The Understanding of Academic Integrity in Primary Schools

Abstract

Integrity has always been projected as a positive value. Academic integrity is one of the key aspects of the teaching/learning process, which is connected to the principles of ethics in addition to being genuine, honest and reliable. This is the basis for sustainable knowledge as well as a prerequisite for success. The study has been developed with the aim of assessing the understanding of learners and teachers in relation to academic integrity and exploring types of academic dishonesty and the factors affecting it during the primary education stage in Latvia. The study has explored concepts of academic integrity, dishonesty in theoretical literature and binding normative documents in Latvia, as well as the factors influencing them, and the correlation with ages and character features, and forms of academic dishonesty have been discussed. The type of research design is a case study, so the results of the study are not generalizable. The empirical part is based on the survey; the participants were teachers working in the primary education stage (157) and 345 students of Grades 4–9. The results obtained show that students and teachers do not have a shared understanding about the concept of academic integrity and its importance because no common guidelines have been developed for promoting academic integrity. The data also reveal that one quarter of teachers and more than half of the surveyed students have never encountered the issue of academic integrity in their experience. The main types of academic dishonesty mentioned are verbal communication, looking at someone else’s work; the main reasons noted are the lack of knowledge and skills, not enough time spent for preparing for a test and desire to obtain a good mark.