In the discussion of the mother who slaps her child, Belinda noted that the French reactions were what they would or wouldn't do while the American reactions were more what they would feel. In the case of the cheating classmate, I think the same can be said. It was interesting to see that Americans said it would make them feel angry, uncomfortable or morally superior. The French, on the other hand, said things like je ne fais rien, je souris, je l'ignore...Why could it be that the American responses seem to internalize the actions of others instead of acting themselves? Talk of karmic retribution and loss of respect make me think that the Americans take the situation more seriously. This is especially evident when the Americans talk about alerting the teacher, an action less popular on the French side.

It seems that Americans are more possessive of the amount of work that they put into a class. A lot of people seemed to take it very personally that they had studied so hard whereas somebody else was cheating. The French on the other hand, just leave it be. Some of them even find it humorous--they said they would laugh or they would wish them good luck or they would be doing the same thing. I think this is a direct link to how Americans and French view their studies and their conception of a good student. French people said a good student was someone who could balance work and play whereas the Americans focused on hard work, which is why they would feel personally offended and involved, I think, if they caught someone cheating.

I also found it interesting that many Brown students took another student's cheating personally whereas many French students had an ambivalent attitude. In my opinion, this reflects on a sense of comptetition with one's peers on the American end-- the notion that one person's gain (by cheating) is another person's loss and this person could be me. Moreover, I think that this thought process could be a result of the grading system at Brown. Many of the classes I have taken are graded on curve or with distinct percentiles allocated for A's B's and C's. What is the grading system like at ENST?

En France nous sommes notés sur 20. Lors des examens la note des autres n'influe pas du tout sur la notre et à l'ENST nous ne sommes pas classé, c'est pour ça que ça nous dérange moins que quelqu'un triche: si tout le monde réussi tant mieux!
Par contre lors des concours nous sommes classés et quelqu'un qui triche "vole" la place de quelqu'un d'autre, c'est pour ça que ça nous affecte plus.

I agree, Tanya, that our grading system probably has a lot to do with some of the Brown students' responses. Personally, if I saw someone cheating in a class where grades were given based on a curve, I would be very annoyed because that student's cheating could affect my grade negatively. In another, non-curved, situation, however, I could see myself adopting the "that student is only hurting him/herself" attitude.

After I become a student in France, I find that the penalty of cheating is not that serious here. The French students seldom irritate by this action. But the American students have much stronger reaction to the action.
Maybe one reason is that the society in U.S.A is more competitive?

On remarque que les américains régissent d'avantage à ce genre de situation, mettant en avant le fait que l'examen ne doit refléter que le travail personnel. Une partie des élèves français réagit de la même façon, mais beaucoup restent passifs et considèrent que ce n'est pas leur problème. Alors qu'aucun américain ne dit que ça ne le concerne pas.

Just curious what the policy at ENST is concerning cheating. What happens if a student is caught? I think at Brown we have an "honor code" where it is expected that students will be honest about their exams and not cheat (although they are still kept under watch by the professors.) Plagiarism, however, is something that is not tolerated under any circumstance, as described in our 'academic code:'

"Students who submit academic work that uses others' ideas, words, research, or images without proper attribution and documentation are in violation of the academic code. Infringement of the academic code entails penalties ranging from reprimand to suspension, dismissal, or expulsion from the University."

As you can see, the consequences can be very serious.
What is the case at your school?

On ne peut pas vraiment tricher à l'ENST parceque à la plupart des examens, nous avons droit à tous nos documents.
Par contre pour passer les concours pour rentrer à l'école, c'était très stricte. Si quelqu'un était pris en train de tricher, il y avait plusieurs années d'interdiction de passer des examens. D'autre part nous étions assez bien surveillés. Donc je ne crois pas qu'il y ai eu beaucoup de triche.

Il y a quand même certains examens sans documents (c'est-à-dire sans avoir le droit d'avoir son cours avec soi), et on s'expose à de gros problèmes si l'on triche...

De même, il y a un paragraphe sur le plagiat dans le règlement scolaire, on peut même théoriquement risquer l'exclusion de l'école je crois.

