Investigating Academic Dishonesty Among University Students

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INTRODUCTION

In this chapter researcher present the background of this study, identification of the problem, limitation, research questions, purposes, and significance of this study.

Background of the Study

Academic dishonesty is someone’s or group of people tendency to commit dishonest behaviour in the field of education. Academic dishonesty contradicts academic integrity, which is about commitment to the values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility (Fundamental Values as cited in Ahmed, 2018). Academic dishonesty is involving various deviant behaviour that breached the rules and regulations of learning institutions (De Lambart, Ellen, & Ferrell in Meng, Othman, D’Silva, & Omar, 2014, p. 67). Academic dishonesty can further describe as students’ tendency in cheating or copying someone’s work and it gives student advantages during the test or finish their assignment (Bleeker as cited in Thomas, 2017, p. 141). In line with Bleeker definition, Tasgin (2018, p. 86) state that academic dishonesty is propensity of an individual to intentionally commit plagiarism, using someone else’s work as his own without paraphrasing and adding citation or references. Therefore, writer can conclude that academic dishonesty is someone’s or group of people tendency to commit dishonest behaviour in the field of education.

Academic dishonesty can be done in the form of cheating and plagiarism. Cheating during exam and plagiarize someone’s work are belong to academic dishonesty (Bachore, 2016, p. 15). Further, Lyer and Eastman (2008) as cited in Basir and Bala (2018, p. 59) emphasize, there are four components of academic dishonesty; those are plagiarism, cheating, electronic cheating and seeking outside help.

Cheating is the act in searching information through personal resources and asking and giving for help or answer during test or examination hours. It supported by Etter et.al (2006) as cited in Bachore (20116, p. 15), using notes, formulas or other information in electronic device without teacher’s permission, or allowing someone else to take a test for someone else and asking another to give you help, including offering money or other benefits are categorized as cheating.

Meanwhile, plagiarism is the acts of telling material from other resources, submitting other writer paper, copying material without adding quotation marks, and paraphrasing sentences without adding resources are belong to plagiarism (Park as cited in Rehman and Waheed, 2014, p. 2). Further, providing papers and submitting same academic work for more than one course also categorize as plagiarism (Bachore, 2016, p. 15).

Academic dishonesty or more commonly known as cheating and plagiarism is not a new problem in the field of education (Balbuena and Lamela, 2015, p. 69). It is an ongoing issue today and overcomes even in some of academic institutions, for example in Harvard (Carmichael as cited in Ahmed, 2018). Types academic dishonesty which done by students is cheating during exam and plagiarism (Rehman and Waheed, 2014). A study found that there are 97% of medical school students in Europe admitted to do academic dishonesty (Taradi, Taradi, & Dogas as cited in Thomas, 2017, p. 141). Among 3,600 students in United stated found that 95% of students admitted to cheating during the past academic year (Wangaard and Stephens, 2011). There are many students believe that cheating is wrong but they still do it (Ahmed, 2018). Further, there are more than 65,700 undergraduate and 9,250 graduated students during 2001 until 2005 commit plagiarism (McCabe as cited in MacLennan, 2018).

Also, academic dishonesty is not new issue in Indonesia. This issue is a concern of Indonesia government. Government makes a rule regarding plagiarism that is Pasal 70 Undang-undang Republik Indonesia No. 20 Tahun 2003 state that graduates students who commit plagiarism for their thesis will be imprisoned or fined Rp 200.000.000 (two hundred rupiah). Hovewer, in the reality, there are some students who commit plagiarism. Pratama and Santosa (2018) stated that EFL students in Singaraja, Indonesia understand the notion of plagiarism but they still committing plagiarism. According to Dee and Jacob (2012) as cited in Grira & Jaeck (2018, p. 10) conducting plagiarism can give some impact such us decrease the quality of education and decrease human value.

There are some similar studies that had been conducted by some researchers. First is study has been done by Tasgin (2018). The aim of study is to examine the relationship between the research attitudes of the pre-service teachers and their academic dishonesty tendencies. The design of study is correlational design and method used in this study is quantitative method. The subjects of study are 659 volunteer pre-service teachers from the faculty of education of a state university in East of Turkey. Further, the result is, there is negative relationship between academic dishonesty and attitudes towards the research.

