Welcome to Students Incorporated, a podcast exploring the topics of business, education,
technology and design.
I'm your host, Mr. Jason.
Join me weekly as my team and I produce content that's informative, positive, fun and uplifting.
Episodes include student conversations, interviews with thought leaders and inspirational stories
with an international flavor.
This podcast is created and produced with the help of students from the International
Community School of Bangkok.
Hi, I'm Patience and I'll be hosting today's episode and I'm joined by co-host Premi.
In this episode, we'll attempt to unravel the mysteries of the mind and explore the
most effective and not so effective study methods with a group of non-experts, the podcast
team.
Have you ever wondered why some study techniques help you ace an exam while other techniques
don't?
From the well-trodden paths of space, repetition and active recall to the pitfalls of cramming
and passive reading, we'll guide you through the strategies that truly work and those that
can lead you astray.
Whether you're a student aiming for academic excellence, a lifelong learner or just someone
curious about the art of learning, this episode is for you.
But before we get started, let's hear the quote of the day and get some headline news.
Her quote of the day comes from Peter Rogers.
He said, You have to make your own condensed notes, you learn from making them.
A lot of thinking goes into deciding what to include and exclude.
You develop your own system of abbreviations and memory methods for that information.
This quote highlights the importance of developing a personalized system of abbreviations and
memory methods, indicating a customized approach to retaining and recalling the information.
Overall, it emphasizes the active engagement and cognitive effort involved in the process
of making condensed notes, ultimately resulting in effective learning.
And that's our quote of the day.
Because today's episode is on the topic of studying, our news segment will focus on the
opposite of studying.
So here are some rather disturbing news bits about cheating.
In 2015, a school district in Atlanta, Georgia was investigated because that district's
test scores had increased substantially, more so than normal.
The investigation revealed that teachers and administrators had been altering students'
test scores and encouraging a culture of cheating in an attempt to make the school district
look better.
When interviewed, the superintendent of the school district believed that she had done
nothing wrong.
As a result of the investigation, 11 teachers were convicted of racketeering and faced up
to 20 years in prison for their actions.
For those of you that don't know, racketeering is defined as a set of illegal activities
aimed at commercial profit or a coordinated effort by multiple people to repeatedly earn
a profit by fraud, extortion, bribery, threats, violence, or through other illegal means.
It's basically a type of organized crime, similar to what the mafia engages in.
Moving on to our next news story.
Earlier this year in February, a teacher at Cape Corral High School in Florida discovered
that many of his students had been using chat GPT in order to write their IB papers.
The students were part of the school's elite IB program and were all smart and hardworking
teens, the school thought.
However, with AI tools becoming more advanced and accessible to the public, the temptation
to abuse it also develops.
More and more students are using such programs to complete menial schoolwork and write their
essays, which is causing alarm for many schools globally.
Some schools have taken action by banning AI tools from their school network or relying
on AI checking tools, which is still not a reliable method for checking originality.
And finally, this news piece comes out of Southeast Asia.
A Filipino professor from the B. Cole University of College of Engineering advised her students
to bring headwear to their midterm exams in an attempt to curb cheating and encourage
them to go wild, which the class did.
Some copy the infamous Thai Casastart University's anti-cheating method of attaching two
A4 papers to a headband worn by the students to block them from looking at their classmates'
papers.
Some, however, went even further and brought in headwear that they crafted themselves and
funny props that they wore to the exam.
The professor and students were both amused and proud of themselves for causing a humor
stir in the midst of the pressure exerted upon them by the midterm exams.
Speaking of midterms, ICS's midterms are also starting today.
And that ends our headline cheating news for this episode.
Hey everybody, this first segment will be discussing some study methods that work and
some that don't.
I'm joined by our student podcast team and Mr. Jason today and we'll have another special
guest toward the end of the episode share a funny or not so funny top 10 list.
To get started in this segment in keeping with the topic of study methods, I can share
a study method that works for me.
During my junior year, I found it really helpful to study at a cafe.
It helps me study better because I'm not in my bedroom, tempting me to lay on my bed.
Cafes have a very peaceful atmosphere and soothing vibes.
I go to places like Starbucks or maybe like a small restaurant cafe.
Premi, maybe you can share one of your methods that work and then we can jump into our first
discussion question for the team.
