The relationship between academic dishonesty and college classroom environment

The present study examined the relationship between college classroom environment, academic cheating, and the neutralization (justification) of academic cheating. Two-hundred eighty undergraduate students from two liberal arts colleges in the Midwest participated in the study. Participants completed the College and University Classroom Environment Instrument (CUCEI) and the Survey on Academic Dishonesty (SAD), with instructions to complete these questionnaires (anonymously) in a manner that would describe their perceptions, behavior, and attitudes in the class in which the survey was completed. Three CUCEI scales were identified that discriminated significantly between admitted cheaters and noncheaters, Cheaters described their classes as significantly less personalized, satisfying, and task oriented than did noncheaters. Together, the seven scales of the CUCEI explained 4% of the variance in cheating behavior. Six CUCEI scales were found to be correlated significantly with a measure of cheating neutralization. Specifically, neutralization increased with decreases in perceived classroom personalization, involvement, student cohesiveness, satisfaction, task orientation, and individualization, Together, the seven scales of the CUCEI explained 14% of the variance in neutralization. It is concluded that classroom environment is a significant situational variable in academic dishonesty, as both cheating behavior and attitudes toward cheating are related to perceptions of classroom environment.