Saturday, September 15, 2012

Cheating at Harvard in 2012

Although one "headline" refers to aHarvard Plagiarism Scandal Discovered Partly Due to Typo , what's underneath is merely incidents of cheating on a takehome exam, as discussed in the Harvard Crimson, Typo at Root of Cheating Scandal, Letter Reveals .

Assistant Professor Matthew B. Platt made an issue.

Within the Crimson text:

On a bonus question, “all the answers use the same (incorrect) reading of the course material in arguments that are identically structured,” Platt wrote.

He wrote that one of his teaching fellows originally detected suspicious similarities on that question, which read, “Describe two developments in the history of Congress that ostensibly gave individual MCs [members of Congress] in the House greater freedom and/or control but ultimately centralized power in the hands of party leadership.”

Several students answered that question with the same two “somewhat obscure” responses—the Cannon Revolt of 1910 and longtime 19th century Congressman Henry Clay, Platt wrote.


Wikipedia notes of the Cannon Revolt:

On March 17, 1910, after two failed attempts to curb Cannon's absolute power in the House, Nebraska Representative George Norris led a coalition of 42 progressive Republicans and the entire delegation of 149 Democrats in a revolt. With many of Cannon's most powerful allies absent from the Chamber, but enough Members on hand for a quorum, Norris introduced a resolution that would remove the Speaker from the Rules Committee and strip him of his power to assign committees.

The Cannon Revolt would not appear to be an answer to the question.

Wikipedia also has an entry 2012 Harvard cheating scandal which includes the text:

Farhad Manjoo, writing for Slate, believes "The students should be celebrated for collaborating" as they would in the real world.

And don't forget Adam Wheeler

http://chris.pirillo.com/how-to-lie-your-way-into-harvard/

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