Using Research to Identify Academic Dishonesty Deterrents Among Engineering Undergraduates

Abstract

The E3 Research Team, lead by the authors, has conducted several major investigations and has surveyed and/or interviewed over 1500 engineering and non-engineering undergraduates at 23 institutions [http://www.engin.umich.edu/research/e3/]. The team is motivated by decades of work showing engineering students are among the most frequent cheaters as well as by studies indicating a correlation between cheating and unethical professional behavior. The team’s research suggests that the explanation for higher rates of cheating among engineering students may lie in curricular or engineering program cultural differences rather than in differences in opportunities to cheat or in the nature of students entering these disciplines. The team has also identified a willingness of students to engage in dishonest behaviors that have significant punitive consequences, a clear relationship between students’ attitude toward a behavior and their propensity to engage in that behavior, and a strong correspondence between cheating in high school and college and engaging in unethical behaviors in the workplace. As such, to promote integrity it is important to identify key pedagogical interventions. This paper will summarize some of the team’s important research findings and will discuss psychological and physical deterrents to cheating and their apparent effectiveness. The paper translates these findings into practical suggestions for educators and professionals interested in promoting integrity in the curriculum and the classroom.