Lack of ethics or lack of knowledge? European upper secondary students’ doubts and misconceptions about integrity issues

IF 3.8 Q1 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
Mikkel Willum Johansen, Mads Paludan Goddiksen, Mateja Centa, Christine Clavien, Eugenijus Gefenas, Roman Globokar, Linda Hogan, Marcus Tang Merit, Søren Saxmose Nielsen, I. Anna S. Olsson, Margarita Poškutė, Una Quinn, Júlio Borlido Santos, Rita Santos, Céline Schöpfer, Vojko Strahovnik, P. J. Wall, Peter Sandøe, Thomas Bøker Lund
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Abstract

Plagiarism and other transgressions of the norms of academic integrity appear to be a persistent problem among upper secondary students. Numerous surveys have revealed high levels of infringement of what appear to be clearly stated rules. Less attention has been given to students’ understanding of academic integrity, and to the potential misconceptions and false beliefs that may make it difficult for them to comply with existing rules and handle complex real-life situations.

In this paper we report findings from a survey of European upper secondary students’ views on issues relating to academic integrity. We relate these findings to the students’ training about academic integrity, self-reported level of questionable behavior and country of study.

A total of 1654 students at 51 institutions located in 6 European countries participated in the study. The participants generally believed they had a good understanding of the rules applying to them and knew how to behave in compliance with norms of academic integrity. The results indicate, however, that often, in practice, this belief was mistaken. Many students had an inadequate understanding of core elements of academic integrity. They were uncertain about how to act, and they struggled in the handling of complex situations that require context-sensitive judgement. While some differences between countries were identified, they were modest and exhibited no clear pattern. Our results also suggest that reducing students’ level of uncertainty and, to a lesser degree, improving their level of knowledge could lead them to engage less in certain types of questionable behaviours. Surprisingly, the effect of academic training is modest and ambiguous. The study also confirms that perception of peer behaviour has the strongest association with student engagement in questionable behaviours. Thus, academic integrity at the upper secondary level cannot be explained simply in terms of individual ethics or knowledge.

Abstract Image

缺乏道德还是缺乏知识?欧洲高中生对诚信问题的疑虑与误解
抄袭和其他违反学术诚信规范的行为似乎是高中生中一个长期存在的问题。许多调查显示,对看似明确规定的规则的违反程度很高。学生对学术诚信的理解,以及可能使他们难以遵守现有规则和处理复杂现实情况的潜在误解和错误信念,却很少受到关注。在本文中,我们报告了一项关于欧洲高中生对学术诚信问题看法的调查结果。我们将这些发现与学生的学术诚信培训、自我报告的可疑行为水平和学习国家联系起来。来自欧洲6个国家51所院校的1654名学生参与了这项研究。参与者普遍认为他们对适用于他们的规则有很好的理解,并且知道如何遵守学术诚信规范。然而,结果表明,在实践中,这种信念往往是错误的。许多学生对学术诚信的核心要素理解不足。他们不确定该如何行动,在处理需要情境敏感判断的复杂情况时也很吃力。虽然确定了各国之间的一些差异,但这些差异不大,没有明显的模式。我们的研究结果还表明,降低学生的不确定性水平,并在较小程度上提高他们的知识水平,可能会导致他们较少参与某些类型的可疑行为。令人惊讶的是,学术训练的效果是温和而模糊的。该研究还证实,对同伴行为的感知与学生参与可疑行为的关系最为密切。因此,高中阶段的学术诚信不能简单地用个人道德或知识来解释。
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来源期刊
International Journal for Educational Integrity
International Journal for Educational Integrity EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH-
CiteScore
6.90
自引率
26.10%
发文量
25
审稿时长
22 weeks
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