Yeah, of course.
Okay, so setting methods.
I think the one that helps me the most would be active recall.
So when I like go through the material, I'll close the textbook and then I'll have a piece
of paper and then I'll just write everything I can remember.
I think this works a lot better than passive reading because I think for me, passive reading
isn't as effective because this is you reading information over and over again.
But like that information is always in front of you and that information isn't going to
be in front of you in the test.
So I think that really helps.
And then another thing that I also do would be just giving myself incentives to study.
So like if I finished this chapter in half an hour, I'm going to get myself a chocolate,
something like that.
Okay, now let's move on to our first study question.
It is what study method have you found to be the most effective in retaining information
long term?
And why do you think that works so well?
China's taking our first question.
That's crazy, Primi.
I use the same technique as you.
The study method that I found the most effective is the Feynman technique.
For this technique, you basically try to explain the subject in your own words as you were
teaching someone.
I think this technique works well because it forces you to think deeper into the subject
you're studying.
It forces you to simplify things, but also get to the main point and idea of the subject.
Hmm, that's a good technique.
Maybe I should try it too.
Moving on to our next question about studying, Rebecca, this one's for you.
It is, can you share a popular study method that you tried and found to be ineffective?
And why do you think that it was ineffective?
I learned from a Harvard student on Instagram that if we draw circles with our dominant
hand while memorizing schoolwork, that can help us remember the information better and
faster.
However, from what I've tried, it doesn't do much and can be distracting.
Oh, that's interesting, drawing circles.
Well, okay, I'll see if I should try that one.
But yeah, those sounded distracting.
Okay, and you've got this next question.
It is, how do you adapt your study methods to different types of content, such as theoretical
subjects versus practical skills?
I'd say when you study theory, it's kind of like more memorization.
So I just need to keep on studying over and over again until I fully remember all the
content and maybe ask a friend to help quiz each other or teach each other, which is like,
I guess, Chania's method.
But with like practical skills, like they're kind of harder to study.
There's a bunch of other ways you can do those too.
Like I think for physics, it's like a more practical based class because you have a lot
of labs and real world relevance that's emphasized.
So I guess how I would study, I guess I just learned all the theory first and then tried
to learn how to apply it.
But the problem with that is it takes a longer time to do because it's like a two step process
and it's all the harder to study with friends.
I see.
Our next question brings in technology.
In your opinion, how important is the role of technology in modern learning methods?
And do you have any specific tech tools or apps that you recommend?
For me, I like Canva.
Back to you, Chania.
I think technology is pretty important in modern learning methods.
It definitely provides a lot of benefits and convenience in finding information.
Personally, I like to use Google Tasks, which you can actually add to the side of your Gmail.
I use Google Tasks to organize my assignments and work for the week.
Yeah, I think technology definitely plays a role now, like especially more now in like
learning methods and not just learning methods to like organization system.
Okay, here's another intriguing thought.
We've been learning about like studying and memorization methods in psychology, whether
that's chunking, spacing, or like methods of locat and sleep.
I don't think we stress the importance of sleep enough.
Back in our unit about sleeping, I felt like really a lot worse, just staying up late just
to study.
Did you know that like not getting the sleep actually makes you lose actual brain cells?
I'm not kidding.
And I think like studying wise, study before an hour before sleep proves to be helpful,
better for retaining the information since you'll receive less distractions from that
information or stimuli before going to sleep.
But if you study a few minutes before drifting to sleep though, it's proven that you will
definitely not recall anything in those few minutes.
So yeah, it's been interesting to see how that how we've been learning that in psych
and how it plays out in real life and also here.
So I think the underlying principle though with like studying and memorization tools
would be just like the purpose of long term potentiation, right?
And then so like so studying and the retention of information won't be as effective or meaningful
if you're only looking to remember the material for a day just to pass this quiz or this test.
And that I think that defeats the purpose of learning a little bit.
What do you think Rebecca?
Personally, I find that chunking works best for me as a high school student, especially
this year, I took a lot of difficult classes, and I was overwhelmed by the amount of information
I had to learn every day.
However, I later realized that the chunking method is really helpful for my study.
It helps me to memorize the knowledge better and understand each point better by categorizing
them into different sections.
