Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible influence of students’ social persuasion on examination malpractices among undergraduate students in Universities within Kiambu County. Social persuasion is one of the main factor contributing towards examination malpractice. The target population was 183,760 undergraduates’ students, lecturers and University administrators from Universities within the County of Kiambu, where one private university and one public university were randomly selected. The data collected from the pilot exercise, was used to compute Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient which was found to be r = 0.856, hence the instruments were reliable. The quantitative data obtained was analyzed using SPSS version 25, and was presented in descriptive statistics inform of frequencies and percentages. Inferential statistics in the form of linear regression was used to test the relationship between independent and dependent variables in each objective. Linear Regression Results were presented in model summary tables, ANOVA tables and coefficient tables. The incorporation of modern technology in the entire process of examination administration and certification would be important in reducing the examination malpractices. An examination policy shift in universities would be necessary too.

1. Introduction

According to Kisamore et al., ¹, at the University of Oklahoma, USA, researched on the predictors of examination malpractices like cheating in exams i.e. deliberate doing wrong contrary to examination rules. After the data analysis, it was concluded that examination malpractices are heavily dependent on demographic characteristics, personality traits and the environmental context in predicting the possibility of examination malpractices among university students. This is based on the student’s personality characteristics where they reflect the patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, like students peer approval, social approval, rules & regulations, familial persuasion and role modeling.

A study carried out by Suleman, Q. et al., ² about the role of communities in influencing the examination malpractices, revealed the significant role played by social persuasion where the influence in which an audience is intentionally encouraged to adopt an idea, attitude, or course of action in encouraging and abetting examination malpractices. There is direct correlation between the peers’ attitude towards examination malpractices and the actual individual behaviour. The researcher found out that the group perception about the examination malpractices determined whether the member of that group would engage himself into it. It was concluded that peer persuasion is a key determinant of behaviour change. The examination malpractices at the university level is becoming worse due to the fact that university staff, plan and collaborate with students and parents to perpetuate the behavior. ( ³, p.29 - 38)

Many studies on students’ self-efficacy have mainly focused on its influence on academic performance but none has investigated its possible influence on examination malpractices. For this reason, the study investigated the possible influence of university students’ social persuasion component of self-efficacy on examination malpractices among student’s self-efficacy on examination malpractices in Universities within Kiambu County, Kenya.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of students’ social persuasion component of self-efficacy on examination malpractices among undergraduate students in universities in Kiambu County, Kenya. In this case we find out the influence of students’ social persuasion component of self-efficacy on examination malpractices among students in universities in Kiambu County, Kenya. This study comes at a time when efforts to curb examination malpractices are stepped up by the Ministry of Education officials and other stakeholders at primary and secondary level. There is no such multi-sectoral approach from various stakeholders that is currently concerned with the ever rising cases of examination malpractices at the Kenyan universities.

2. Conceptual Framework

According to Bassey, B. A., & Iruoje, J. ⁴ examination malpractices are the work of students through the collaboration of various interested stakeholders. Many stakeholders are involved in persuading the students directly or indirectly. Examination malpractices can be viewed from many disciplinary and theoretical perspectives. According to Bassey, B. A., & Iruoje, J. ⁴, argued that approval or disapproval by peers over a particular behaviour would determine whether the university students engage in that behaviour. A member of peer group would avoid a behaviour that is not sanctioned by the group. There is direct correlation between the peers’ attitude towards examination malpractices and the actual individual behaviour. The researcher found out that the group perception about the examination malpractices determined whether the member of that group would engage in it or not. It was concluded that peer persuasion is a key determinant of behaviour change.

Ojwan’g, M. A. ⁵ carried a study in Kenya on students’ perception on examination malpractices in basic education in Kenya. The researcher targeted 838 first year university students in a certain faith based university in central Kenya. 272 students were given questionnaires to respond to them. The study was guided by Kohlberg’s theory of moral development (1958) and the theory of planned behaviour by Ajzen ⁶. The Kohlberg theory of moral development (1958) is purely cognitive in nature, and is basically about thinking processes, which takes place in the mind of an individual. It is the conversation of the individual’s mind on how to respond to moral dilemmas. The idea in the students’ mind and the social persuasion to engage in examination malpractices presents a good example of moral dilemma. In such a situation, according to this researcher, social persuasions assist the students to make the decision and resolve the moral dilemma. The results indicated that 50.4% of examination malpractices took place through collusion among examination officials, school administrators and police officers guiding the examination. For this reason, the society plays a big role in the perpetuation of examination malpractices among students. Students acquire behaviour to engage in examination malpractices through vicarious learning experiences, which is about learning through observation and repeating the observed behaviours, as the study below endeavor to demonstrate.

