Academic Dishonesty in the Dental Faculty: Relations Among Students’ Behavior, Attitudes, and Interpretation

Abstract

Background: Academic dishonesty is the most important educational concern. According to previous studies, it is more common in several groups of students. To prevent academic dishonesty, it is important to know the extent of the problem. Accordingly, this study was designed to investigate the behaviors, attitudes, and interpretations of dental students regarding exam fraud in the 2015-2016 academic years. Methods: For this purpose, a three-part questionnaire was prepared, including demographic characteristics and specific questions. The specific questions included students’ behavior, attitudes, and interpretation in the form of three scenarios. A total of 163 questionnaires were collected, and the statistical analysis was performed using SPSS, version 20. The Mann-Whitney U test and the Kruskal-Wallis test were used to analyze the data. Results: The students consisted of 90 males (55.2%) and 73 females (44.8%), and their average age was 22.72±2 years (22.3±2.87 and 23.23±2.37 years for boys and girls, respectively). The results revealed that around 65.6% of students were generally aware of the fraud problem in the faculty and knew the cheaters (63.1%). Further, 55.2% of students believed that instructors should prevent cheating during the exam. Data analyses demonstrated that there were no significant differences between boys and girls in all research variables. Finally, the average behavior proportion and attitude of the first-year students were higher than those of other students. Conclusion: Based on the findings, the rate of fraud was high in dentistry schools and possibly in other medical schools, highlighting the importance of the creating culture in changing students’ attitudes.