MORAL JUDGMENTS OF NIGERIAN SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS ON EXAMINATION MALPRACTICES: THE PRE-DURING-AND-POST EXAMINATION SCENARIOS
Keywords:
moral judgment, examination, malpractice, ethics, secondary,Abstract
The preponderance of cheating in examination/test has become so
alarming that concerned stakeholders are perturbed on its impact on
the moral ethos of the Nigerian society. Students’ engagement in
examination malpractices might stem from their moral judgment
stance. This study determined the moral judgments of secondary
school students on examination malpractices scenarios (pre-duringand-
post) in Nigeria. The survey research design was adopted and
four hundred secondary school students were sampled from two local
government areas in Onitsha Education Zone in Anambra State.
Results showed that on the average the percentages of students who
agreed that it is not wrong to violate the listed pre-during-and-post
examination ethics are 26.13%; 33.84% and 21.3% respectively.
Also the violation of the during-examination ethic had higher mean
score/percentage response in favor of those who think that it was not
wrong to violate them than the violation of pre-and-post examination
ethics. Multiple regression analysis showed that sex, class level, type
of school and location of the school are (joint) significant predictors
of students’ moral judgment in only two scenarios. However, only
school type made individual significant contribution in students’
moral judgment of the three examination malpractice scenarios.
Based on the findings recommendations were made.
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