Scenario: Questions to Share

Group Size: 4-15

Scenario

You are a member of a soccer team at a Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) training establishment and most of the players hang out together and study the same subjects. You have a final exam in one of your primary courses next week, but you are not adequately prepared for it.

One day, a teammate comes to you and says that she found the questions for this exam. You ask her how she got them, and her response was “from the instructor’s desk!” She further explained that, in the morning, when she entered the classroom, she found a file left behind on the instructor’s desk. Since she was alone in the classroom, she checked out the file and found a sheet with all the questions for the exam on it. The questions covered the course content that you are both studying. As a sign of friendship, she decided to share the questions with the rest of the soccer team, because “teammates stick together.” She passes the questions to you with a smile!

Categories

• Principles: Serve Canada before Self
• Values: Integrity, Loyalty, Courage, Excellence
• Cultural themes: Service, Identity, Leadership
• Misconduct types: General Misconduct
• GBA Plus themes: Education
• Audience: Defence Team

Facilitator’s Guide

Learning Objectives

• Discuss the ethical principal to of “Serve Canada before Self” as it relates to this scenario.
• Discuss how the ethical values of integrity and courage are at play in this scenario.

Facilitation Questions

1. What would you do in this situation? What are the considerations?
   • Allow open discussion from the group.
   • Ethical concerns: Accepting the exam questions contributes to an unethical act. Furthermore, regardless of the decision that you make, you are now aware that such an act has been committed.
   • Personal factors: There is a lot of pressure on you because you are part of the soccer team, and you are supposed to “stick together”.  Whatever action you take will have an impact on your teammates’ perception of you. The group might ostracize you if you refuse to take the questions or report their academic misconduct.
   • Environmental factors: The training establishment is a small community and the information that the exam questions might be circulating amongst students will quickly get around. There is an expectation that students will act with integrity and return the questions.
2. What is the ethical dilemma in this situation? 
   • You realize that your integrity as a future member of the CAF conflicts with your loyalty towards your teammates.
   • If you do not accept the exam questions, you could be perceived as disloyal to your teammates. Conversely, if you report this misconduct, there will be severe consequences for the student(s) involved.
3. What are some potential courses of action that could be taken in this scenario?
   • Option 1: Tell your friend to return the questions. Advise her that if the questions are not returned, you will have no choice but to report her. It will create a lot of tension. 
   • Option 2: Accept the questions and stick with the group. However, you must understand that there will be consequences if the act is discovered.
   • Option 3: Do not accept the exam questions and turn a blind eye. You are behaving as though you are not aware of the situation. Your teammates might label you as someone who does not “play” by the rules. Your inaction does not resolve your guilt.
   • Option 4: Report to the professor that the exam has been compromised and let them deal with it. Expect negative reactions from your teammates who are likely to assume that you are the one who reported to the professor.