'The Engagement of students in cheating at

Salve Regina School of Palawan Inc.'

I. Background of the Study

Cheating refers to the acts committed by students that deceive, mislead, or fool the
teacher into thinking that the academic work submitted by the student was the student's own
work. (Chala 2021) Students conduct this act in order to achieve a good result for an
examination or on their school works. Cheating varies in type, there is plagiarism which refers to
presenting work or ideas from another source as your own without the consent of the original
author, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement. (University of Oxford).
Cheating is an academically dishonest behavior about which there has been a thrust of
research. (Mohammad 2012) Over the past fifty years, cheating among high school students
increased substantially and affected the morale of students (Simha et al. 2012)
Studies have shown that academic cheating has become a major problem on the education
sector.(Berhan & Desalegn, Citation2014; Daniel, Citation2009; Grimes, Citation2004; Jensen et
al., Citation2002; Lee, Citation2009; Mint, Citation2004; Nath & Lovaglia, Citation2009; Oskar &
Lambrinos, Citation2008; Rana & Ajmal, Citation2013; Stephen et al., Citation2009; Strom &
Strom, Citation2007; Thomas et al., Citation2013) and been recognized as an epidemic all over
the world (Grimes 2004).

Many students believe that cheating is an another way to achieve good grades, especially, with
the advantage of technology and internet, students can easily look up the correct answers on the
internet with just a click. The COVID-19 Pandemic has also contributed a lot on this issue since
the majority uses their devices such as laptops, smartphones and tablets in order to carry on
their day-to-day tasks which makes it an advantage for the students to just look for the correct
answers on the internet. Some students who experience academic pressure and mental health
issues tend to look at cheating as some type of way to cope up.

Although academic cheating has been found to be a common phenomenon in high schools,
academic cheating is a serious problem among higher education organizations around the
world(Hsia, Chun-Hua 2015) and it seems that students who continuously conduct this act are
completely oblivious because of the fact that cheating may seem “normal” and a part of
someone’s student life.

The researchers were encouraged to conduct this academic paper to conclude what people may
contribute in order to decrease the amount of students who cheat and to reveal the factors on
why students cheat and why they continue to cheat. This paper also aims to identify, investigate
and integrate the possible factors that influences the students to cheat.
II. Statement of the Problem

This academic paper will be analyzing the problem "The engagement of students in Cheating at
Salve Regina School of Palawan Inc." The researchers will be conducting a survey in each
grade level of the Junior High School department. The results of this survey will serve as a
reference and will determine the factors and motives of the students in engaging in this
behavior.

III. Objective of the study

We all know that copying answers from your classmates, especially during exams, is cheating,
and opening your notes during examinations is also cheating. There are so many students who
depend on their answers from their classmates and their phones. We are all aware that every
problem has a major cause and a possible solution. But, have we all ever wondered what are
the causes of this inevitable cheating? And how can we prevent students from cheating? The
objectives of this paper is;

1. To identify and understand the fundamental causes or factors that lead to student cheating in
school.
2. To reduce or prevent the cheating issue in school especially during examinations by
understanding its causes, and to encourage students not to rely on others.

IV. Significance of the Study

To the teachers, who can advise the students about the components and reasons for students
having troublesome occasions and attempting to cope up with the expected outputs. Improve
your understanding of your professional and policy context, organisationally, locally and
nationally, enabling you to teach and lead more strategically and effectively.

To the parents, this research study will make the parents stop equating their children’s school
work as an act of service to show their children how much they love them. Cheating is a mistake
and choice and no one will be happy knowing that your child/children are cheating in school.

To the Students, who always cheat on any kind of schoolworks, cheating will put you in a
difficult phase. I advise the students to not engage in cheating on your paperworks, cheating
means you are cheating on yourself and it's better to study hard than risk the privilege of
receiving education. You cannot survive in the real world by cheating.

