Academic integrity: a quantitative study of confidence and understanding in students at the start of their higher education

Newton, Philip M.

doi:10.1080/02602938.2015.1024199

Cited by 69 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The findings of authors embracing the ethical perspective (e.g., Newton, 2016) have shown that students who were more confident in their understanding of plagiarism as a problematic behavior not only performed better on simple tests of referencing, but also recommended more severe penalties for conducting academic dishonesty offenses.…”

Section: Literature Review and Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cheating and Feeling Honest: Committing and Punishing Analog versus Digital Academic Dishonesty Behaviors in Higher Education

Friedman

Blau

Eshet-Alkalai

2016

IJELL

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This study examined the phenomenon of academic dishonesty among university students. It was based on Pavela's (1997) framework of types of academic dishonesty (cheating, plagiarism, fabrication, and facilitation) and distinguished between digital and "traditional"-analog dishonesty. The study analyzed cases of academic dishonesty offenses committed by students, as well as the reasons for academic dishonesty behaviors, and the severity of penalties for violations of academic integrity. The motivational framework for committing an act of academic dishonesty (Murdock & Anderman, 2006) and the Self-Concept Maintenance model (Mazar, Amir, & Ariely, 2008) were employed to analyze the reasons for students' dishonest behaviors. We analyzed 315 protocols of the Disciplinary Committee, at The Open University of Israel, from 2012-2013 that represent all of the offenses examined by the Committee during one and a half years. The findings showed that analog dishonesty was more prevalent than digital dishonesty. According to the students, the most prevalent reason for their academic dishonesty was the need to maintain a positive view of self as an honest person despite violating ethical codes. Interestingly, penalties for analog dishonesty were found to be more severe than those imposed for digital dishonesty. Surprisingly, women were penalized more severely than men, despite no significant gender differences in dishonesty types or in any other parameter explored in the study. Findings of this study shed light on the scope and roots of academic dishonesty and may assist institutions in coping effectively with this phenomenon.

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Section: Literature Review and Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cheating and Feeling Honest: Committing and Punishing Analog versus Digital Academic Dishonesty Behaviors in Higher Education

Friedman

Blau

Eshet-Alkalai

2016

IJELL

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“…Students would also greatly benefit from referencing software training since research has shown that few of them use this type of software (Milewski & Williamson, 2017;Salem & Fehrmann, 2013). This would prevent them from making mistakes they often commit when referencing their sources according to norms (Mandernach, Zafonte, & Taylor, 2016), or when quoting and paraphrasing (Newton, 2016).…”

Section: Referencing Skills Definedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are Canadian professors teaching the skills and knowledge students need to prevent plagiarism?

Peters

Cadieux

2019

Int J Educ Integr

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Max 150 words. If possible, please submit your abstract in both English and French. When writing an assignment, most students start by searching for information online, which they integrate in their writing and conclude by producing a bibliography for the sources used. They use their informational, writing and referencing skills to do this as well as refer to their plagiarism knowledge to make sure their text is exempt from plagiarism. In this paper, we examined which skills and knowledge students feel the need to further develop in university to prevent plagiarism in their assignments. Professors were also questioned as to their perceptions of their students' skills development during their pre-university studies. Questionnaires were administered in six Quebec Universities to students (n = 1170) and professors (n = 279). Results show that students feel the need for more training while professors expect students to have already mastered the skills and knowledge to prevent plagiarism. Recommendations are made on how to implement better training for students through a program approach. Lors de la rédaction d'un devoir, la plupart des étudiants universitaires commencent par chercher des informations en ligne, qu'ils intègrent dans leur rédaction et terminent en produisant une bibliographie des sources utilisées. Ils utilisent leurs compétences informationnelles, rédactionnelles, et de référencement documentaire et se réfèrent à leurs connaissances en matière de plagiat pour s'assurer que leur texte en soit exempt. Dans cet article, nous avons examiné les compétences et les connaissances que les étudiants ressentent le besoin de développer davantage à l'université pour prévenir le plagiat dans leurs travaux. Les professeurs ont également été interrogés sur leur perception du développement des compétences de leurs étudiants durant leurs études pré-universitaires. Des questionnaires ont été administrés dans six universités québécoises à des étudiants (n = 1170) et à des professeurs (n = 279). Les résultats montrent que les étudiants ressentent le besoin d'une formation plus poussée alors que les professeurs s'attendent à ce que les étudiants maîtrisent déjà les compétences et les connaissances nécessaires pour prévenir le plagiat. Des recommandations sont formulées sur la façon de mettre en oeuvre une meilleure formation pour les étudiants par le biais d'une approche-programme.

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“…Are students already committing 'fraud' -should HE providers be reporting this to the police? Given the apparently high frequency with which some students engage in 'ordinary' plagiarism; almost 40% according to some studies (McCabe 2016), and the poor understanding that students have of these concepts, particularly when they first enter higher education (Newton 2015), do we risk criminalising millions of students? Assuming that this would be an undesirable outcome, any use of legislation to address contract cheating would require careful enacting, or even new laws, to avoid it -this could even apply to the proposed law in Table 1, as we explore further below.…”

Section: Criminalisation Of Academic Activitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A legal approach to tackling contract cheating?

Draper

Newton

2017

Int J Educ Integr

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The phenomenon of contract cheating presents, potentially, a serious threat to the quality and standards of Higher Education around the world. There have been suggestions, cited below, to tackle the problem using legal means, but we find that current laws are not fit for this purpose. In this article we present a proposal for a specific new law to target contract cheating, which could be enacted in most jurisdictions. We test our proposed new law against a number of issues that would need to be considered before any legal approach could be successful; would changing the legal status of contract cheating make it less likely to happen? Could this be achieved in a specific way? If so, who should actually be prosecuted and what offence are they committing? Would it actually address the causes of contract cheating? We suggest some answers to these questions, but then also identify a number of unintended potential consequences. We therefore additionally consider whether a legal approach is possible or even desirable. We conclude that a legal approach to contract cheating is possible, and, on balance, appropriate. Using UK law as an example, we offer a specific suggestion to lawmakers, around the world, for how this might be achieved, and conclude that the most successful approach would be to focus largely on a law targeting the providers of contract cheating, in particular commercial services.

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Academic integrity: a quantitative study of confidence and understanding in students at the start of their higher education

Cited by 69 publications

References 23 publications

Cheating and Feeling Honest: Committing and Punishing Analog versus Digital Academic Dishonesty Behaviors in Higher Education

Cheating and Feeling Honest: Committing and Punishing Analog versus Digital Academic Dishonesty Behaviors in Higher Education

Are Canadian professors teaching the skills and knowledge students need to prevent plagiarism?

A legal approach to tackling contract cheating?

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