ACADEMIC DISHONESTY AMONG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

by Donald L. McCabe
ABSTRACT
Research on academic dishonesty has generally relied on survey techniques, which may fail to capture students' true feelings about cheating. The present investigation used focus group discussions to gain a fuller understanding of students' beliefs about academic dishonesty. The results suggest that, in regard to their cheating, students generally place the blame on others.
INTRODUCTION
The literature on cheating among college and high school students has shown that it is widespread and growing (McCabe & Trevino, 1996; Schab, 1991). For their part, students have readily offered a variety of rationalizations for academic dishonesty (Evans & Craig, 1990; McCabe, 1992). High school students in particular conveniently place the blame on others--the school, teachers, parents, or society (Anderman, Griesinger, & Westerfield, 1998).
Most of the research, however, has utilized survey techniques, which define the topics that respondents are to address. As a result, it is not clear that the most relevant questions have been asked, and that we truly understand how students themselves frame the issue of cheating. In contrast to survey techniques, focus group approaches provide qualitative information about a topic, and allow participants to raise the issues that they feel are most relevant.
In an effort to better understand student thinking about cheating, four focus group discussions--led by the Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University and funded by a grant from the Educational Testing Service--were held on the issue of academic dishonesty. Each session lasted about two hours. Thirty-two high school and college students in northern New Jersey participated.
In these discussions, students displayed little reluctance to discuss the topic of cheating, and they talked freely about their own experiences as well as those of their peers. Almost all admitted to some type of cheating. The high school students were decidedly more blase about cheating than were the college students. Since their views may well be a harbinger of change that will soon be reaching college campuses, findings from the two focus groups conducted with high school students are presented here. They came from eight high schools, representing a mix of urban and suburban, public and private, and single sex and coed. Eighteen were college-bound seniors and one was a junior. Firm college plans included Cornell (two students), Hartford, New York University, Notre Dame, Seton Hall, Virginia, Wellesley, and Yale (two students), among others.
ATTITUDES REGARDING CHEATING
Cheating is a complex issue for most students (e.g., Michaels & Miethe, 1989). Their standards in regard to what is and what is not cheating often vary depending on the context (LaBeff et al., 1990). Decisions about academic dishonesty are clearly influenced by societal and school norms, as well as the attitudes of teachers and, most importantly, friends (McCabe & Trevino, 1993, 1997). Unfortunately, these influences are not always positive, as the following student comments suggest.
I think times have changed. Cheating is kind of considered, I don't know, just a kind of daily thing that's out there, almost kind of acceptable. Teachers know it and students know it.
Maybe when our parents were growing up or their parents were growing up, it was a lot tighter and stricter on people cheating. Today it's just not happening. I think grown-ups have gotten a little bit more with-it in terms of knowing that you're just going to kind of cheat.
It's almost a big deal if you don't cheat.
It appears that cheating does not weigh heavily on the conscience of high school students.
I guess the first time you do it, you feel really bad, but then you get used to it. You keep telling yourself you're not doing anything wrong.... Maybe you might know in your heart that it's wrong, but it gets easier after a while to handle it. People cheat. It doesn't make you less of a person or worse of a person. There are times when you just are in need of a little help.
The decision to cheat seems to be based on pragmatic considerations (e.g., to pass a test or to get a better grade in a competitive situation).
I think people are going to cheat so it will help them to get into [an Ivy League school]. ... You can't change that; you can't change people wanting to get the A or whatever.
If ... cheating is going to get you the grade, then that's the way to do it.
While theories on deviance have indicated that the threat of being caught and punished might act as a deterrent (e.g., Michaels & Miethe, 1989), research suggests that many students feel they are not likely to get caught or that no one cares enough to punish them even if they are (e.g., McCabe & Trevino, 1993, 1997). The high school students in the present study were no exception.
I don't know if it's just our school, but like everybody cheats. Everyone looks at everyone else's paper. And the teachers don't care; they let it happen. ... The students keep on doing it because they don't get in trouble.
You can only do as much as they let you get away with. So if they let you get away with it, then that's on them.
THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY
Information technologies have opened up new opportunities for academic dishonesty. For example, one budding entrepreneur was using his computer to run his own little "paper mill" in order to raise money for the purchase of CDs.
I got this computer and it came with an encyclopedia. ... Somebody comes up to me and says, "I need ten pages on Edgar Allan Poe," I can go home, cut and paste, and depending on how smart the person is, I'll add what is appropriate.
One of the most pressing issues is the growing use of the Internet. Some teachers encourage its use and show students how to cite Internet sources properly. Others have not yet established policies. However, most students in the focus groups seemed to feel that their teachers were not familiar with computer technology, and they found it easy to plagiarize using the Internet.
