DeBakey HSHP Integrity Month |Module 2: Causes

Select ALL Correct Answers

According to the Causes of Academic Dishonesty Chapter, which of the following factors contribute to dishonest academic practices?

• Peer Pressure

• Familiarity with Consequences

• Performance Anxiety

• Lack of Time Management

Answer explanation

Literature on academic dishonesty cites a number of factors that contribute to dishonest academic practices (Whitley and Keith-Spiegel, 2002). Contributing factors include:

•Peer pressure

•Performance anxiety

•Excuse making

•Inability to manage the demands of student life

•Situations that encourage academic dishonesty

•Self-justification habits

•Unfamiliarity with what constitutes academic dishonesty

•Lack of understanding about consequences

Select ONE Correct Answer

According to the Causes of Academic Dishonesty Chapter, all of the following are examples of Peer Pressure except which one?

• Pressuring others to work together or split assignments when course policies prohibit collaboration

• Seeing other students cheat and then joining them

• Avoid failing a course or receiving a bad grade

• Engaging in academic dishonesty as a group and helping friends on assignments or exams when the teacher has prohibited collaboration

Answer explanation

Students can pressure other students to commit acts of academic dishonesty in many ways:

•Pressuring others to work together or split assignments when course policies prohibit collaboration

•Seeing other students cheat and then joining them

•Engaging in academic dishonesty as a group and helping friends on assignments or exams when the teacher has prohibited collaboration

Select ALL Correct Answers

According to the Causes of Academic Dishonesty Chapter, anxiety about academic performance can cause which of the following to occur?

• Students may cheat to avoid failing a course or receiving a bad grade.

• Students reason that other students are cheating, so they have no alternative but to cheat as well.

• Some students may use cheating as a way to cope with poor test-taking skills.

• Students blame their course teachers for their cheating, complaining that the instructors expect too much or are too difficult to understand.

Answer explanation

Anxiety about academic performance can cause some students to cheat in academic activities.

Students may cheat to avoid failing a course or receiving a bad grade.

Some students may use cheating as a way to cope with poor test-taking skills.

Select ONE Correct Answer

Some students blame their course teachers for their cheating, complaining that the instructors expect too much or are too difficult to understand.

According to the Causes of Academic Dishonesty Chapter, this is a specific example of which of the following causes?

• Performance anxiety

• Inability to manage the demands of student life

• Self-Justicfication

• Excuse Making

• Lack of understanding about consequences

Answer explanation

Some students blame their course teachers for their cheating, complaining that the instructors expect too much or are too difficult to understand.

Students also may use the excuse that the exams were unfair or a course will just be repeated in college.

Occasionally, students reason that other students are cheating, so they have no alternative but to cheat as well.

Select ONE Correct Answer

According to the Causes of Academic Dishonesty Chapter, students who cannot plan and manage their workload and other activities and are usually behind in meeting their deadlines and can at times resort to what?

• Cheating

• Plagiarism

• Fabrication

• All the above

Answer explanation

One of the most common reasons for academic dishonesty is students' inability to manage the pressures of their social and academic lives.

Students who cannot plan and manage their workload and other activities and are usually behind in meeting their deadlines and can at times resort to cheating or plagiarism as an easy solution.

Select ONE Correct Answer

When class policies do not spell out clearly what students may or may not do regarding collaboration, or when a teacher is not careful in enforcing academic integrity standards, increased rates of what occur?

• Course Failures

• Student Absences

• Academic Dishonesty

• Student Behavioral Issues

Answer explanation

When class policies do not spell out clearly what students may or may not do regarding collaboration, or when a teacher is not careful in enforcing academic integrity standards, increased rates of academic dishonesty occur.

Select ONE Correct Answer

If the penalties for violating academic integrity standards are too minimal, some students may consider cheating to be worth the risk of being caught.

For this reason, DeBakey HSHP and HISD rate Academic Dishonesty as a __________________ resulting in potential suspension and reporting to colleges.

• Level I Conduct Violation

• Level II Conduct Violation

• Level III Conduct Violation

• Level IV Conduct Violation

Answer explanation

If the penalties for violating academic integrity standards are too minimal, some students may consider cheating to be worth the risk of being caught.

For this reason, DeBakey HSHP and HISD rate Academic Dishonesty as a Level II Conduct Violation resulting in potential suspension and reporting to colleges.

Select ALL Correct Answers

According to the Causes of Academic Dishonesty Chapter, self-talk justifications include students telling themselves that:

• "This particular assignment is not very important"

• "Everyone cheats in this class"

• "No one will get hurt by this"

• "I had to help a friend in need"

• "The teacher doesn't really care"

Answer explanation

Some students engage in self-talk in order to justify their actions to themselves, even though those actions may not be appropriate. For example, they justify cheating by telling themselves that they were cheating:

•Only once

•Only in one academic activity

•Because they were sick and couldn't catch up

Other self-talk justifications include students telling themselves that:

•"This particular assignment is not very important"

•"I do not need to do well in this particular class for graduation, so it's okay"

•"No one will get hurt by this"

•"I had to help a friend in need"

•"The teacher doesn't really care"

•"Everyone cheats in this class"

Select ONE Correct Answer

All of the following are examples of Genuine Ignorance except:

• Some students may not know what constitutes cheating and may not ask the teacher for clarification.

• Some teachers may assume students understand the guidelines already.

• Uncertainty about technological issues.

• Some students may cheat to relieve pressure from parents or peers.

• Freshman students' unfamiliarity with DeBakey HSHP standards of academic integrity.

Answer explanation

Some students genuinely may not know what constitutes cheating or plagiarism and may not ask the course teacher for clarification.

Some teachers may assume students understand the guidelines already. As a result, students can unintentionally commit acts of academic dishonesty.

Further, uncertainty about technological issues and, particularly, Freshman students' unfamiliarity with DeBakey HSHP standards of academic integrity, can also lead to problems involving questions of academic integrity.

Select ALL Correct Answers

Students who are guilty of academic dishonesty may not be aware of its possible consequences and may be thinking only of completing an immediate academic assignment. Consequences can include all the following:

• Failing assignments or entire classes

• Loss of scholarships

• Loss of college admissions

• Loss of future professional recommendations from their teachers

• Blacklist all graduates from highly selective universities and join medical school admissions programs.

Answer explanation

Consequences of Academic Dishonesty can include failing assignments or entire classes, loss of scholarships, loss of college admissions, and loss of future professional recommendations from their teachers.

For DeBakey HSHP, widespread cheating can tarnish our school’s legacy and blacklist all graduates from highly selective universities and join medical school admissions programs.