When I was in graduate school I worked as a teaching assistant for various professors in the department. This job entailed the usual responsibilities—grading papers, helping students with assignments, prevent cheating (and perhaps try to understand why students cheat), etc.
Related reading: The Secret to Raising Happy Kids: Don’t Focus on Happiness
When the next assignment came around I again saw that her paper was well written. Then I read closer and I realized that some of the text seemed familiar. I went back to our journal articles and compared the text. I realized then that she had plagiarized whole paragraphs of the journal text in her article. No wonder I thought it was so well-written! Even worse was the fact that the article which she had plagiarized was written by the professor of the class!
Why Do Kids Cheat in School?
Research shows that kids who are praised for intelligence are more likely to cheat on a later task, compared to those praised for performance.
Why Students Cheat: The Research
Tips and Resources for Promoting a Growth Mindset:
For younger kids, try to promote positive self-talk. Kids will often say things like, “I’m just dumb, I will never learn this.” Offer them language or little mantras to replace this negative talk with positive self-talk. In our house, we say, “everything takes practice.” Another good option is focusing on the word “yet.” As in, “I haven’t mastered this skill yet.”
3. Bring in examples from your own life. Did you experience a time when you thought you’d never succeed at something but kept persisting? Recall a time when your hard work really paid off. Your kids will probably love these stories and it’s great bonding time too.
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