bilig
Spring / 2009 Number 49: 191-204
© Ahmet Yesevi
University Board of Trustees
Is There a Relationship between Grade Average Point
and Students’ Perceptions with
Regard to Cheating Factors?
Ahmet Tayfun
*
Abstract: This study examined the relations between the grade point
average, being a cheater or non cheater
and the determined cheating
factor scores. In total, 493 students participated in the study. The data
were collected by using questionnaires. The factor analysis, Pearson
correlation test and “t” test were used to analyze student–opinion data.
First, the nine factors were determined to represent 34
variables, and
then nine factors were rotated to factors scores. Later the relations
were examined. The significant relation couldn’t be found between
grade point averages and factor scores. A significant relation was
found between being a cheater or non cheater and certain factors.
Key Words: Cheating,
cheating factors, education, student.
Introduction
Cheating is a word commonly used in daily life. It is defined in dictionaries
as “to behave in a dishonest way in order to get what you want”. In the
scope
of this definition, cheating in academic setting was defined as
“
obtaining and using information from illicit sources and use it for improving
one’s (exam) grade” by Eisenberg (2004: 164) and as
students’ attempt to
present others’ academic work as their own by (Jensen et al. 2002).
The cheating behavior is one of the most discussed
topics in academic life,
for the cheating phenomenon is prevailing at the every level of the academic
life (McCabe et al. 2001). Steinberg (1996) reported that two-thirds of the
adolescents in his study cheated on tests in the past years. McLaughling and
Ross (1989) found out in their study that 50% high
school students admitted
to frequent cheating.
Furthermore, Schab (1991) reported that there was an increase in the
prevalence of cheating over the past 20 years and decrease in the perceived
seriousness of dishonest behavior. Even more recently,
researchers have
*
Gazi University, Faculty of Commerce and Tourism Education, Department of Tourism / ANKARA
tayfun@gazi.edu.tr