In terms of college, I think the biggest opportunism factor is that in homework and exams. College students regularly find creative ways to circumvent the ideal homework process as perceived by the instructor: each individual diligently does his (or her) homework assignment by himself without any outside help (unless it's a group assignment), all the while learning the concepts and theories taught in class and valuable life lessons in time management - that hard work is its own reward. While all of that is true and would be the best case scenario for both the student and the professor, in reality, students often engage in these creative ways to bypass that whole arduous and time-consuming process.
Students might often collaboratively work in groups when the assignment does not call for it, and while they may not always copy each other's work word for word, it is still not strictly ethical behavior. But what is ethically worse for administrators and professors is how homework solution manuals are passed around by thousands of students to their peers for numerous classes. Most of these classes are introductory classes that form the foundations of what these students will learn later so copying homework solutions really doesn't lead to learning and understanding. In the same vein, having and studying from past exams and (past) exam solutions are ethically questionable as well, especially when it's not the instructor that hands those out to students.
That's not to say these kids are bad students or don't work hard. On the contrary, many students regularly get A's in their exams and classes overall. But with students taking hard classes and more hours after that filled with multiple extracurricular activities, they rarely have the time to go through an ideal homework process. But is that chance to expedite the homework or studying process is opportunistic? Absolutely. Is it dishonest or unethical? That remains to be seen and depends on a variety of other factors, such as circumstances. It's best to examine these on a case-by-case basis. This all circulates back to the gray area between academic honesty and dishonesty - what constitutes academic integrity?
But I say all this because I want to address the point of this blog: I had a friend in high school who absolutely did not consult any solution manuals to any homework assignment and who always studied by herself to get A's on her own merit and hard work. If any of her friends or peers asked her for help, she would always be more than happy to help them conceptually but never gave them straight answers or her homework to copy. All throughout high school, I observed this fact, that even though she presumably could have used other resources, even the perfectly ethical 'office hours' after school with our teachers. As to why she never consulted outside help, I can only speculate that she was very confident in her abilities and knew it was far better to spend time to grasp concepts and do her own work. It was commendable on her part and it paid off extremely well for her - she was class valedictorian and now attends Princeton University.
I know she isn't the only person like that but she's the one that I knew. This example of opportunism is not, say, as bad as a TV drama where the vice president has the antidote to an ailment a first-term president is suffering from but does not give it to him because he wants to be the new president. I wish I had a better story to tell, something with more oomph or pizzazz but the more I think about it, the more I think that this story is appropriate because of the indelible impression it left on my mind. That hard work without looking for shortcuts pays off in the long run. There is a trade-off of the time and effort spent in the short-run but then again, long run is what matters.
You wrote about the prompt for next week. That is ok. Next week simply go back and write about your experience with organizations.
ReplyDeleteIn your essay you place the entire responsibility on the students, which is reasonable given that you are a student. But you might also look at the issue from the perspective of the teachers and the school administrators. If two teachers who teach the same subject experience different degrees of cheating among the students, and the students are otherwise demographically similar, then you might conclude that it is the efforts of the teachers that matter. Likewise, if two different schools had different amount of cheating, you might conclude that the tone the principal sets matters. '
My own view on the issue is that cheating itself is a learned behavior that can become habitual over time. It happens at first either because the student does see the real learning in the activity, or because of a prior poor performance where the student had really tried, or because the student gets stuck on something and doesn't see a way to get unstuck, or some other like reason. It then starts to seem the easier path, which is how it can become habitual.
On the flip side of this, bright kids may find much of school easy, particularly in high school. They can do well without putting in much effort at all. So they aren't prepare when things get difficult. The first time that happens, it can be something of a shock. I mentioned in class that I transferred universities. It happened in the middle of my sophomore year. One reason (there were several others) is that some of the math courses I took were over my head, but I was supposed to be a math guy. Hitting such a wall can actually be great for learning long term, because you can develop a new perspective regarding what you need to do to be successful. But it is pretty awful while it is happening.
In future posts I hope you will write about yourself rather than about your friends, unless the prompt specifically directs you to write about others. The reason for this is simple enough. Much of the course concerns motivation of the individual within the organization. You know your own motivation. At best you can conjecture about the motivation of others. It is better to write about what you know.