Dejene W.

2 Publications in AERD

Author Publications

Secondary School Students’ Intention to Cheat and Willingness to Report Academic Cheating Incidents: Evidence from Eastern Ethiopia

By Dejene W.

The growing recognition of academic dishonesty as a major cross-cultural problem urges educators and researchers to examine various aspects of the issue. This qualitative case study examined secondary school students’ intention to cheat and willingness to report observed academic cheating incidents. The participants comprised 20 students randomly selected from public and private secondary schools. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews. We found that the participants had strong intentions to engage in academic cheating activities. They indicated that their desire to cheat was caused by observing their classmates’ cheating activities. Moreover, most of the participants were tolerant of academic misconduct. They preferred not to report observed academic cheating incidents. It is recommended that schools must work on students’ minds in such a way that it helps them to value academic integrity and honesty. © 2024 Unisa Press.

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Academic cheating in Ethiopian secondary schools: Prevalence, perceived severity, and justifications

By Dejene W.

The purpose of this study was to examine Ethiopian secondary school students’ level of engagement, justification, and perceived severity of academic cheating behaviors. A mixed research approach was employed. In the study, 1246 students randomly selected from public and private secondary schools participated. Data were collected using questionnaires and semistructured interviews. The findings revealed that the majority of students are actively engaged in most academic cheating behaviors with a prevalence rate of about 80%. It was also found that the majority of students exhibit higher tolerance for most forms of academic cheating behaviors which were evidenced by their lower perceptions of the seriousness of the behaviors. Less probability of being caught and the absence of severe punishment was found to be the major reasons that students gave to justify their engagement in academic cheating. It is suggested that school personnel look at the strength and application of their codes of conduct. © 2020 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.

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