Students' perceptions of teacher effectiveness and academic misconduct: what's the connection?

Abstract

Using the classroom as the unit of analyses, the current study assesses the relationship between students’ perceptions of teacher effectiveness and academic misconduct utilizing valid and reliable measures with established constructs. By utilizing the classroom as the unit of analysis, a better understanding of the unique variance in academic dishonesty across classes will be established in relation to variation in students’ perceptions of teaching practices. One hundred and twenty eight classes participated in the current study, with 3,151 students completing the Students’ Perceptions of Teacher Effectiveness survey and Academic Misconduct Survey. Although students’ perceptions of teacher effectiveness were not related to the rate of academic misconduct across classes, results do suggest that the lower the difficulty and workload of the course is perceived as being, the more likely students report cheating on exams, taking credit for others’ work, using false personal excuses, and creatively padding their work. Reasons for these relationships are explicated, and suggestions for future research are discussed.