Dealing with Academic Dishonesty: A Redemptive Approach

摘要

Studies reveal that as many as 80% of college students cheat; over half do not think cheating is a serious transgression. Developing integrity in nursing students is crucial, as their later actions impact patients' lives. Mow can educators foster academic integrity? Two educators from a Christian university relay how they approached a student's cheating and the transformative lessons they learned. It all came to a head on the day of the final exam. A fifth-quarter nursing student turned in the last paper for the Obstetric and Neonatal course and took the final. The paper was a report of the student's visit to a community-based perinatal class for expectant families. The assignment required students to use components of the nursing process to assess the composition of the audience, analyze elements of the class including the physical environment, the receptiveness of the learners, the speaker's style of presentation, and determine the engagement of the audience. Students then evaluated the effectiveness of the teaching strategies and methods used to evaluate participant knowledge. This student submitted a paper that appeared to have all the required elements. It was typewritten, described the class in detail, including the names of other students who attended, and elaborated on the content taught during the session. Although some sentences used vernacular phrasing, there were no spelling mistakes, and the beautifully appraised the teaching strategies of the speaker. However, the written details in the paper did not seem to fit. The instructor identified in the paper did not typically teach class that day of the week, and our information indicated there were no perinatal classes offered on the date of the supposed class. The names of the other students who supposedly attended the childbirth class didn't match our records. We had a problem.