To the future researcher, who wants to know why cheating exists. Keep researching until
you've found the right solutions to these mischievous cheating incidents at schools. Inspect
and interview some students who are cheating or used to cheat in their schools to continue
your hardworking research. Cheating might still exist, even in the near future or furthermore.
V. Scope and Limitation

This research will primarily focus on the student's demographic profile, the factors that affect
the students to cheat. The researchers focused on the factors that influence the students to
commit cheating on their schoolworks. The target respondents are 5 selected students from
each grade level of the Junior High School Department of Salve Regina School of Palawan Inc.

Definition of Terms
Cheating - act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage, especially in a game or
examination.
Students - a person who is studying at a school or college
Demographic - statistical data relating to the population and particular groups within it.

Examinations - a formal test of a person's knowledge or proficiency in a particular subject or

skill.

Academic dishonesty - refers to committing or contributing to dishonest acts by those engaged in

teaching, learning, research, and related academic activities.

Questionnaire- a research instrument that consists of a set of questions for the purpose of gathering
information through survey or statistical study. A research questionnaire is typically a mix of close
ended questions and open-ended questions.

CHAPTER 2

I. Review of Related Literature

In today’s modern age where technology is more complex and cellphones are commonly
used, some students may find it easier to cheat. From elementary school to college university,
from urban core to rural, from poor to elite schools, and throughout both schools across the
country, learners from all educational levels cheat. Learners that do so out of fear of failure.
When we say cheating, it may refer to a lot of things. May it be at work known as fraud, or at
home known as dishonesty, or at school, this act of conduct can lead to many consequences
made by one’s choice (Harland 2014). Cheating is a challenging, widespread problem for every
teacher and educators, like the case of the much-publicized 2012 cheating scandal at high
achieving Stuyvesant High School in New York City confirms that academic dishonesty is
rampant even in the most prestigious of schools. (Simmons 2018)

Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business announced that dozens of first-year

students violated the honor code by collaborating on a take-home test that was
supposed to be completed alone.” This happened despite the fact that the school’s
honor code is displayed prominently in each classroom and students must read and
sign a copy of it
before they even apply to the school. From Inside Higher Education (2007, May 10),
“Cheating on a Different Level,”(Powers 2007). Even before we discuss student
dishonesty, educational dishonesty, or wrongdoing, we are pertaining to actions
committed by learners that manipulate, misdirect, or fool the educator into believing that
perhaps the coursework completed by the student was indeed a student's own effort.
Academic cheating robs the educator of the competence to assess a student's individual
understanding and reasoning.

Academic dishonesty is a serious problem worldwide that has negative consequences for
individuals, institutions, and society at large (Anderman & Murdock, 2011; Cizek, 1999; Lupton
et al., 2000; Murdock & Anderman, 2006; Nucci & Turiel, 2009; Sims, 1993). It is defined as
intentionally carrying out forbidden behaviors to gain an unfair advantage in an academic
context (Zhao et al., 2021), and it includes behaviors such as cheating on examinations,
copying others' homework or assignments, and plagiarism (Anderman & Murdock, 2011 et Al. )

“The study reported here was designed to delve into the reasons and aspirations of the
respondents in their cheating engagement. Sixteen (16) key informants, selected using random
sampling procedure among Junior and Senior High School learners of Roxas National
Comprehensive High School in Palawan during the months of June to October 2016, completed
open-ended questionnaires and took part in the interview. NVivo software was used in the
analysis of the themes that emerged from the data. This study discovered that friendship is
manipulated, for it makes doing right things unacceptable and things to be avoided like cheating
seem right and acceptable. The behavior about cheating during examination is deeply rooted in
the culture of “pakikisama” (social acceptance/liking) and utang ng loob (debt of gratitude). If a
learner does not share his or her answers, he or she will be labeled as “walang pakisama” (no
concern).” Stated in Friends with Benefits: Causes and Effects of Learners' Cheating Practices
during Examination (2017).

