Cheating in Pharmacy Schools in Southwest Nigeria
Main Article Content
Abstract
Background: There are concerns that academic dishonesty among students in the health sciences will result in lower competence and continued unethical behaviors after graduation. Pharmacy as a profession has a very low tolerance for errors and therefore an investigation to examine dishonest practices among undergraduate students is important.
Objectives: This study sought to determine cheating behaviors among pharmacy students, identify the course(s) in which the students cheat the most, and examine the contributions of lecturers to academic dishonesty.
Methods: The study was a cross-sectional survey of pharmacy students (330) in four pharmacy schools in southwest Nigeria. A set of Semi-Structured questionnaires were developed and pretested before administration. The questionnaire elicited information to answer the research questions. Data collected were analysed with appropriate descriptive and inferential statistics at p < 0.05.
Results: Three out of ten students that participated in the study admitted to cheating in pharmacy school. Cheating in pharmacy school was associated with cheating in high school (p = 0.000) and UTME/ post UTME (p = 0.000). The courses majority of students cheated in or have been attributed to high rate of cheating by pharmacy students were pharmaceutical chemistry (27.3%) and pharmacognosy (22.6%). Lecturers were found to have contributed to academic dishonesty by not teaching in a way that aided understanding (94.0%), not being approachable for practice questions (90.2%) and not invigilating examinations properly (78.5%).
Conclusion: Academic dishonesty is a reality in pharmacy schools and students who have cheated before in high school and UTME are more likely to cheat in pharmacy school. Also, lecturers contribute to academic dishonesty among students.
Downloads
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
References
Munir M, Ahmad Z, Shahzadi E (2011). A Study on academic dishonesty of university students. 8th International Conference on Recent Advances in Statistics Lahore, Pakistan 8-9: 285-294. https://doi.org/10.13140/2.1.1196.8002
Anderman EM, Murdock TB (2011). Psychology of Academic Cheating. Elsevier in Higher Education 10(2): 143-156.
The University of Newcastle Australia. Glossary https://downloads.newcastle.edu.au/library/tutorials/infoskills/glossary.html Accessed 12 August, 2020.
Manar H, Shameem F (2014). Attitude of students towards cheating and plagiarism: university case study, Journal of Applied Sciences 14, 748-757. https://doi.org/10.3923/jas.2014.748.757
Ameen E, Guffey D, Mcmillan J (1996). Accounting students' perceptions of questionable academic practices and factors affecting their propensity to cheat, Accounting Education 5: 191-205. https://doi.org/10.1080/09639289600000020
Diekhoff GM, LaBeff EE, Clark RE, Williams LE, Francis B, Haines VJ (1996). College cheating: Ten years later, Research in Higher Education. 37(4): 487-502.
Genereux RL, McLeod BA (1995). Circumstances surrounding cheating: A questionnaire study of college students, Research in Higher Education. 3 6 ( 6 ) : 6 8 7 - 7 0 4 . https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02208251
Finn KV, Frone MR (2004). Academic performance and cheating: Moderating role of school identification and self-efficacy, The Journal of
Educational Research. 97 (3): 115 - 121. https://doi.org/10.3200/JOER.97.3.115-121
Miller AD, Murdock TB, Anderman EM, Poindexter AL (2007). Who are all these cheaters? Characteristics of academically dishonest students. In Psychology of academic cheating. p. 9-32. Elsevier Academic Press. https://doi.org /10.1016/B978-012372541-7/50003-6
Stephens JM, Gehlbach H (2007). Under pressure and under engaged: motivational profiles and academic cheating in high school. In Psychology of academic cheating. p. 107-134. Boston: Elsevier Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-012372541-7/50009-7
Baldwin DC, Daugherty SR, Rowley BD, Schwarz MD (1996). Cheating in medical school: a survey of second-year students at 31 schools, Academic Medicine. 71(3): 267 - 73. https://doi.org/10.1097/00001888-199603000-00020
Rennie SC, Crosby JR (2001). Are "tomorrow's doctors" honest? Questionnaire study exploring medical students' attitudes and reported behaviour on academic misconduct, British Medical Journal. 322 (7281): 274 - 5. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.322.7281.274
Musau P (2017). Academic dishonesty in medical schools, The Annals of African Surgery. 14(1): 19-21. https://doi.org/10.4314/aas.v14i1.4
Sierles F, Hendrickx I, Circle S (1980). Cheating in medical school, Journal of Medical Education. 55(2): 124-5. https://doi.org/10.1097/00001888-198002000-00006
Austin Z, Stephanie S, Emily R (2005). 'The fault lies not in our students, but in ourselves': academic honesty and moral development in health professions education-results of a pilot study in Canadian pharmacy, Teaching in Higher Education,10 (2): 143 - 156.
