Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: honor codes



At 03:05 PM 3/18/00 -0800, Ben Crowell wrote:

does anyone have
any experiences to share about honor codes? My
school is thinking about changing to an honor code
system. A recent study by Donald McCabe at Rutgers
shows that whether a school has an honor code is the
main variable that has a big effect on the prevalence
of cheating.

I attended (and taught at) a school with a vigorous honor code. I also
attended (and served as a teaching assistant at) a school without one.

I strongly prefer the former. Yes, there was less cheating under the honor
system (even though cheating would have been easier). But that's not even
the main advantage. The honor code improves the "atmosphere" in ways that
are hard to describe.

In general, the honor code cannot exist by itself; it has to be part of a
package. Unless the rest of the operation is a class act, the honor system
(a) probably won't last and (b) won't make much of a difference even while
it lasts. What constitutes a class act? I've never heard a useful
definition. But you know it when you see it.

However, we have some concerns about the
practical implementation of it,

You're right to be concerned. It's hard. It's hard enough to maintain an
honor system. It's doubly hard to try to establish one where there hasn't
been one before.

especially since we're an
urban community college where many students
only feel a weak sense of identification with the
school.

That will make it even harder. Peer pressure is essential to inculcating
and enforcing the honor system spirit.

The honor code cannot be established by fiat. There has to be serious
buy-in from the whole community (students, faculty, staff,
everybody). Since the students are the ones most affected, it is important
for them to see it as "their" system. (I'm told the Caltech honor system
was established by student initiative.) In order to get meaningful buy-in,
there has to be a consensus about what are the new privileges and new
responsibilities the honor code will bring.

You also need policies and procedures for dealing with
violations. Presumably there will be more violations in the early days
than there will be in the steady state.

Another factor to take into consideration is size. The honor system is
vulnerable to least-common-denominator misbehavior, so the bigger the
operation, the more vulnerable it is.

How big is your operation? If it's really big, you might consider
establishing a small "honors college" and applying the honor code only to
that at first. (There are pros and cons to this; I'm not 100% sure it's a
good idea.) Honors-college members could get additional privileges and
responsibilities, and if things work out the system could be extended to
the whole school.

Some well-known codes are discussed at:
http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~ascit/boc/boc.html
http://scs.student.Virginia.EDU/~honor/
http://www.usma.edu/Cpme/CPMEext/Educationext/Hippocket/Index.html#History