Faculty Reading Group
Each semester, faculty gather to read and discuss a book on teaching and learning.
Join the reading group
Each fall, CETL hosts a reading group open to all university faculty. CETL purchases books for attendees, which are available for pick-up in advance of our first meeting. We meet three times over the course of the semester to discuss the selected book.
Please note: This reading group is for faculty members (full-time or part-time) only. Graduate students are invited to join the graduate reading group.
Learn about the Fall 2023 selection
Cheating Lessons, by James Lang
Nearly three-quarters of college students cheat during their undergraduate careers, a startling number attributed variously to the laziness of today's students, their lack of a moral compass, or the demands of a hypercompetitive society. For James Lang, cultural or sociological explanations like these are red herrings. His provocative research indicates that students often cheat because their learning environments give them ample incentives to try -- and that strategies that make cheating less worthwhile also improve student learning. Cheating Lessons is a practical guide to tackling academic dishonesty at its roots.
Drawing on an array of findings from cognitive theory, Lang analyzes the specific, often hidden features of course design and daily classroom practice that create opportunities for cheating. Courses that set the stakes of performance very high, that rely on single assessment mechanisms like multiple-choice tests, that have arbitrary grading criteria: these are the kinds of conditions that breed cheating. Lang seeks to empower teachers to create more effective learning environments that foster intrinsic motivation, promote mastery, and instill the sense of self-efficacy that students need for deep learning.
Although cheating is a persistent problem, the prognosis is not dire. The good news is that strategies that reduce cheating also improve student performance overall. Instructors who learn to curb academic dishonesty will have done more than solve a course management problem -- they will have become better educators all around.
Past Reading Group Selections
2023: Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty
2022: Inclusive Teaching: Strategies for Promoting Equity in the College Classroom