That's a good tactic.
Moving on to our next study in question, and it's about groups.
How do you find learning in a group setting versus an individual setting, for instance,
in projects?
Do you find one more beneficial than the other?
And in what context?
Yan Hao, what do you think?
I think they're both pretty important.
Like group projects have potential depending on if the project works better as a group.
Like for example, using psychology as an example, if you go break social norms at the mall,
it's easier to do it with a group because it's not as embarrassing and you can actually
include more variables in your experiment.
But then there's always a risk of somebody that doesn't do much in that group.
But in an actual study group, not a group project, it's harder to do that because everyone's
expecting you to know some of that information and actively participate so that you can actually
gain that knowledge from the session.
But like, I guess like groups can help more with, I guess, reviewing and clarifying specific
niches that you don't really understand if you already know most of the general content
and studied up before the session.
So studying on your own is still important since you have to understand the content yourself
in order to like start learning and building healthy habits rather than depending on your
friends to help you carry you in a study session, teach you everything.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I think another aspect that goes into this is just comes down to like personal preference.
Like some people just tend to do better studying alone versus studying in groups.
Okay, now moving on to our last discussion question for this segment, which will be for
Tanya and Rebecca.
What advice would you give to someone struggling to find a study method that works for them?
And how would you suggest that they go about experimenting with different techniques?
I think the best advice I could give is to start by knowing what you find the most interesting.
For me, I find interest in drawing and visualizing concepts.
I would start off with finding study methods that center around visualizing subjects and
explore from there.
I think starting off with something that you connect with and find interest in would help
you retain the information you learn better.
So in short, start off with what's familiar and comfortable to you and then explore from
them.
The advice I would give is to try different study method when you are studying and try
it for a week and see if it works for you.
If not, it can always develop your own method of studying and share it with others.
Making your own method is a great way to know yourself and give more options for other students
to try in their study life.
And with those final thoughts and advice about studying, we hope this discussion was thought
provoking and helpful, especially to all the students out there who are entering final exams.
Stay tuned for part two, as we'll be right back after this short PSA announcement about
how you can get involved with Students Incorporated.
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And we are back with a part two.
In this segment, we'll be discussing the topic of academic cheating and ongoing issue
worldwide.
We'll explore the effects and consequences of this unethical practice from how it undermines
the integrity of education to its impact on future careers and personal development.
We'll try to understand the ripple effects that academic dishonesty can have.
But before we get into this topic more, we have collected a few teacher stories about
cheating.
Mr. Jason, can you share what several teachers wrote to us about this topic?
Sure.
Our first story is about getting caught red handed.
The teacher writes, I used to like to watch my science classes from the back of the room
during test.
As I was looking around, I noticed a student very interested in his hand.
I looked a little closer and noticed he had something written on his hand, and it was
written in red ink.
I caught him literally red handed cheating on the test.
Our next cheating story is about the excuse of oversleeping.
The teacher writes, I had a student who didn't come to the final because the student overslept
and had to take it on the makeup day.
Talking to other teachers, it was discovered that this student made the same claim for
other finals to other teachers.
Apparently, she wanted to find out what was on the exam before taking it.
The makeup exams were definitely harder and this student did not benefit from the curve
because it was a different exam.
The worst part is that this student tried to do this again the next year but was caught
immediately because the student was already on the teacher's radar.
Our third and final teacher story about cheating is about makeup quizzes.
The teacher writes, I assigned a matching quiz to my students, but one student was absent
that day and had to take the makeup quiz later.
To create the makeup quiz, I shifted the questions around, taking the last question and placing
it at the beginning.
This meant that every subsequent question was moved down one number.
Interestingly, the student ended up scoring a zero on the makeup quiz.
However, had they taken the original unmodified quiz, they would have scored a perfect 100.
Apparently, the student didn't bother to read any of the questions to check if the
answers made sense.
And that ends our teacher stories about cheating.
Hopefully, these stories can serve as a caution to all potential cheaters out there.
The simple message we can take away from this story is to just don't do it.
It's just not worth it.
Moving on, maybe some of us have different understandings about what constitutes cheating.
Primi is here to set the record straight.
Can you give us the definition of what academic cheating is?
According to the dictionary, cheating is to act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain
an advantage, especially in a game or examination.
