collective learning...on tests. not what I call integrity.

During training several months ago, I was warned that cheating is rampant in Cambodia and other PCVs and administrators suggested that this is probably a battle we should choose not to fight as teachers. I heard this advice, but chose to let it slide for the time being I think because I couldn't really fathom the degree to which cheating is acceptable and blatantly obvious. I remember during August seeing grade 12 students take their exam for college entrance with hordes of people waiting outside the gates. These people were not just waiting for them to finish, but they were texting answers to their relatives and "cheat sheets" were being passed through the classrooms or brought in with the students. As trainees, we were told that we don't want to interfere with the system as we could jeopardize the success of students by preventing some from getting the extra boost their classmates were getting. With this knowledge in mind, I entered into a week of testing prepared to be endlessly frustrated. I often approach situation with an even keel or think of the possible worst case scenario, so as not to be disappointed. The cheating was widespread and has left me ruminating over why this feels so different than the educational culture I was raised in and have worked for.

A test day in my prior teaching job was kind of a treat. I think this was a shared feeling amongst my colleagues as you could save up energy you would have used to present a lesson and instead sit back and watch your students work hard. The massive amounts of grading that ensued after were a bit of a pain, but you could see the fruits of your teaching and your students labor (hopefully) pay off. I came in this week ready to set expectations with my coteachers as they agreed we should prevent cheating. We asked the students to move their desks apart, and I told them they should not be talking or looking at their classmates' papers. They nodded fervently and the directions were translated into Khmer for those who did not understand. They seemed to be on the same page as me, so I felt some false confidence that they would follow through. I also explained that the test is to show what they know, not what their friend knows. This was a concept that probably got lost in translation, but I wanted to explain why they should be working on their own. As the test got underway, students turned to talk to friends, students held up their tests for others to see, they took out their notebooks and pieces of paper with prewritten work, they wrote answers and passed them to friends and they spoke (not so quietly) to others to ask questions or provide answers. Now, these things were happening sporadically, not like a constant barrage of cheating, but I was definitely playing whack a mole for two hours. Most of these actions were done not so secretly, even right in front of the teachers. Some students would giggle or had a sheepish grin on their face, but they were generally unapologetic. As a strong advocate against cheating (and as a former student who I swear has never cheated), I want to make ripples and flip this prevalent occurrence of cheating. However, in the moment, I ended up more frustrated and verging on anger than anything else. These emotions have no solution, especially when the root of the problem is a student who has no other option and sees copying as the only answer.

Many of my students hear this when I teach them English (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZXcRqFmFa8). Cambodians study English formally from 7th-12th grade, but many cannot do much more than read and write. The majority of my trainees fall into this category, so when they see a two hour test completely in English they most likely freak out. The common solution for this lack of knowledge and their usual modus operandi in English class is to copy from the classmates who do know, or seem like they know, what's going on. As is common in Asian education systems, the emphasis is on the collective learning and shared knowledge rather than individual performance. Students tend to rely on possibly one student to provide the answers for the rest of the class. If no one else has held them accountable for their own learning, it is difficult to instill this value in students who are 18-24 years old. I am accustomed to working with malleable middle schoolers who are just beginning to develop their sense of right and wrong, and I am out of my element, literally, with a different age group and a foreign culture/education system. Knowledge is seen here as shared endeavor, so the idea of cheating does not carry the same connotation that I was raised with.

When I mentioned this trend to family and friends (even PCVs within Cambodia), they were not only astonished but also generally baffled why they wouldn't want to gain the knowledge for themselves. I explained that often the cheating happens between friends just to get something down on paper, and then result is two tests scoring 3 out of 42. I asked one of my higher level English speakers who is opinionated and did not cheat on his test about why he thinks this is commonplace in Cambodia. He said some teachers are more strict than others on preventing students from copying, but he thinks it comes down to students lacking confidence in the answers. This is definitely the case as about 2/3 of the students in each of my class rarely generate answers of their own, and tend to wait for the answers to be written on the board by their classmates or teachers. When I think back to the repeat offenders in my past teaching job as a 7th grade English teachers, they also seemed to do it for a lack of confidence and desire to turn in something complete, rather than lose points for an incomplete. They also developed an itch to cheat I believe because it had was permissible in the past, either because the teacher didn't care or the student had gotten away with it. In either case, the temptation to cheat feeds on successful exploits.

I had trouble explaining to my coteachers why this is an issue I care so much about and was often left with very few words trying to explain that cheating is "bad" and "wrong". I wondered if I only viewed cheating in this way because I was culturally engrained to whereas I always felt like this value was more of a human instinct. I did start to see glimpses of reality within my frustrations when a student who spoke no English was disadvantaged in their score because I was not allowing them to cheat. They were instead left with blank portions of the test and unintelligible English using letters without forming words. From what I can tell, intellectualism in the setting I teach is not prized. English is a vehicle for some to a better job or opportunity, but many other trainees do not see learning this language as a priority. I hope to push the students willing to go there to promote integrity and a desire to gain knowledge and I hope that my coteachers will strive to do the same.

1st year students in blue (L) and 2nd year in white (R) finishing up the morning flag salute

They seem mostly focused, but you may note the two women in conversation in the back

Tried to help them be quiet with a visual, mildly successful

Statue of a PTTC trainee