https://doi.org/10.1080/1356251042000337918
Aggarwal R, Bates I, Davies JG, Khan I (2002). A Study of academic dishonesty among student at two pharmacy schools, The Pharmaceutical Journal. 269: 529 - 533.
Davis SF, Grover CA, Becker AH, McGregor LN (1992). Academic dishonesty: prevalence, determinants, techniques, and punishments,
Teaching of Psychology. 19 (1): 16 - 20 . https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328023top1901_3
Kleiner C, Lord M (1999). The cheating game. US News & World Report. http://www.geocities.ws/greenjellico/Work/Englis
h152/TheCheatingGame.pdf.
Yamane T (1967). Statistics: An Introductory Analysis, 2nd Edition, New York: Harper and Row.
Ip EJ, Nguyen K, Shah BM, Doroudgar S, Bidwal, MK (2016). Motivations and predictors of cheating in pharmacy school, American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education. 80 (8): 133. https://doi.org/10.5688/ajpe808133
Rabi SM, Patton LR, Fjortoft N, Zgarrick DP (2006). Characteristics, prevalence, attitudes, and perceptions of academic dishonesty among pharmacy students. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education. 70 (4): 73. https://doi.org/10.5688/aj700473
Harding TS, Carpenter DD, Finelli CJ, Passow H (2003). The relationship between academic dishonesty and ethical behavior in engineering
practice. Ethics and Social Responsibility in Engineering and Technology Conference, New Orleans, LA https://www.researchgate.net/publication/30856002_The_relationship_between_academic_dishonesty_and_ethical_behavior_in_engineering_practice
Bayaa Martin Saana S, Ablordeppey EE, Mensah NJ, Karikari T (2016). Academic dishonesty in higher education: students' perceptions and involvement in an African institution, British Medical Journal Research Notes 2 - 13 . https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-016-2044-0
Ubaka C, Fajemirokun G, Nduka S, Ezenwanne N (2013). Academic dishonesty among Nigeria pharmacy students: a comparison with United Kingdom, African Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology 7 (27): 1934 - 1941. https://doi.org/10.5897/AJPP2013.3587
Emmerton L, Jiang H, McKauge L (2014). Pharmacy students' interpretation of academic integrity, American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 78(6): 119. https://doi.org/10.5688/ajpe786119
Henning MA, Ram S, Malpas P, Sisley R, Thompson A, Hawken SJ (2014). Reasons for academic honesty and dishonesty with solutions: A study of pharmacy and medical students in New Zealand, Journal of Medical Ethics 40 (10): 702 - 709.
https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2013-101420
Callender KA, Olson SL, Kerr DC, Sameroff AJ (2010). Assessment of cheating behavior in young schoolage children: distinguishing normative behaviors from risk markers of externalizing psychopathology, Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology 3 9 ( 6 ) : 776-788.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2010.517165
Rowles J, Veltri CA (2017). Performance on interdisciplinary topics in an integrated pharmacy course, Innovations in pharmacy 8(1): 6. https://doi.org/10.24926/21550417.1298