Cheating violates the principles of academic integrity, which includes honesty, trust,
fairness, respect, and responsibility.
It undermines educational purpose, but also hampers the teacher's own learning and ethical
development.
Basically, it's ethically wrong.
And in some cases, as we heard in the news, cheating is breaking the law, and you could
be prosecuted if caught.
Mr. Jason has a list of some common cheating behaviors that we will be discussing in this
segment and then we'll end up with a top 10 list presented to you by a special guest.
Mr. Jason, can you start us off with your list of common cheating behaviors?
That's right.
I have a list of seven common behaviors that can constitute academic cheating.
The first item is plagiarism.
Plagiarism is copying someone else's work, ideas, or expressions without proper acknowledgement
or citation and presenting them as your own.
Our discussion question is, how does plagiarism impact the value of academic achievements
and what steps can be taken to better educate students about the importance of originality
and proper citation?
Yen Hao, this question is for you.
Plagiarism occurs in a large variety of academic work, but it arguably occurs the most prominently
in essays.
Writing a whole essay by researching everything you know and revising it in order to make
it look better and ensuring your own thoughts in the essay is something that most students
can be proud of doing once they finish or they can be tired.
But plagiarism basically takes away a huge part of that work since you're essentially
just copying and pasting something into your work that someone took the time to think and
write about.
It doesn't benefit the student in any way since they are unable to gain a deeper understanding
of the topic and stricter measures should be imposed in order to discourage plagiarism
and students can easily be told about citations and ways that plagiarism negatively affects
them.
Alright, the second item is unauthorized collaboration.
Unauthorized collaboration is working with others on assignments that are meant to be
completed individually.
Alright, our discussion question is, in what way is this unauthorized collaboration blur
the line between cooperative learning and academic dishonesty and how should schools
define and regulate it?
This reminds me of the honor code.
From my perspective, unauthorized collaboration should be considered as cheating, which should
be treated seriously because it is basically using someone else's idea in your own paper
and certainly blurs the lines between cooperative learning, which should be group work where
each team member equally distributes the work and contributes equally to the team.
However, for unauthorized collaboration, students simply copy and paste others' work and turn
it in as their own.
There's no way for a teacher to make every student follow the honor code.
It is entirely up to them and their conscience.
Alright, thank you Rebecca.
And on that same idea of unauthorized, the next item is the use of unauthorized materials.
The use of unauthorized materials is accessing notes, books, electronic devices, or any other
resources during an exam or assignment when these materials are not permitted.
Our next discussion question is, what are the implications of using unauthorized materials
during exams and how can educators create an environment that discourages this behavior
while still encouraging to learn?
Chonya, what do you think?
Some implications of using unauthorized materials is probably somewhere along the lines of having
your exam taken away, score canceled, or having to meet with higher authority.
I think educators could try to discourage this behavior by creating a less competitive
and stressful environment.
I think the best way of doing this is probably through giving out more encouragement and
promoting positive productivity.
Okay, our fourth item is called fabrication.
Fabrication is inventing or falsifying data, research, or sources.
Premi, you've got the next question.
What are some of the long-term consequences of fabricating data in academic work, especially
in research and fact-finding?
And how can it affect future scholarly pursuits?
Yen Hao, what are your thoughts?
So making up data or sources can definitely affect academic work since it takes away the
purpose of researching accurate data and replaces it with pure finesse.
Point that you're trying to support with that false data is extremely weak and can
be exposed almost instantly if no sources are provided, and an overwhelming amount of
research that opposes that point is easily found.
That's why some teachers require citations in their work.
In order to ensure that the students are finding reliable sources to draw information from,
if you're unable to find scholarly sources that aren't fabricated and use them to your
advantage while in high school, you will definitely struggle in university with all the research
papers that you will have to submit and the thesis that you will have to write.
Alright, thank you, Yen Hao.
Our next item is impersonation.
Impersonation is having someone else sit for you at an exam or perform an assignment on
your behalf.
Patience.
So our next question is, why do you think students resort to impersonation and what
measures can be implemented to prevent this form of cheating?
Rebecca, what are your thoughts?
In my opinion, this happens a lot in our daily life because some students don't have the
confidence to be able to write great college essays.
