#15 Abstract and Bibliography

Abstract:
In today’s depressed economy, more and more people decide to go to school and to get a nursing degree because it is one of the few careers that are still in demand. Yet, because it is a demanding career and many students want to have a degree and find a job, academic dishonesty cases among nursing students has raised significantly. Nursing, as the same as other health professions, is heavily based on skills and knowledge. Some people propose that in order to deliver quality care, nursing students should have a more strict academic dishonesty policy to force students learn what they need to know. Specifically, the nursing schools should set up an honor code since it is the most effective program against academic dishonesty so far. The paper explores two different kinds of honor code systems and their effectiveness to determine if they are useful for nursing school to reduce cheating cases.

Bibliography

• Arhin, Afua O. "A Pilot Study of Nursing Student's Perceptions of Academic Dishonesty: A Generation Y Perspective." ABNF Journal 20.1 (2009): 17-21. Print.
  
• Fleischmann, Shirley T. "Teaching Ethics: More than an Honor Code." Science & Engineering Ethics 12.2 (2006): 381-9. Print.
  
• Giddens, Jean, et al. "A New Curriculum for a NEW ERA of Nursing Education. (Cover Story)." Nursing Education Perspectives 29.4 (2008): 200-4. Print.
  
• Kolanko, Kathrine M., et al. "Academic Dishonesty, Bullying, Incivility, and Violence: Difficult Challenges Facing Nurse Educators." Nursing Education Perspectives 27.1 (2006): 34-43. Print.
  
• McCabe, Don, and Daniel Katz. "Curbing Cheating." Education Digest 75.1 (2009): 16-9. Print.
  
• McCabe, Donald, and Linda Klebe Trevino. "Honesty and Honor Codes." Academe 88.1 (2002): 37. Print.
  
• McCabe, Donald L., Kenneth D. Butterfield, and Linda Klebe Treviño. "Faculty and Academic Integrity: The Influence of Current Honor Codes and Past Honor Code Experiences." Research in Higher Education 44.3 (2003): 367. Print.
  
• McCabe, Donald L., Linda Klebe Treviño, and Kenneth D. Butterfield. "HONOR CODES AND OTHER CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES ON ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: A Replication and Extension to Modified Honor Code Settings." Research in Higher Education 43.3 (2002): 357-78. Print.
  
• Academic Integrity Survey, 2010.
  
• Joel, L. (2006) The Nursing Experience, 5th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.

blog #14

Every time I make a change in my project, my project become more focus and logical. I had an idea about what I was going to write at the beginning of the class. But during the process, I made some changes to make my paper focus. Now I believe what professor Goeller said about people usually do not get the right question at first, at least I did not. I am really glad that the professor and my tutor help me get through this process, inspire me with new ideas, and help me polish my paper to make my position on the argument more clear. Writing this paper help me learn more about the pros and cons of an honor code, which I have only head its name and know little about it. During the process, I gain some level of confidence with writing a research paper.

blog #13

http://lowery.tamu.edu/common/cheating.htm
This cartoon shows Neutralization theory. The boy wrote the answers on his body and did not think his action was cheating, because in his mind, cheating behavior is “Peeking at someone else’s test”

http://researchguides.clcillinois.edu/content.php?pid=91211&sid=724148
I think this will be a good picture for showing the counter point of an honor code. In this picture, Bart Simpson is making a commitment not to plagiarize a work, which is the point of the honor codes. But the look on his face shows that it is very likely that he is going to plagiarize. Therefore, signing an honor code alone does not help students to control their behavior.

#12. Outline

I: The causes of cheating (why students cheat?)

II: How and honor code works (why it can manage students’ behaviors?)

III: how honor code changed (problems with “traditional honor code” ; information and advantages about “modified honor code”. )

IV: Any other problems with honors code? (Counterpoint)
1): students have their own judgments about which courses are important and they think it is OK to cheat on non – nursing course because it does not matter to what they will do.
2): honor codes provide a standard set of value; however, students in this generation do not simply obey values. Therefore, just signing an honor code may not help students stop cheating.

V: Possibilities of better policies (are there something better?)

#11. The Case

One particular case that I want to use in my paper is "A Pilot Study of Nursing Student's Perceptions of Academic Dishonesty: A Generation Y Perspective", where the author did a survey on nursing students and talked about why students cheat and normalize cheating behavior. This case provides a positive support to McCabe’s honor code theory; because it specifically says that honor codes will help students manage their behaviors at the end of the article. McCabe’s theories give me a good direction in searching for cases. One thing that he says about why students cheat is because they think some of the courses are not important to their major. Is this statement true? I can find that out by doing surveys and interview nursing school teachers, which gives me a chance to gather some primary sources. Also, the counterpart to the argument is whether honor code alone is enough to stop cheating or if we need something more. I thought I would find the academic dishonesty policy for Rutgers nursing students online, but it seems there isn’t one. The online catalog for Rutgers College of Nursing is: http://catalogs.rutgers.edu/generated/nwk-ug_current/pg6.html. The site that talks about academic performance is: http://catalogs.rutgers.edu/generated/nwk-ug_current/pg60.html.

#10 The Debate

Argument: How does honor code reduces cheating among nursing students and creates better nurses?
Positive components: by signing the honors code, students develop a commitment to honesty (McCabe).
Counter argument: since the pressure to succeed in nursing school is so high, signing a paper does not help nursing student manage their behavior. Especially, for required, non – nursing related electives, students think it is not realistic to learn the materials. (McCabe)

#9 Qestions and Problems

I am still having the problem of finding enough counter point arguments towards McCabe’s honor code theory. Also, I need more information on the relationship between heavy class work and the effectiveness of honor codes, since it is my main complication towards this research paper. The organization of the paper is kind of clear. I want to use McCabe’s theory of honor code as a frame and apply cases from primary resources or scholarly resources to find out how honor codes will help nursing students reduce cheating and perform better in hospitals.