Why Kids Cheat and How We Can Stop Them!

Your class is busy, head down, doing your test. Then from the corner of your eye you spot little Timmy, trying really hard to peep into his neighbor's paper. From time and time again Timmy has been caught cheating, and you are so fed up of it! Why isn't he confident  enough to do his own thing? Why does he feel that he must cheat in order to get by? Well, today you will find out the reasons why kids cheat and how we can stop them.

Why Kids Cheat

According to Eric Anderman, Professor of Educational Psychology at The Ohio State University and co-editor of the book Psychology of Academic Cheating, kids cheat because they are stressed. The pressure to do their best is the drive behind this behavior. Most times the extrinsic motivator of good grades and the attention that it brings is well enough to make them take a peek or two. I have seen A students fall victim to cheating and I have also seen it done by low performing students. The impulse to cheat for good grades is indeed very powerful. As parents we get excited when our kids bring home As and high Bs and we praise them so much, but when they bring home anything else we increase the pressure on them to do better, at any cost. So how can we stop them from cheating?

How Can We Stop Them From Cheating? 

Needless to say, if the ultimate reason for cheating is the little  A+ or the 100 scores that adults love well, why not just avoid it? According to the Eric Anderman, we should avoid the extrinsic motivator. As teachers and parents we should recognize their hard work and praise their efforts, always! By emphasizing the effort rather than the grade kids would feel better about themselves without the tangible rewards. So if you don't have to give a grade then avoid it! (I like this one!)

We can also stop them from cheating if we lead by example. I remember once a student came up to me and complained, "But, Miss! How come Miss (name withheld) says not to tell lies when she just told my mother a lie?" We leave an impression on our kids when we do different to what we teach them. So it is always best to do the right thing. It was pretty hard to convince that child that Miss was not thinking straight that day! (Yeah right!)

There are a lot more reasons why kids cheat and there are other ways that we can get them to stop. For a great article on this topic check out Education.com by clicking HERE!

For the book by Eric Anderman click the picture below.

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