The growing recognition of academic dishonesty as a major cross-cultural problem urges educators and researchers to examine various aspects of the issue. This qualitative case study examined secondary school students' intention to cheat and willingness to report observed academic cheating incidents. The participants comprised 20 students randomly…

The stages in an individual's moral development will determine how an individual will behave. Kohlberg divides moral development into three stages, namely pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional. However, the stages of individual moral development may vary. These different levels of moral development will influence individuals'…

Throughout the history of academics, cheating in various forms has coincided, evolving alongside university advancements. This paper explores the concept of academic dishonesty as a critical issue facing higher education in a modern context, establishes the cause of the problem, and concludes with potential solutions. The idea of academic…

Over the past fifty years, cheating among high school students increased substantially and affected the morale of students (Simha, Armstrong, & Albert, 2012). According to a nationally representative survey of 36,000 U.S. adolescents, some 60% of high school students confessed to cheating on a test during the previous school year, and that the…

In this article, the authors argue that colleges and universities have an ethical obligation to respond to the problem of cheating in a way that honors higher education's duty to facilitate students' moral and civic development. After the authors compare and contrast the punitive versus developmental approach to cheating, they explore the promise…

McCabe, Butterfield, & Treviño (2012) recently proposed a model for helping universities cultivate a moral culture of academic integrity. This qualitative study examined how a national sample of 75 students perceived the moral culture within their university using the McCabe et al. model as a basis for analysis. The analysis revealed that…

Cheating is highly prevalent in American high school students and across the globe. Although numerous approaches are in place to combat this issue, most character education approaches have focused primarily on fostering moral integrity (a strength of moral character). Here, we argue that a broad character education approach to addressing cheating…

Focus on business ethics has increased however, incidents of academic dishonesty among business school students has also increased at the same time. Simply adding ethics courses to business programs appears to offer little guidance for student action, action that is transferred from the university to the business world. More is needed if we wish…

Epidemic is an apt adjective for describing the problem of academic dishonesty. When asked if they have cheated in the past year, a "disproportionately large number" (i.e., the majority) of secondary and tertiary students in the United States (and in every other country in which it's been studied) report having done so. The problem of…

The study of ethics and moral development of college students is an important issue. Knowing and understanding the ethical behavior of college students can lead to changing and increasing appropriate behavior among graduate and undergraduate students. Such changes in ethical behavior and moral development during the college experience can…

This dissertation explores the growing epidemic of academic dishonesty in the United States in order to propose an Aristotelian-inspired model for developing moral character to curtail this epidemic. The task is laid out in four parts. Chapter one responds to the problem of "akrasia," adopting a modified version of Devin Henry's…

This mixed methods study explored whether a relationship existed between moral development and dishonest academic behaviors in law students. The quantitative portion of the study utilized a survey adapted from James Rest's Defining Issues Test and Donald McCabe's Academic Integrity Survey. Law students were solicited by email from two public…

This study links moral reasoning, academic dishonesty, and business students. Undergraduate business students (N = 1357) from eight Ontario (Canada) universities responded to a survey to express their perceptions and expectations of their academic environment and the variables that can help them to understand what is morally right and what is…

The public expects its educational leaders--from instructional leaders and principals to college administrators and deans--to be moral exemplars. Nowhere is moral behavior more central to the central mission of teaching and learning than in the realm of academic integrity, where decisions are made daily about grading, testing, promotion,…

Due to a series of high profile accounting scandals and corporate collapses such as Enron, World.Com and Andersen, ethical conduct has been widely recognized as a crucial element in accounting profession and education. The growing concern over the ethics of professionals has also called for more academic research into this critical area. Our study…