The Illusion of Academic Integrity: A Pre-Existing Condition

Article 2 

The Illusion of Academic Integrity: A Pre-Existing Condition

If you’ve found yourself lamenting that ChatGPT has compromised your students’ ‘academic integrity’ this year, I gently encourage you to reflect: did we ever truly have it?

Our current education system relies heavily on summative assessments – tests, exams, and assignments that aim to summarise a student’s level of achievement, often resulting in grades or rankings. These assessments carry significant weight:

• They determine access to prestigious schools
• They open doors to scholarships
• They shape future job opportunities

But what if we shifted the educator’s focus to truly formative assessment – ongoing evaluation that aids learning without final judgments on ability? Leave the summative assessment entirely to external parties.

We’re all acutely aware of the high stakes involved in our current system. When we ask students to complete summative work without robust safeguards against cheating, we’re placing them — and their parents — in an ethically fraught position.

“The message to children and adolescents seems clear—material success comes before moral integrity. Cheating on a test may be a small price to pay if it helps securing admittance into a prestigious college or university. It is not surprising, therefore, that pressure for grades is often the primary reason students cite for cheating.” (1)

In a world of private schools, expensive universities, and high-cost qualifications, appeals to morality can seem like an arbitrary line in the sand. The reality? Even the most principled and virtuous parents and children often go to great lengths to gain the academic edge.

The Many Faces of Academic Compromise

Let’s be honest: students have always found ways to game our system. Here are just a few of the methods they’ve routinely used:

• Copying from peers (as old as education itself)
• Getting help from family and friends
• Hiring private tutors (a booming industry, valued at USD 6.75 billion in 2021 and growing at 14% annually)
• Exploiting online resources (from essay mills to plagiarism sites)

If you’re thinking, “But ChatGPT has made cheating so much easier!” — you’re right. And that’s precisely the point. Cheating was never difficult for students with financial resources or educated backgrounds. In a way, AI has levelled the playing field, making these “shortcuts” more universally accessible but isn’t that a good thing?

The rise of AI tools has exposed the flaws in our notion of ‘academic integrity’ as a safeguard against cheating. As educators, we shouldn’t bear the burden of being integrity police; we have enough on our plates.

Integrity Policing isn’t a Teacher’s Job

In the short term, I believe schools should push back against exam boards’ demands for teachers to police academic integrity. Systems like coursework, Internal Assessments, and Extended Essays have always been vulnerable to abuse. The increasing capabilities of AI are only exacerbating this issue.

Exam boards know that true integrity comes at a great cost. In the UK, for instance, external summative exams involve sealed exam packs, secure safes, external invigilators, synchronised exam times, standardised rules, and spot checks on schools.

So when IB asks teachers to tick an ‘authentication box’ before submitting IAs and EEs which are written outside of exam and even school conditions and their updated 63 page ‘Integrity Policy’ casually states ‘The IB’s only requirement is that work that is not the student’s own cannot be submitted for assessment,’ forgive me for being more than a little cynical.

Redefining Our Role: From Judge to Ally

As someone who has taught internationally and is currently living in Spain, I would argue, controversially, that one of the greatest strengths of the British system is that most of the summative assessment isn’t placed at the door of the teachers. We may not like the external high-stakes exams like GCSEs and A-levels, but they do allow us to be allies to our students.  You can focus entirely on setting formative work and only offer parents the occasional predicted grade if your school allows it. You work together with students and parents with the combined aim to beat summative exams set and marked by the evil, unforgiving exam boards.

When marking past papers a week before the GCSE, I’m far more interested in checking for evidence of learning than evidence of cheating, and students are far more interested in feedback than the grade.

I know first-hand that the contrast with the Spanish system is stark. I’ve repeatedly had to explain to bewildered Spanish parents that I can’t remark their child’s GCSE exam, regardless of exam nerves or misread questions.  I am genuinely as sad and as disappointed as they are. For those accustomed to a system where teachers have the final say on grades, the concept of immutable external assessment is often difficult to grasp.

Embracing Formation Over Summation

A teacher’s role should be beautifully simple yet profoundly important: to help every child we teach achieve their fullest potential in life.  Educators became educators to be the guides, not the gatekeepers.

Consider why we’re not allowed to invigilate our own students during exams. It’s because our instinct is to help, to support. This natural inclination shouldn’t be seen as a weakness to be controlled, but as a strength to be harnessed. The significant grade inflation during Covid, when external exams were cancelled and teachers determined grades, isn’t a mark of shame. Rather, it’s a testament to our profession’s deep-seated commitment to our students’ success.

By emphasising formative work, we not only sidestep many cheating issues but also create a more meaningful learning environment. When assignments serve to only deepen understanding rather than measure it, the incentive to cheat disappears. In fact, any attempt to trick the teacher becomes counterproductive, as it only deprives the student of personalised guidance from their most dedicated ally in learning.

Conclusion

If you’re thinking all this just sounds like passing the buck, you’re right. I am. In the short term, with the teacher shortage crisis and record numbers leaving the profession, I believe we’re entitled to make this someone else’s problem. Our energies are better spent on what we do best: teaching and supporting our students.

In the next article, I’ll explore long-term solutions to this dilemma. And by the way; I’m well aware that suggesting external parties could fairly handle summative assessments might have raised your blood pressure – don’t worry, we’ll address that too!

Reference

Tamera B. Murdock, Jason M. Stephens,10 – Is Cheating Wrong? Students’ Reasoning about Academic Dishonesty,Psychology of Academic Cheating,Academic Press,2007,Pages 229-251,ISBN 9780123725417,