Therefore, they are afraid that what they write won't be accepted by the admissions
officers.
Thus, they resort to impersonation because they have belief in them instead of themselves.
This should be attributed to the fact that students don't put in a 100% effort during
their school days.
Their laziness and procrastination prevent them from completing tasks on their own and
therefore leave them in the hands of others.
If there's a will, there's a way because people will figure out how to get away from
getting caught.
So the only thing we can do is to pray for them and to bear the spiritual fruit inside
them and honor God in every aspect of their life.
Thank you, Rebecca, for that answer.
Our next item is tampering with work.
Tampering with work is altering graded exams or assignments for the purpose of a regrade.
Premi?
Our discussion question is, how does tampering with graded work undermine the academic grading
system and what ethical dilemmas does it pose for both students and educators?
Chanya, can you take this one?
Since the grading system is meant to be a reference point and evaluation tool for equal
and fair grading, tampering with the system would cause unfairness.
The tampering of a grading system for students would be discouraging to them and it is unfair
because it does not reflect the actual ability and quality of the student and their work.
I think for educators, it would definitely cause a loss of integrity and organization.
Alright, thank you, Chanya.
And our last item is facilitating dishonesty.
Facilitating dishonesty is helping another student cheat or providing them with unauthorized
material or information.
Patience?
Our final discussion question is, what are the ethical implications for students who
facilitate cheating among their peers and how should institutions address this form
of complicity?
Yanhao, what do you think?
Encouraging your peers to cheat and helping them do so is not only a breach of academic
conduct but also affects the morality of the students involved in the cheating and increases
the chances that they will repeat this kind of behavior in the future.
It's also unfair to the students who did study or work hard for the assignment.
Institutions should address this by comparing students' work to each other or create more
isolated environments for testing so that it's harder to cheat.
They could also ask students to explain their work periodically or apply the content to
their own personal lives so that students are forced to write something original.
Yeah, thank you so much, Yanhao.
And now, as we close out this segment, we've been invited another guest to join us.
Welcome to the podcast, Mrs. Amber.
As a high school principal, we'd love for you to end this segment by reading our top
10 list titled, 10 Outrageous Cheating Methods That Probably Won't Work.
Some of these methods may sound familiar or maybe you've seen it dramatized in a movie.
Either way, they're quite creative.
Mrs. Amber, go ahead and share our creative cheating list.
Sure, and thanks for having me.
Okay, here are 10 outrageous cheating methods that probably won't work.
Number 1.
The water bottle label.
Students printing answers in tiny font on the inside of water bottle labels.
Number 2.
Morse code blinking.
Printing answers in a classroom using Morse code by blinking.
Number 3.
The eraser code.
Using different shaped erasers to represent different answers in a multiple choice test.
Number 4.
Invisible ink revelations.
Writing notes with invisible ink and using UV light to reveal them during the exam.
Number 5.
Mathematical nail art.
Painting formulas in tiny notes on fingernails only visible up close.
Number 6.
Fake arm sling.
Hiding notes inside of a fake arm sling.
Number 7.
Hacking the school system.
Tech savvy students hacking into school systems to change grades.
Number 8.
Elastic band stretch.
Writing notes on an elastic band and stretching it to read during a test.
Number 9.
The classic tiny paper.
Writing notes on extremely tiny pieces of paper and hiding them in pens, sleeves, or
under watch bands.
And number 10.
The coughing Morse code.
A group of students using a coughing system to indicate the correct answers to each other.
And with that final method, coughing Morse code, that seems like a lot of work to do.
We have run out of time.
Cheating may provide a short term advantage if you don't get caught.
However, the long term effects can be pretty damaging to an individual's learning development.
Not to mention the slew of other negative things we've already talked about.
As we end this episode, we'd like to encourage everyone out there to be lifelong learners.
You don't have to be an official student or enrolled in the class to be a learner.
Being a lifelong learner is as much about attitude and intention as it is about taking
a specific class or subject.
We are never too old to learn something new, right Mr. Jason?
That's right.
And as always, this podcast would not be possible without the hard work and support of our international
student production team.
All music and sound effects are courtesy of Pixabay.com, a vibrant community of creatives
sharing copyright free images, videos, and music.
And we are signing off until next time.
Be your student incorporated because your voice matters.