Engineering Students' Perceptions of and Attitudes Towards Cheating

Academic dishonesty has become a serious problem at institutions of higher learning. This is particularly true in engineering where, according to previous research, engineering undergraduates are among the most likely to cheat in college. To investigate this concern, the authors embarked on a resear...

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Published inJournal of engineering education (Washington, D.C.) Vol. 95; no. 3; pp. 181 - 194
Main Authors Carpenter, Donald D., Harding, Trevor S., Finelli, Cynthia J., Montgomery, Susan M., Passow, Honor J.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.07.2006
Subjects
academic integrity
Behavior
Cheating
College students
Decision making
Dishonesty
Engineering Education
ethics
Learning
Learning Processes
Undergraduate Students
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Summary:Academic dishonesty has become a serious problem at institutions of higher learning. This is particularly true in engineering where, according to previous research, engineering undergraduates are among the most likely to cheat in college. To investigate this concern, the authors embarked on a research project whose goal was to develop a better understanding of what students and faculty perceive as cheating and to use this knowledge to help instructors and institutions increase the level of academic integrity among students. The primary instrument for this project was a seven‐page survey that was administered to 643 engineering and pre‐engineering undergraduates at eleven institutions, ranging from community colleges to large research universities. This manuscript provides an overview of the descriptive data from the PACES‐1 Survey organized around the following questions: what is student cheating and how often does it occur; why do students cheat; and what methods can be used to reduce or stop cheating?
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Donald D. Carpenter, Ph.D. is assistant professor of Civil Engineering at Lawrence Technological University where he teaches hydraulic engineering courses as well as courses focusing on professional issues and ethics. Dr. Carpenter serves as chair of the Educational Innovation Collaborative, which promotes teaching and learning initiatives at Lawrence Tech, and is coordinator of the Civil Engineering Assessment Program. He is actively involved with the Educational Research Methods (ERM) Division of American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) and serves as Faculty Advisor for the Lawrence Tech American Society of Civil Engineers Student Chapter. Finally, the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Association recently named him a Kern Fellow for Entrepreneurial Education.
Trevor S. Harding, Ph.D. is associate professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Kettering University. Dr. Harding is director of the Biomedical Materials Research and the Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy Laboratories at Kettering University. He currently serves on the Executive Board of the ERM Division as well as the Advisory Board for the Kettering University Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.
Honor J. Passow, P.E. is research associate for Assessment at the University of Michigan's College of Engineering and a doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan's Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education. She has taught undergraduate courses in mechanical engineering (statics and dynamics) and in psychology (on the processes by which people make decisions).
Susan M. Montgomery, Ph.D. is lecturer and undergraduate program advisor in the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Michigan. In addition to chemical engineering courses, she teaches an Introduction to Engineering course and the course Teaching Engineering for graduate students preparing for faculty positions. Her Multimedia Education Laboratory has produced educational software such as the Multimedia Encyclopedia of Chemical Engineering Equipment. She is a member of the Chemical Engineering Division of ASEE.
Cynthia J. Finelli, Ph.D. is managing director of the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching‐North and associate research scientist in Engineering Education at the University of Michigan. Dr. Finelli actively pursues educational research in the field of engineering, serves on the Executive Board of the ERM Division of ASEE, and was program co‐chair for both the
and the
2006 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition
2003 Frontiers in Education Conference
.
ISSN:1069-4730
2168-9830
DOI:10.1002/j.2168-9830.2006.tb00891.x