Academic Dishonesty Among Primary School Students And Its Correlates

Academic dishonesty refers to the actions which students violate the rules of honesty in their academic work,such as copying homework,cheating in exams,or plagiarizing the achievements^[20].Practice shows that academic dishonesty has already appeared in the lower grades of primary school and shows a certain upward trend with the growth of grades,which may eventually lead to negative consequences and undermine the integrity value system of the whole society.Previous studies on academic dishonesty at home and abroad mainly focus on the way of self-reported dishonesty,and the majority of the research participants are college students under the background of western culture.However,there are few researches on the academic dishonesty of primary school students under the background of Chinese culture.This study adopted the methods of interview,questionnaire survey and experiment.The purpose of this study is to examine the status quo and forms of academic dishonesty of primary school students,and to figure out the attitude of them towards academic dishonesty.We tested the academic behaviors of primary school students in an experiment context and influence factors on the basis of previous result.The study 1 was designed to examine the present situation of the elementary student self-reported academic dishonesty behavior and cognitive situation and the differences between different grade and different types of schools through interviews and questionnaire survey.Participants were primary school students from grade 2 to grade 6?with a total sample size of 2,347?in three types of primary schools,which include a general primary school,a general primary school consisting of more migrant children?hereinafter referred to as the special primary school?and a private primary school.The main results show that the most common self-reported academic dishonesty in primary school students is low-risk and undetectable behaviors such as looking at other students'answers and copying others'homework.Compared with students in general school and special general school,students in private primary school reported less academic dishonesty,believed that academic dishonesty had more serious consequences,and were more unacceptable for academic dishonesty.In terms of grade differences,academic dishonesty increased with the grade and had more serious consequences with the grade.The self-reported academic dishonesty of the sixth grade students and the severity of the consequences of their perceived academic dishonesty are higher than those of other grades.In study 2,primary school students of grade 2,4 and 6 from a general primary school?the sample size was 150?were selected randomly as participants?all the participants were not involved in study1?.This study adopted a adapted version of resisting temptation paradigm to investigate the academic dishonesty of primary school students in the experimental context and the related influencing factors.Academic dishonesty is technically defined as peeking in exams.The results showed that 75.3%participants engaged in peeking behavior,and there were no significant differences between grade and gender.In terms of influencing factors,the type of parent-child relationship has a predictive effect on peeking behavior.Specifically,students with disturbed parent-child relationship are more likely to peek than these with other types.The results of this study will lay a good foundation for people to realize the status quo,development trend and relevant mechanism of academic dishonesty of primary school students under Chinese culture.At the same time,it provides a strong empirical evidence for better guidance,education and intervention of children's academic dishonesty in practice.