I found this sign (which is in our classroom) quite interesting. You would never have this in Europe, or at least not in France. However, some European students who came to study in the US told me that it does work. In the sense that, you might have been cheating like mad when you were in Europe, when you arrive for example at Princeton, you have to sign something saying that you won’t cheat for your exams. Then teachers give you exams that you take home, that you have to do in a limited time, without the help of any book or calculator, and, of course, alone. And, strangely enough, you obey the rules. Now, I think I wouldn’t have any trouble to obey the rule of book and calculator. Time is already harder to cope with, and resisting calling a friend is also not that easy. So there are at least two questions that arise: in a way, doesn’t this reflects a more individualistic society? And, is it the fact that you sign something that makes it so official that you don’t break the rules?
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The problem is the following. You have limited (lim->0) of people that you can copy anything from. For example, I messed up once at a chemistry lab - I can't remember but I suppose I hadn't read the lab handout beforehand. My lab partner (yes, my partner) saw that I was messing up and while in Europe you would have been "Come on, tell me the way to do it. Can I see how you did it?" and the other person would have showed you, here that guy with tried to tell me "read the handout now, because you'll understand what's going on, and you'll learn". I ended up staying in the lab 2 hours more than him. Not fun, and I don't think I learnt anything more.
The other issue that was raised once was about a friend who was in trouble and copied part of a homework (not mine! Ouf!) Not being educated the European way, he copied everything to the last digit and made no alterations, not a single mistake. The teaching assistant who sees all the homeworks (I did that myself last semester) has really fresh who did what, so it was inevitable that my friend would be caught. And in trouble...
Does that answer your questions? At Harvard we never signed anything. They use "honor code" :)
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