PROCEEDINGS OF THE 23RD ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2020
Boston, Massachusetts
Math and moral reasoning in the age of the internet: Undergraduate students’ perspectives on the line between acceptable use of resources and cheating
Page: 366
This study examined how eight students in an introduction to proof (ITP) course viewed a “cheating scandal” where their peers submitted homework containing solutions found on the web. Drawing on their weekly log entries, the analysis focuses on the students’ reasoning about the difference between acceptable and unacceptable use of internet resources in learning mathematics. One pattern was that students’ view of the relationship between beliefs about mathematics and the work of learning mathematics grounded their views of “cheating.” Specifically, some felt that an implicit didactical contract required that model solutions should be available when one learned new material. The case raises the general issue of the relationship between the process of learning mathematics and the appropriate use of external resources. It suggests that instructors may need to re-examine the role of homework, especially its assessment, in their courses, so that productive struggle is valued, not avoided.