Other research had been conducted by Diego (2017). The focus of the study are to find the reason why students copy other learners’ answer during exam, the way by which students copy other learner’ answer, the effect of copying other learners’ answer, and intervention need to be maintained. The study uses qualitative method. The subjects of the study are high school students in Palawa.

The other study had been conducted by Bachoer (2016). The objective of the study is to asses the perception of teachers and learners on the nature of practice, the type and the causes of academic cheating (dishonesty) in Hawassa University. Concerning this matter, this study has a novelty in the term of subject. The subjects of this study are English Language Education students. This study decided to investigate the motive and trend of academic dishonesty among University students. Further, this study is quantitative research and the design of this study is survey.

Since academic dishonesty case was very concern to be conducted by several researchers, the researcher conducted this study intended to investigate motive and trend of academic dishonesty among university students. Before conducting the present study, researcher conducted primarily observation through informal interview with several students of English Language Education. The result of preliminarily observation was used as ground information in the consideration of conducting this study.

Based on preliminarily study, it was found that students of English Language Education has committed plagiarism and cheating. They committed plagiarism by copying the information from the internet without adding the sources and claimed that as their original work. Meanwhile, they also admitted that cheated during the exam. They admitted that they cheated by asking their friend the answer, making a note on paper or on the desk, or searching the answer on the internet. However, this case needs deep analysis to investigate the situation above.

This study is very important to be conducted because academic dishonesty is widely happening. This study can raise students’ awareness about academic dishonesty. Then, the result of this study can be used as reflection of what teacher/lecture should do to fighting with academic dishonesty in collage.

Identification of Research Problem

Based on preliminarily observation, it was found that students of English Language Education had committing academic dishonesty in the form of cheating and plagiarism during their collage life. They do those things due to several reasons such as they do not really understand about the material; they do not know how to make correct citation or quotation: they do not know what kinds of act that belongs to academic dishonesty; and the lecturer does not check the originality of students work.

Thus, comprehensive investigation is needed to obtain the information about what English Language Education students’ motives behind committing academic dishonesty. It cannot be deny that academic dishonesty can occur due to several actions and there must be several motives behind students doing academic dishonesty

Limitation of Problem

This study is limited to investigate English Language Education students’ motives on conducting academic dishonesty in the form of cheating and plagiarism and English Language Education students’ ways on committing academic dishonesty in the form of cheating and plagiarism. This study only focus on investigate students’ motive and ways on conducting cheating and plagiarism because these types of academic dishonesty are very crucial among students. Wangaard and Stephens (2011) stated that 95% from 3,600 students in United State found that 95% admitted to cheating during the past academic year. Further, there are more than 65,700 undergraduate and 9,250 graduated students during 2001 until 2005 commit plagiarism (McCabe as cited in MacLennan, 2018).

Purpose of Study

Based on research questions, this study intended to investigate English Language Education students’ motives on committing cheating and plagiarism and ways on committing cheating and plagiarism. The result of the study can raise students’ awareness about cheating and plagiarism and it can reflect what teacher/lecture should do to avoid academic dishonesty in the form of cheating and plagiarism.

LITERATURE RIVIEW

In this chapter, the researcher presents theories that used to support this study which divided into theoretical review and empirical review.

Theoretical Review

Academic dishonesty contradicts academic integrity, which is about commitment to the values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility (Fundamental Values in Ahmed, 2018). Academic dishonesty is involving various deviant behaviour that breached the rules and regulations of learning institutions (De Lambart, Ellen, & Ferrell in Meng, Othman, D’Silva, & Omar, 2014, p. 67). Academic dishonesty can further describe as students’ tendency in cheating or copying someone’s work and it gives student advantages during the test or finish their assignment (Bleeker in Thomas, 2017, p. 141). In line with Bleeker definition, Tasgin (2018, p. 86) states that academic dishonesty is propensity of an individual to intentionally commit plagiarism, using someone else’s work as his own without paraphrasing and adding citation or references.