3. Research Methodology

Mixed methodology was used in the study. This study collected quantitative data from university students and lecturers using self-reporting questionnaires. An interview guide was used to collect qualitative data through oral interview from university administrators. The mixed methodology was appropriate for this research since the data that was collected was qualitative and quantitative. Mixed methodology is about systematic integration of quantitative and qualitative data during data collection, analysis and discussion within the same investigation.

The study collected quantitative data from university students and lecturers using self-reporting questionnaires. An interview guide was used to collect qualitative data through oral interview from university administrators. The survey research design was used since it allowed a variety of participants, data collection, analysis and utilization of various instruments. The target population was all 183,760 university personnel which included the administrators, lecturers and students. The targeted population was from private and public universities in County of Kiambu. Which included in Kiambu County, namely; Kenyatta University, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Mount Kenya, Gretsa, Presbyterian University of East Africa and St. Paul’s University. University administrators were targeted for oral interview to provide the same information sought from students and lecturers for the purposes of information validation and triangulation.

The simple random sampling technique was used to select one private university and one public university. Yamane ⁷ formula was used to assist the researcher to approximate the respondents’ sample size since it was good in working with finite population to find the sample size of the study.

Data were collected using questionnaires and the use of intervals schedule. The questionnaire consisted of 10 sections A – F. Section A was about demographics of the respondents. Section B was about past performance component of students’ self-efficacy. Section C was about vicarious learning component of students’ self-efficacy on examination malpractices. Section D was about social persuasion component of students’ self-efficacy on examination malpractices. Section E was about emotional experiences component of students’ self-efficacy on examination malpractices. Section F was about examination malpractices, the dependent variable. The collected data were grouped, fed into computer in coded format, for analysis by use of Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software program version 21.

The data were analyzed from the questionnaires and student matrix were grouped according to research questions.

4. Findings

The social persuasion experiences on examination malpractices among undergraduate students are presented in Table 1 below. The analyzed data showed that 43.9% strongly disagreed that some students engaged in examination malpractices because they were encouraged verbally by their close old family members while 27.6% disagreed that students were not discouraged verbally by members of society from engaging in examination malpractices.

22.2% agreed that the role models in the society who engaged in illegal activities and went unpunished acted as a motivation for students to engage in examination malpractices and 30.5% agreed that examination malpractices was due to peer pressure whereby most students were cheating in examination in order to conform to their group’s behaviour. 28.9% agreed that social approval influenced examination malpractices among undergraduate students and 22.9% strongly agreed that weak university examination rules and regulations acted as a motivation for students’ to engage in examination malpractices. The results indicated that social persuasion influenced examination malpractices among undergraduate students within public and private universities of Kiambu County, Kenya.

In Table 2 43.9% of the respondents strongly disagreed that some students engaged in examination malpractices because they were encouraged verbally by their close old family members while 27.6% disagreed that students were not discouraged verbally by members of society from engaging in examination malpractices.

22.2% agreed that the role models in the society who engaged in illegal activities and went unpunished acted as a motivation for students to engage in examination malpractices and 30.5% agreed that examination malpractices was due to peer pressure whereby most students were cheating in examination in order to conform to their group’s behaviour. 28.9% agreed that social approval influenced examination malpractices among undergraduate students and 22.9% strongly agreed that weak university examination rules and regulations acted as a motivation for students’ to engage in examination malpractices. The results indicated that social persuasion influenced examination malpractices among undergraduate students within public and private universities of Kiambu County, Kenya.

This implied that this independent variable of social persuasion experiences influences undergraduate students to engage in examination malpractice in studied universities. With regards to the influence of social persuasion experiences and examination malpractices, other studies have been conducted; each revealing that social persuasion plays a big role in influencing examination malpractices among students. For example, in India, Maheshwari, ⁸ observed that due to corruption in the society especially from politicians, students have also been persuaded to copy these behaviours and that eventually find their way into examination malpractices. This supports the present study’s findings that the family, teachers and society influences undergraduate students to engage in examination malpractices.

The study adopted linear regression analysis to test the relationship between social persuasion experiences and examination malpractices and the findings presented in the form of model summary, ANOVA and coefficients.

Research outcomes as presented in Table 3 revealed that the R² value for the regression between the independent variable (students’ social persuasion experiences) and the dependent variable (examination malpractices) was R² = 0.933. This implied that students’ social persuasion experiences influenced examination malpractices among undergraduate students attending public and private universities in Kiambu County by 93.3%, an indication that other variables not studied was responsible for examination malpractices by only 6.7%.

This is in line with results of a study by Suleman, et al. ² whose study outcomes showed that aspects of social persuasion were responsible for students engaging in examination malpractices.

