blog 6 by Shengyu

   Teachers should find a new way to fight with plagiarism. Teachers have struggled with it for several decades, however, they still cannot wipe out plagiarism in higher education. So, it’s time finding a new way to resolve it. In the past, teachers used stern face and a serious punishment making students afraid, and then wanted students stop cheating. The students were not intimidated by the teachers, and, therefore, they rebelled against the teacher’s commands. Nonetheless, students and teachers should not be opposite. Scott Jaschik, in It’s Culture, Not Morality, reviews Susan D. Blum’s book which addresses what kind of sentiments teacher should face to their student. In this article, he cite Blum’s result of her interview that many of students came to higher education for a diploma instead of having genius in major, and lack interested in their major leaded to less cognition for it, copying from others would be the quickest way to finish a paper. In the Lives on the Boundary by Mike Rose, Morita was accused of plagiarism by her ignorant about citation. In these cases, communicating more with students is a better approach than being strict with them. Teacher is a respected profession who turned students from ignorant to knowledgeable. And the relationship between teachers and students should be friend, instead of cats and mice. If teacher states more clearly the importance of citation, lots of students may not break the rules of plagiarism; if teacher and students have a good relationship, students may not plagiarized to made teachers disappointment.