There are two forms of academic dishonesty, which are cheating and plagiarism. It is supported by statement from Bachore (2016, p. 15) cheating during exam and plagiarize someone’s work are belong to academic dishonesty Further, Lyer and Eastman (2008) as cited in Basir and Bala (2018, p. 59) emphasized that there are four components of academic dishonesty; those are plagiarism, cheating, electronic cheating and seeking outside help.

Cheating

There are several behaviours that related to cheating. McCabe and Trevino (1993) as cited in Royer (2013) stated that there are several types of behaviour that categorized as cheating such as using note while taking a test, learn material by applied unfair method before conducting a test, copying another students works and turning it as your own work, giving help for someone else during the test, fabricating or falsifying a bibliography, using someone else work, copying sentence without giving acknowledgement, working collaboratively when teacher asks to work individually, asking unpermitted help for finishing the assignment. In edition, Miller, at all (2008) as cited in Royer (2013) mentioned that asking information from someone who already take a test also categorized as cheating behaviour.

Plagiarism

Meanwhile, plagiarism is the activity of claiming someone else work as their own, without paraphrasing and only copying the whole content, and paraphrasing certain sentences without giving credit (Park in Rehman and Waheed, 2014, p. 2). Another activity that consider as plagiarism are acting as provider of papers and submitting same academic work for more than one course (Bachore, 2016, p. 15).

Dhammi and Haq (2016) stated that there are several forms of plagiarism. First is verbatim plagiarism. Verbatim plagiarism is when someone uses someone else’s words in his/her own name without referencing. Second is mosaic plagiarism. In mosaic plagiarism, someone is mixing some words from someone else’s idea/opinion. Third is cyber plagiarism. In this type of plagiarism, someone is downloading and copying a part or entirety of article or research paper from the internet without giving proper citation. Another type of plagiarism is image plagiarism. In image plagiarism, someone uses image or video without asking permission or providing appropriate citation.

Empirical Review

The first study was done by Rehman and Waheed (2014) which conducted case study about activities performed by university students during academic misconduct and their perceptions regarding such activities. The data were collected through interview. The result showed that the major activities performed by the students during academic misconducts such as during exams hours, assignment preparation and using internet resources and 47.5% students considered academic dishonesty as unethical but acceptable practice in the context of Pakistan and agreed upon that academic dishonesty is a bad habit and may be avoided.

The second study was done by Alsuwaih, Rust-Eft, and Alshurai (2016) which conducted study to investigate why academic dishonesty is common among the students at the College of Basic Education in Kuwait. The data were collected through interview and questioners survey. The result of this study shows that academic dishonesty is common at the College of Basic Education in Kuwait because its has some benefits such as receiving higher grades, saving time, receiving higher marks than friends, receiving scholarships for masters and doctorate degrees, and making new friends.

The third study was done by Ahmed (2018) which is conducted survey study about students’ perspective towards cheating and how it is done. The data were collected through distribute survey which consists of items stetements and open-ended questions.The result of study showed that students believe that this kind of misbehaviour is wrong but they still do it. Further, the result showed that 65% of students use technology to cheat.

The forth study was done by Tasgin (2018) which conducted correlation study about relationship between pre-service teachers’ attitude towards research and their academic dishonesty tendency. The result showed that the academic dishonesty tendencies of the senior year pre-service teachers are higher than that of the sophomore year pre-service teachers. The result of this study also found that there was a negative relationship between the academic dishonesty and their attitudes towards the research.

Conceptual Framework of Thinking

This study investigates English Language Education students’ motives on committing cheating and plagiarism, ways on committing cheating and plagiarism. Based on theoretical and empirical review that have been explained, there were several theories and previous studies which reviewed that relevant this study. For the detail process of this study, it can be seen in figure below.

References

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Bachore, M. M. 2016. The nature, causes and practices of academic dishonesty/cheating in higher education: the case of Hawassa University. Journal of Education and Practice, 7(19), 14-20. https://www.iiste.org/Journals/index.php/ JEP/article/view/31909/32779
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