In many ways, the propensity for students to cheat on the exams is a symptom of an educational system that has failed. If we cannot teach our students the value of learning, rather than the value of the GPA, we really are not very good at our job.
I do generally ask, in that class “What do things mean and why?†and have them answer in the voice of a given theorist.
Alex Halavais seem willing to blame the educational system for the failure of parenting. I ask him, do you use examinations as a means to evaluate teaching as well as the students performance (formative assessment).
If not as Eldridge Cleaver said, ” If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem.”
GPA is the domain of the tribalism in higher education. It feeds the failure of character education by renforcing the fear fostered by the political economy surrounding the GPA as a measure of learning and knowledge acquisition.
When higher education gets self reflexive on praxis perhaps parents will focus on character.
I ask, when did a Ph.D. program teach you how to teach.
Reid