I think there was definitely more of a "moral" aspect to the American responses even though those who said they wanted to alert the teacher were a small minority on both sides. It is interesting that the distinction between a concours and an exam would make the difference to several French on whether they would notify the teacher- even though a concours is "more competitive" is there not also a competition for better academic performance in school as well? If they are willing to denounce a student who steals a place in a concours they should similarly be willing in my opinion to denounce someone who tries to get undeserving grades? I am curious if there is any sense of "this is wrong" as opposed to "this is breaking the rule" on the French side of looking at this issue.

En fait il me semble que chaque personne (qui ne triche pas) a un code de l'honneur, on connait les choses qui sont bien et celles qui sont mauvaise d'un point de vue moral, mais ce n'est pas exprimé exprimer explicitement dans un code de l'honneur, pour faire respecter ces règles on préfère faire appel à des menaces de sanctions, c'est plus universel peut-être.
A partir de là chacun se comporte en accord avec lui-même et du moment que ça ne me pénalise pas, tant pis pour lui/elle.

C'est intéressant de voir qu'il y a un "honor code" à Brown, ce qui signifie qu'un élève ne triche pas par respect pour ce code et pour les valeurs de Brown. Le problème n'est pas abordé de la même façon à ENST ou aux concours d'entrée aux grandes écoles. Le règlement met l'acccent sur les sanctions précises qui vont tomber en cas de triche pour dissuader, mais n'avance jamais la notion d'"honneur", un peu comme votre "academic code".

Contrairement aux français qui considèrent en général que l'étudiant qui triche se pénalise lui-même et qu'il ne faut donc pas s'occuper de lui, les étudiants américains semblent vraiment réagir contre les tricheurs et n'hésitent pas à se mettre en colère ou à les dénoncer; Peut-être que les examens ne se déroulent pas dans les mêmes conditions que en France?

Salut Morgane!

As a liberal arts student, I have very few exams. Instead, most of my course work is spent writing papers, and the few tests that I do have are mostly essay based--so it's been rather hard to cheat these days. How often do you write papers for your courses? And when you do have tests, what is the format? Is it multiple choice, short answer, in-class essay?

I have found that at Brown many students cheat but not in obvious ways. With networks of friends and a lot of information on the Internet, students have found very clever ways to cheat making it often unnoticeable. Looking at a neighbor's paper during a test is an archaic form of cheating, so the situation for us is somewhat of a hypothetical. Is this the same way for French students? In your opinion, what is the most common form of cheating?

While cheating may be more nuanced in humanities courses where one writes papers, in my experience, in science and economics classes, the concept of cheating is not hypothetical and is present at Brown. In many large introductory classes the format of a test could be purely multiple choice in which a mere looking at your neighbors paper may be all one needs to do to cheat. In one of my biology classes, members of the same sports team got caught cheating as they would sit in a row and copy off of one another. Although, I do agree with Philip in that students have found more interesting(and technologically advanced) ways of cheating. For example, I know of some students who import formulas and facts onto their calculators to use during economics exams. Unfortunately, these forms of more obvious cheating often occur in larger classes where there is a larger tendency for grading curves or percentiles in my opinion.

I was just wondering what the repercussions of cheating are for students at ENST. Here it varies depending on the level of test, so that if you get caught cheating on a midterm or final there is a serious consequence, but if it is just on a test/project in a class it is up to the discretion of the professor.

Dans le règlement scolaire :
"Si vous fraudez ou tentez de frauder, vous viendrez vous expliquer à la direction de la formation initiale."

"Tout élève convaincu d'avoir fraudé à un examen se voit automatiquement attribuer la note 0, sans préjuger de sanctions plus graves qui peuvent être prononcées sur avis du Comité de l'ensignement devant lequel il pourra être convoqué".

(Nous sommes notés sur 20, 0 étant nul, 20 étant la note parfaite)

Globalement, la sanction dépend de la fraude, et l'on risque, en plus du zéro, un avertissement, blâme, travail d'intérêt général, ou exclusion temporaire ou définitive.