get something out of it. If he can't change his view on it, then maybe he should be doing something different with his time.


Only time will tell if he got the message and if he'll learn something from his mistake.

100% Content Match

This week I caught a student teaching. He submitted an outline that was a 100% match to a student paper submitted in the fall of 2009 at a local university. I was clued into the fact that this student's paper was probably not his own the first time I looked at it.

For starters the full-sentence outline was formatted in a very specific fashion that was not consistent with the examples that I ask my students to follow. In fact, it was formatted exactly the way that the textbook that we used to use for our class two years ago recommends.

Secondly, this student is not what I would refer to as an "A" student. They don't over achieve and really go above and beyond the expectations. This student usually is a bit above average, but not the type of intellect that blows you away. In addition to that assertion, this student is certainly not the type of student to research, include in their references, and orally cite in their speeches 10 sources if only 3 are required. There is no way that he would go that far above and beyond the standard unless it was required. He wouldn't just ace something just to ace it.

Subsequently, I decided to submit the outline to www.turnitin.com. The originality report stated that it was a 100% match to a previous speech.

I am contemplating a few options.

Let me preface all of those options by stating that I really like this student. He attends class regularly. He intejects into discussions. He asks self-depricating questions that provide comic relief. This student reminds me a lot of myself at 20. I really don't want to toss the book at him. I don't want to fail him on the assignment and the course. I would prefer to use this opportunity as a teachable moment.

I think that this student cheated because he thought he wouldn't be caught and that it was just easier to take the path of least resistence. I want him to learn that anything worth having requires a great deal of effort. I am going to give him a choice. Fail the assignment and the course or...redux another informative speech for a deduction. I would also require him to admit his cheating to the class and apologize to them.

In Japan, public shaming is a popular punishment. What do you readers think about handling this situation this way.

Conference

Got to go to a conferene this last week. It was pretty cool. I listened to Dr. Gary Conti. Dr.Conti is a professor of adult education at OSU. Dr. Conti has developed numerous educational testing measures including the Principles of Adult Learning Scale (PALS), the Self-Knowledge Inventory of Lifelong Learning Strategies (SKILLS), Assessing The Learning Strategies of AdultS (ATLAS), and Philosophies Held by Instructors of Lifelong-learners (PHIL).

His instruments have been used in approximately 150 dissertation and other research
studies. He has published roughly 100 articles, chapters, and monographs related to adult learning and teaching adults learners. Dr. Conti is a living legend of Adult Education. His presentaton was solid and entertaining. He does a good job of using multimedia to make points. He highlighted his ATLAS learning Strategies measurement with out group. This theory postulates that there are three primary learning strategies: navigators, problem solvers, or relaters.

One of the interesting things about his research is that large groups are almost always fairly evenly devided into thirds along these group membership lines.

I loved goint to the conference, and I look forward to the next one.

Not Enough Hours in the day

I'm writing two grants, teaching a full load, presenting at a conference, taking a class, and remodeling a bathroom. I need to grade, and I don't have enough hours in the day. Sometimes people drop by my office, and they want to chit chat. They would like to just wag their jaws about whatever for an interminable amont of time. I simply don't have time for it.

It is difficult to grade everything that needs to be graded. I already take things home. I stay up late. It is tough on the other side of the desk. Think about that next time you're upset that your stuff isn't graded.