High school students admit to cheating

LINCOLN, Neb., May 12 (UPI) -- A small study of U.S. high school students indicates teens understand what constitutes cheating, but they do it anyway, researchers say.

Researchers at Kenneth Kiewra, a professor of educational psychology at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, alumna Kelly Honz and Ya-Shu Yang of the University of Connecticut analyzed data from an anonymous survey of 100 students in a large Midwestern high school.

"They cheat on tests, homework assignments and when writing reports," Kiewra says in a statement.

Eighty-night percent of the students say glancing at someone else's answers during a test was cheating and 87 percent say they have it done it at least once.

Ninety-four percent say providing answers to someone during a test was cheating and 74 percent admitted to doing it at least once.

However, 47 percent say sharing test questions with another student who hasn't taken a test was academically dishonest, but nearly 70 percent admit doing it at least once.

Divulging test answers was perhaps perceived more dishonestly than divulging test questions because receiving test questions still requires some effort to find the answers, Kiewra suggests.

Thirty-nine percent of the students say writing a report based on the movie instead of reading the book was not cheating and 53 percent say they have done it at least once.

The findings are published in the Mid-Western Educational Researcher.