Cm. Ferrell et Lg. Daniel, A FRAME OF REFERENCE FOR UNDERSTANDING BEHAVIORS RELATED TO THE ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT OF UNDERGRADUATE TEACHER-EDUCATION STUDENTS, Research in higher education, 36(3), 1995, pp. 345-375
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.