Solution to Cheating

Cheating at universities has been steadily increasing as 80% of students have admitted to cheating due to a negative feeling towards school, according to new research.

A study conducted for Contemporary Education Psychology found that when a student’s psychological requirements are not met, they have a higher chance of cheating.

The study found that promoting a student’s independence, competence and feeling of belonging in the classroom made them more motivated and decreased their chances of cheating. However, if these needs are not met, students become more likely to cheat.

Researchers evaluated 121 undergraduates’ students and split them into three groups who were each given different instructions for the same task. There was a needs support group who received instructions that were supportive and emphasized that the participant tried their best. Then there was a needs frustration group who were given instructions that were harsh, stressing that they were unqualified for the task. Lastly, there was a neutral group who received standard instructions.

To measure cheating, the researchers made some parts of the task impossible to complete without some form of cheating. The students then were asked to submit what they finished and to throw away any scratch paper.

This allowed researchers to measure cheating by looking to see if the participant completed the impossible parts of the assignment which would imply that cheated. They found that the participants in the needs frustration group cheated 25% more than those in the need support group.

The data from the experiment indicated that when instructions made students feel unimportant their chance of cheating increased. Moreover, if the students felt encouraged to do their best they were more internally motivated and had decreased chance of cheating behaviors.

This study was then replicated with middle schoolers, and the results matched the college students. The researched showed the importance of supporting and making students feel comfortable in the classroom.

Unlike other studies done on academic dishonesty that rely on self-reported data from students who have cheated, this study was designed to catch cheating in the act without the students’ knowledge to increase the reliability of the findings.

While the study offered no definitive answer to the problem of cheating, it gave an understanding on the impact of encouraging students in the classroom and how meeting their needs can help deter cheating.

References

Yaniv Kanat-Maymon, Michal Benjamin, Aviva Stavsky, Anat Shoshani, Guy Roth,
The role of basic need fulfillment in academic dishonesty: A self-determination theory perspective,Contemporary Educational Psychology,Volume 43,2015,Pages 1-9,