The analysis of variance findings presented in Table 4 showed that there was a significant relationship between students’ social persuasion experiences and examination malpractices among university students in public and private universities in Kiambu County. This is because the p-value of 0.000 was lower than p = 0.05, an indication that statistical model employed was a good fit for testing the relationship between the independent and dependent variables investigated. A significant relationship was also established by Ogbebor & Abraka ⁹ between social persuasion experiences and examination malpractice among learners in Nigeria which supports the present study’s results. The F-statistic of 19.092 less than the table value which is F (1,.6) = 5.99 so we conclude that there is a significance relationship between the Social Persuasion on Examination Malpractice where 1 is the number of degrees of freedom on numerator which is the factor of Examination Malpractice while 6 is the number of degree of freedom in denominator noted as Social Persuasion which contain six factors.

The relationship between students’ social persuasion experiences and examination malpractices. This due to the fact that the p-value of 0.000 was lower than p = 0.05. Hence, for this study, there existed a statistically significant relationship between students’ social persuasion experiences and examination malpractices among undergraduate students in public and private universities of Kiambu County, Kenya.

A linear equation can be drawn from the table above showing each factor of social persuasion contribution towards examination malpractice.

Where

= Some students put more effort in examination malpractices because they are encouraged/influenced verbally by their family.

= Students are always discouraged verbally from examination malpractices

= Role modeling of some public figures who successfully cheat, still/rig elections and engage in illegal activities enhances students engagement in examination cheating as these public figure also do the same and go unpunished.

= Some faculty members and or lecturers support students engagement in examination malpractices which has encouraged students engagement in the vice.

= Peer approval influences examination malpractices among undergraduate learners.

= Social approval influences examination malpractices among undergraduate learners

From the equation above we found that the factor like faculty members and or lecturers support students engagement in examination malpractices which has encouraged students engagement in the vice had the highest contribution towards the examination malpractice with a coefficient of 0.089 while students are always discouraged verbally from examination malpractices had the lowest contribution in terms of coefficient with a value of 0.044. Hence, social persuasion experiences are significantly related to reported examination malpractices among students in learning institutions. The respective coefficient and the parameters were represented as Table 5 below;

From the study sought information on how examination rules and regulations developed the universities influenced students’ engagement in examination malpractices. The interviewees stated that;

“Available examination rules and regulations has never been a factor in preventing examination malpractices. Each student is given a copy of the rules and regulation during the process of admission into university. The rules and regulations are read before they sit for all examinations. Despite that, the examination malpractices are common in this university”. (3 University Administrators)

“The consequences of all forms of examination malpractices are well written in and this booklet is given to every student” (2 Faculty Administrators)

The study also looked at how familial persuasion influenced students’ engagement in examination malpractices in public and private universities. The interviewees stated that;

“There is no direct evidence of families persuading their children to get involved in examination malpractices at the university levels, however, families do not advise them against examination malpractice at the university level” (4 University Administrators).

“Though the family members do not encourage their sons/daughters to engage in examination malpractices, they too don’t condemn the behaviour despite the fact that they know it is rampart at the university. Parents come pleading for the forgiveness of their children when caught and suspended from university. They don’t take it as a serious offence” (2 University Administrators).

It was in the interest of this study to investigate the attitude of faculty members/lecturers on examination malpractices and if their attitude has any influence on students’ engagement in examination malpractices. The interviewees stated that;

“Lecturers do not directly encourage learners to participant in examination malpractices. Some lecturers teach only in areas they intend to assess while others inform learners on areas they have set examinations from. These actions of lecturers can be interpreted to mean that they abet examination malpractice. This is part of examination malpractices” (3 University Administrators).

5. Discussion and Conclusion

The student concluded that students’ social persuasion influenced examination malpractices as outcomes established that examination malpractices was due to peer pressure whereby most students were cheating in examination in order to conform to the group’s behaviour. Social approval influenced examination malpractices among undergraduate students and that weak university examination rules and regulations acted as a motivation for students to engage in examination malpractices hence indicating social persuasion influenced examination malpractices.

6. Recommendations

In order to reduce the occurrence of examination malpractices in Kenyan universities, a multi-sectoral approach need to be adopted. The study found a very strong relationship between students’ social persuasion and examination malpractices at the university level and therefore it is a social evil that cannot be left with the university to fight it alone. Parents, primary, secondary teachers and religious leaders need to teach to young ones the evils associated with examination malpractices at all educational level. Professional guidance and counseling to students geared towards reducing the influence of social persuasion on examination malpractices should be encouraged.

University policy makers to come up with the content of the curriculum that takes care of the students’ past performance. The content must be covered within the university semester and this may ensure proper mastery of content

Students’ behaviour of examination malpractices is normally a learnt behaviour. A behaviour which is learnt can be unlearned. The best way of doing this is to ensure the consequences of examination malpractices is known to those who would wish to engage in it. The students can learn vicariously the serious consequences of examination malpractices.

References