According to Rettinger and other researchers, students who cheat can still see themselves as
principled people by rationalizing cheating for reasons they see as legitimate. Some also think
that cheating in academics is a justifiable act since everybody is doing it.

Academic dishonesty is neutralization theory. According to this theory, individuals adopt

neutralization techniques to justify violating social norms in order to maintain a positive self
image (e.g., Pulvers & Diekhoff, 1999; Rettinger & Kramer, 2009; Sykes & Matza, 1957). One
neutralization technique that is especially common in cheating contexts is the notion that
“everyone else is doing it” (e.g., Haines et al., 1986).

Cheating has become more common especially during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Due to the
soaring cases of the pandemic, many people switched to online modality to accomplish their
full-time tasks thus, making the internet necessary on a daily basis. As college moved online in
the COVID-19 crisis, many universities are reporting increases, sometimes dramatic ones, in
academic misconduct. At Virginia Commonwealth University, reports of academic misconduct
scored during the 2020-21 school year, to 1,077 more than three times the previous year’s
number. At the University of Georgia, cases more than doubled;from 228 in the fall of 2019 to
more than 600 last fall. And , at The Ohio State University, reported incidents of cheating were
up more than 50% over the year before. (Dey 2021)
II. Conceptual Framework

The academic dishonesty in high school had been an issue both on online class and
face to face class. Motivational influences on academic dishonesty students do this to get
excellent marks on their quizzes and exams and to satisfy their parents and to meet the
expectation of their family. Inadequate time management is the most common explanation given
by students for engaging in academic dishonesty. Stress and Overload another common cause
of dishonesty among students is overload: too many assignments for homework, problems at
work, problems in relationships.
 Low self-esteem

Acad
CH emic Pressure Mental
EATING Health
(Depression,
Anxiety etc.)

Performance anxiety can lead the students to cheat as a way to cope with poor test taking skill.
It can also lead to peer pressure engaging in academic
dishonesty as a group the effect on this behavior in students
may result in a low self-esteem making them hesitant to
engage in learning
or take appropriate academic growth risks. Cheating
brings so much impact into students especially on
doing this in times of their need to survive the
expectations of their parents to achieve the highest
achievement.
III. Research Paradigm
Independent Variable Dependent Variable

Grade level: 7 to 10 Cheating Reasons: To get high

grades, academic pressure, and
ETC.

Age: 12 to 18
 Sex: Male and Female

Answers : YES or NO

This figure will represent the possible outcome of our survey and the base information that we
could gather in this research. This displays the independent variables such as Grade level,
Age, Sex, and answers of the respondents to the question “Do you cheat on your school works
and paper works?". It also displays the dependent variables such as three reasons as to why
they cheat on school work and paper works. The research paradigm shown in this paper will
reveal the path of the quantitative investigation and will serve as a basis for the researchers.
CHAPTER 3

I. Locale of the Study

This academic paper will be conducted inside of Salve Regina School of Palawan Inc.
Junior High School Department at Brgy. Tiniguiban Puerto Princesa City, Palawan. The
researcher will select 20 junior high school students from each grade level who have possibly
committed cheating on their schoolworks. The researchers will distribute a questionnaire to the
respondents and the respondents will have to choose what applies as their answer.

II. Research design

The researchers will use the Quantitative (close ended questions). Close ended questions
are defined as question types that ask respondents to choose from a distinct set of
predefined responses, such as “yes/no” or among set multiple choice questions. In a typical
scenario, closed-ended questions are used to gather quantitative data from respondents.

In order to get information from their respondents, the researcher will be conducting a
survey/questionnaire. Five (5) junior highschool students per grade level will be chosen to
provide information that will help this study.

III. Respondents

The respondents of this paper will be twenty (20) selected pupils of the junior high
school department at Salve Regina School of Palawan Inc. 2022-2023. 5 students per grade
level will be selected to answer the survey questionnaire. Thus, a total of twenty (20)
respondents. The 20 respondents of this paper already witness cheating inside the classroom
and they already cheat during exams or when doing schoolworks.

