A FRAME OF REFERENCE FOR UNDERSTANDING BEHAVIORS RELATED TO THE ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT OF UNDERGRADUATE TEACHER-EDUCATION STUDENTS

The purposes of the present study were to develop a valid self-report survey instrument that would measure the academic misconduct construct and to determine if the instrument could be used effectively to ident ify different orientations of teacher education students relative to a cademic misconduct. In an effort to achieve these purposes, an instrum ent called the Academic Misconduct Survey (AMS) was developed to measu re the self-reported academic misconduct behaviors of the respondents. This study was conducted using R-technique factor analyses and alpha- reliability analyses during Phase I (n = 330) to investigate the clust ering of variables within the AMS, and Q-technique factor analyses dur ing Phase II (n = 90) to investigate the clustering of persons into re cognizable prototypes using data obtained from the AMS. Respondents in both phases were undergraduate teacher education students at several selected institutions of higher learning. Phase I results indicated th at the instrument measured academic misconduct across five constructs: cheating on tests and assignments, inappropriate use of resources, qu asi-misconduct, subtle manipulation, and bold manipulation. The second phase resulted in the identification of several interpretable cluster s of persons, ranging from self-proclaimed noncheaters to those who in dicated clear propensity toward various types of misconduct.