Response to Student 1
The issue of academic integrity is crucial in the field of education, and it has attracted the attention of scholars for many decades (Drinan 43). Teachers get involved in academic dishonesty because their employers gauge their competence based on the progress that students make. When students fail to achieve the desired grades, the teachers shoulder the blame. As a result, some of the teachers do not want to face the judgment of being incompetent or ineffective, and they facilitate examination dishonesty. The punishments for students and teachers who are involved in academic dishonesty vary from one place to another. Ideally, it is unfair to punish students who cheat and fail to punish the teacher who facilitate the cheating. Curbing the problem of academic dishonesty should involve the process of punishing all the culprits, including teachers who assist students to cheat during examinations (Drinan 81).
Intellectual honesty is the bedrock of all scholarly and academic works. Therefore, learning institutions treat cheating or academic dishonesty as a serious issue. Accordingly, many learning institutions have policies and regulations on how to punish students who engage in intellectual dishonesty; however, most of them do not have clear-cut policies on how to handle teachers who facilitate or encourage cheating. I firmly believe that the learning institutions have a responsibility to the students, alumni, and themselves, to deal firmly with academic dishonesty.
Response to Student 2
Academic dishonesty among medical students is worrying, especially because after their graduation, they will be entrusted with people’s lives (Kanoti 55). Cheating behaviors range from using unauthorized notes, copying from other students, plagiarism, and lying about conducting physical examinations on patients. It is unethical for medical students to engage in acts of examination dishonesty, and the society may feel the ramifications of such behavior after their graduation. The dishonesty may have long-term negative consequences for the physicians as well as their clients.
As a result, medical schools should discourage and prevent cheating by promoting a culture of academic integrity among students, establishing standards for academic or intellectual behavior, and placing more emphasis on the learning process instead of assessment. Owing to the sensitive nature of the medical profession, medical students should develop a culture of integrity characterized by ethical and moral behavior. Some of the factors that encourage academic cheating and dishonesty among medical students include the relatively high pass percentages that institutions require for various assignments and subjects in medical courses (Kanoti 69).
Some of the students claim that they engage in dishonest academic behaviors because they do not know it is unethical. On the other hand, some of them think that it is normal while others are encouraged by friends and pushed by the pressure to attain high grades. Institutional punitive actions against cheating should be reinforced and academic integrity promoted in learning institutions to forestall such behaviors.
Works Cited
Drinan, Patrick. Cheating in School: What We Know and What We Can Do. New York: McGraw Hill, 2011. Print.
Kanoti, George. Ethical Dilemmas: A Values Guide for Medical Students. New York: SAGE Publications, 2000. Print.
