| The volume of cheating, according to professional studies, has increased dramatically over the past 50 years. The research shows that across demographics cheating is more prevalent. This increase has caused some researchers to feel that higher education has developed a cheating culture.
This study looks to find ways to combat a cheating culture by examining “Best Practice Initiatives” that have been surmised, if implemented, would reduce cheating. There are 16 initiatives researched in the study. The study specifically surveys faculty and students in accounting programs to determine their perceptions of which best practice initiatives would reduce cheating among accounting majors. Frequencies of responses are analyzed and Categorical Principal Components Analysis (CATPCA) is used to determine meaningful constructs.
The study was performed at four universities, three public and one private, in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. The results of the survey are that five initiatives are perceived to have a moderate to great effect on reducing cheating, with two of the initiatives perceived to have the greatest effect. The first of the two initiatives is: “Placing an ‘XF’ on official transcripts when a student has been found responsible for cheating.” The second is:
“Provide training for faculty on academic integrity issues such as how to discourage cheating via effective classroom management, how to properly confront infractions, and what current research offers as to why students cheat.” The other three initiatives that are perceived to reduce cheating significantly focus on educating students through effective classroom management strategies, which includes discussing real-world ethics cases and providing clear definitions of what constitutes cheating.
Overall it appears that implementation of procedures and strategies to enforce honor code policies; use of classroom management and education strategies to educate and support administration, faculty, and students; developing and culture and perception that honor is highly valued; and having consequences that hold students accountable for knowing and following the honor system are key components to reducing academic dishonesty and building a culture of ethics in accounting departments and presumably on campuses. |