The Role of Moral Attitude, Goal Commitment, and Cheating Tendency in Academic Achievement

This study aims to examine the effects of cheating tendency, academic goal commitment, and moral attitude toward cheating on academic achievements of teacher candidates. 486 teacher candidates were recruited. The moral attitude toward cheating was measured with the Moral Attitude subscale of the Scale for Attitude Towards Cheating. The cheating tendency was measured with the Cheating subscale of the Academic Dishonesty Scale. The academic goal commitment was measured with the KUT scale. Academic achievement was measured with the GPA. The data were analyzed with the independent t-test, Pearson Correlation test, and path analysis. While moral attitude positively and directly affected academic goal commitment, it negatively and directly influenced cheating tendency negatively. Academic goal commitment predicted cheating tendency negatively and GPA positively. The cheating tendency had a negative impact on GPA. Academic goal commitment positively affected GPA via cheating tendency; however, the direct effect of academic goal commitment on GPA was higher than the indirect effect. Moral attitude negatively predicted cheating tendency via academic goal commitment while it affected GPA positively. Moral attitude positively predicted GPA via cheating tendency. Consequently, cheating tendency affected academic achievement negatively. Moral attitude toward cheating and the high level of academic goal commitment reduced cheating tendency and increased academic achievement. [This study was presented at the International Turkish World Congress on Education and Social Sciences held between 7-8 December 2018.]