Opportunity Makes the Cheater: High School Students and Academic Dishonesty

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to reveal data about cheating behaviours in Slovenian upper secondary schools, to raise awareness and to lower tolerance for such behaviour. To acquire information about demographics, cheating behaviour, and opinions on such behaviour, we compiled a questionnaire that targeted a university population of first-year students(N=323). From the results, it was revealed that cheating is a way of life in Slovenian schools, and almost all students at least occasionally indulge in some academic misbehaviour. It seems that a culture tolerant or even supportive of such behaviour has been established among students, parents and teachers, all working together to “help” students climb the ladder of success. The open question is whether all kinds of cheating are even recognized as such. Cheating is most common in homework, but at the other end, even systems such as external exams are not immune to fraud. At the moment, classic methods of cheating dominate. Differences between characters (e.g. gender) and educational institutions in most cases are non-existent or small, a finding that could aid in establishing measures to prevent cheating inside schools as institutions.

Lack of ethics or lack of knowledge? European upper secondary students’ doubts and misconceptions about integrity issues

“…35 for an overview). Comparable levels of dishonesty among upper secondary students have been reported from several other countries, including Spain (Sureda-Negre et al 2015 ), Indonesia (Pramadi et al 2017 ) and Slovenia (Šorgo et al 2015 ). Widespread cheating and corruption has been reported among Cambodian secondary students (Brehm 2016 ), while a survey of Taiwanese students reported markedly lower levels of plagiarism (Chang et al 2015 ).…”

Investigating how autonomy‐supportive teaching moderates the relation between student honesty and premeditated cheating

“…The overall prevalence of this problem is particularly high at the post‐secondary level, with as many as 68% of undergraduate students reporting having cheated at least once on an exam or on an assignment over the course of their studies (International Center for Academic Integrity, 2020). Fortunately, even with a high prevalence of cheating, only a minority of students will cheat when considering a specific evaluation (Šorgo, Vavdi, Cigler, & Kralj, 2015). Unsurprisingly, cheating has drawn a lot of attention from school administrations and scholars looking into ways to deter dishonest behaviours, with varying success (Kashian, Cruz, Jang, & Silk, 2015; Reisenwitz, 2012).…”

Exploring Cheating Behavior of College Students in Khairpur, Sindh, Pakistan

“…Cheating on college examinations. Psychological reports, 379-380.16 Sorgo, a., vavdi, m., cigler, u., & kralj, m. (2015). Opportunity makes the cheater: high school students and academic dishonesty.…”