I think you can get away with it easier. [Teachers] don't really know what's on the Internet as much.... They're accustomed to the books that are in the library or the books we'll use, so they can tell more easily if you plagiarize from them.
Most teachers are technophobic; they're not used to the Internet.
There are a lot of kids in our school who go onto the Internet, and if it's a big book, like A Tale of Two Cities, there are papers that are written already. Basically, they just copy it, change the name on it, hand it in; and no teachers have ever caught anybody or said anything about it.... There is so much on the Internet now, that it's easy....I know you can buy papers off the Internet.
SCHOOL POLICIES ON CHEATING
Most of the students said that there is little discussion about cheating at their schools. Cheating is mentioned only occasionally; for example, at school orientation or during the first day of class. Although some schools publish their policies on cheating in a student handbook, many students felt that such guidelines have little impact on cheating.
If people are going to cheat, they are going to do it regardless of the rules. If a school has lax rules, it's going to make it easier than tough rules, but people are still going to do it.
At the beginning of the school year, in English class or something, they'll give you the paper on how to cite others' work, and then a five-minute spiel about not plagiarizing.... But it's never really been enforced.
If I was going to [a school with strict rules against cheating], I would find a way around it. It's like a bigger wall to climb.
Some students had reservations about cheating on tests or assignments that are graded on the curve, noting the issue of fairness. None, however, indicated a willingness to report a classmate if he or she was observed cheating.
It's an unspoken rule for people our age--you just don't tell. I don't know why, either, but it's like you make yourself look worse than the person [who cheated]. Everybody starts looking at you like, "Why did you have to go and tell? Why don't you mind your business?" It kind of makes you look bad.
No, I never tell.... It just doesn't cross my mind to go, "Guess what? Somebody was cheating in my class."
If I see someone cheating, I'm not going to go rat. I'm not going to say nothing to the teacher.
Research has shown that a number of situational and contextual factors influence students' decisions about cheating (Bowers, 1964; McCabe & Trevino, 1993, 1997). For example, students generally believe that it is easier to cheat on tests in science classes, where answers tend to be more objective, than in social science classes, where essay tests are more common. Class size is also a factor. Students feel cheating is easier, and thus more likely to occur, in large, crowded classes. At the high school level, however, the most significant factor is the teacher. Unfortunately, in the present study, students reported that many teachers are simply not concerned about cheating.
We haven't actually had many tests this year, but when we do, people just kind of pass around papers and whatever. I think the teacher knows, but he just doesn't do anything about it.
[The teacher] leaves most of the teaching up to the students. He'll throw a chapter out there, or a couple of chapters: "You got to learn this." It just drives people to cheat.
I think part of it is motivated by how much respect you have for the teacher.
[My math teacher] would leave the class and it would be cheating time.... But rm at the point now where I don't know nothing.... If I don't cheat, I just fail.
A lot of the teachers that I've dealt with are always talking about how they can't wait to go home... acting like they don't want to be there. Their job is to teach me, and if they can't do that for me, then I'm going to do what I can to move up in the world. If cheating is what I have to do, then that's what I'm going to do.
CONCLUSION
The findings from the focus groups reveal that some students believe cheating is a normal part of life, and there is little, if anything, that can be done about it. As one student noted, "Cheating is just going to be a thing that continues. I can't say forever, but I don't know who is going to stop it or when it's going to stop."
There was little consensus, even among less pessimistic students, on how to address the problem. Some stated that parents and elementary school teachers need to play a bigger role, while others emphasized the importance of secondary school teachers. Others felt that fundamental changes must take place at the societal level before cheating can be stopped.
I think it starts in elementary school and at home, like the attitude of your parents and family and the people that you know. I think the way to get people not to cheat is to not want to cheat, because I don't see in the foreseeable future any way of foolproofing tests.
If the teacher just takes the time to make sure you actually learn the information, I think that would decrease a lot of cheating.
You can't really change it from the school level; you have to change the way society looks at you. You have to make cheating so terrible you would never want to do it. ... You have to change what people think. You have to make people not want to cheat.
While the level of pessimism among students about what can be done to reduce cheating is disheartening, equally discouraging is the failure to give them greater responsibility for achieving that goal. One of the hallmarks of those colleges and universities that seem to have the lowest levels of cheating is a strong student role in establishing and administering academic integrity policies; in other words, a real sense of responsibility and ownership (Bowers, 1964; McCabe & Trevino, 1993). Unfortunately, at the vast majority of high schools, students have never been offered this option, and therefore little is likely to change. Thus, perhaps the most appropriate role for teachers and administrators in addressing academic dishonesty is to tell students the following: this issue is important to you, to us, to society, and it is our responsibility--administrators, teachers, and students alike--to address it. Until then, students will continue to do whatever it takes to succeed in a system that, in many ways, the y perceive as uncaring and unfair.
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