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Predictors of cheating and cheating attributions: Does classroom context influence cheating and blame for cheating?

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Abstract

The frequency of cheating in today’s classrooms undermines educators’ efforts and threatens students’ learning. Data from 444 high school students in 48 math and science classrooms at two time points were analyzed to examine the classroom and individual influences on students’ attributions of blame for cheating and to examine the relationship between students’ attributions of blame for cheating and subsequent cheating behavior. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed that student-level and aggregate views of teacher characteristics were related to concurrent and subsequent attribution of cheating blame to teachers and to subsequent cheating behaviors, over and above the influence of moral emotion dispositions.

Résumé

La fréquence de la tricherie scolaire met actuellement à mal les efforts des enseignants et menace l’apprentissage des étudiants. L’analyse de données recueillies en deux temps sur 444 étudiants issus de 48 classes de mathématiques et de sciences a permis d’explorer les influences de la classe et les influences individuelles sur l’attribution par les étudiants de la responsabilité de la tricherie et d’examiner la relation entre les attributions de responsabilité de la tricherie par les étudiants et leurs comportements subséquents de tricherie. La modélisation hiérarchique linéaire a indiqué que les mesures au niveau individuel (étudiant) et l’opinion (agrégée au niveau de la classe) qu’ont les étudiants des enseignants étaient liés, au-delà de l’influence de dispositions relatives aux émotions morales, (1) à l’attribution, simultanée et subséquente, de la responsabilité de la tricherie aux enseignants et (2) à des comportements subséquents de tricherie.

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Correspondence to Tamera B. Murdock.

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Murdock, T.B., Beauchamp, A.S. & Hinton, A.M. Predictors of cheating and cheating attributions: Does classroom context influence cheating and blame for cheating?. Eur J Psychol Educ 23, 477–492 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172754

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172754

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