IV. Sampling Procedure

This paper will employ stratified random sampling. All pupils are given a chance to be a
respondent but there are only selected respondents per grade level. Twenty (20) respondents
per grade level.

V. Research Instrument

The researchers were planning to make a short survey the has 20 respondents (5
respondents every grade level). The researchers would be expecting the result to have 50% of
them are cheating in their paper works and school works. The researchers have hypothesized
some of them having the reason of influence, peer pressure , the pressure that they felt before
exam and others are just lazy to study thus having the desire to have a high grade on their
report card.
VI. Research Procedure

The researchers prepared the survey questionnaire guide and the questionnaire that will be
distributed to selected 20 students of Junior High school. 5 students from Grade 7, 5 students
from Grade 8, 5 students from Grade 9 and 5 students from Grade 10.

VII. Statistical Treatment

The gathered data from the 20 selected students of the Junior high school department at Salve
Regina School of Palawan Inc. through the distributed survey/questionnaires will serve as a
framework and basis of the researcher’s study. The findings from the survey will be presented
for analysis and interpretation.

The following statistical tools used for the treatment of data:

The survey/questionnaire will use frequency distribution with Frequency, percentage, and ranks
that will be used to describe the respondent’s profile. The researcher will use verbal description
to know if the respondent has engaged in this action or not in cheating.

VIII. Bibliography

Tsai, Chun-Li (2012). Peer Effects on Academic Cheating Among High School Students in
Taiwan, https://eric.ed.gov/?q=cheating+in+high+school&id=EJ958657

Andrew,S. (2018). Why Students Cheat-and hat to Do About it,

https://www.edutopia.org/article/why-students-cheat-and-what-do-about-it/

Sneha,D. (2021). Reports of Cheating at Colleges Soar During The Pandemic,

https://www.npr.org/2021/08/27/1031255390/reports-of-cheating-at-colleges-soar-during-the
pandemic

QuestionPro (N/A), What are Close Ended Questions:Definition,

https://www.questionpro.com/close-ended
questions.html#:~:text=Close%20ended%20questions%20are%20defined,gather
%20quantitativ e%20data%20from%20respondents

Elia,P. (2007), “Cheating on a Different Level”, https://www.insidehighered.com/

(N/A), (2017),Friends with Benefits: Cuses and Effects of Learners’ Cheating Practices during
Examination

Cheating -
https://www.google.com/search?
q=cheating+mean&oq=cheating+mean+&aqs=chrome..69i57
j35i39j0i273l5j0i512j0i433i512.3160j0j7&client=ms-android-oppo-rvo2&sourceid=chrome
mobile&ie=UTF-8

Student - https://www.google.com/search?q=Students+mean&client=ms-android-oppo
rvo2&sxsrf=AJOqlzUz
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Demographics -
https://www.google.com/search?
q=demographics+mean&oq=demographics+mean&aqs=chro
me..69i57j0i131i433i512j0i512l7.5003j1j9&client=ms-android-oppo-rvo2&sourceid=chrome
mobile&ie=UTF-8
Examinations - https://www.google.com/search?q=Examinations+mean&client=ms-android
oppo
rvo2&sxsrf=AJOqlzUsqXMA93THN8qVEcoc5FbvBenTHg%3A1677763567282&ei=76MAZObg
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HACeAGAAeoRiAGrLpIBDTMtMS42LTEuMi4wLjGYAQCgAQHIAQjAAQE&sclient=mobile-gws
wiz-serp

Academic Dishonesty -
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.niu.edu/academic
integrity/faculty/types/index.shtml%23:~:text%3DAcademic%2520dishonesty%2520refers
%2520to%2520committing,%252C%25202003%253B%2520Whitley%252C
%2520Jr.&ved= 2ahUKEwj7i_q
rL39AhUasFYBHV_ECLgQFnoECBEQBQ&usg=AOvVaw38TjiOysTQvy5Dov6JOfQ

c https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Questionnaire