Exploring secondary education teachers´ views on plagiarism and cheating

Technology has created a number of ethical dilemmas that institutions at all educational levels must face, since the extended use of ICT and mobile devices in education has made easier the copy of other people´s work. This study aims to explore teachers´ views on plagiarism and cheating. Results are presented from a sample of 46 Greek secondary education teachers and show that more than half of the teachers had a general idea on the issues of plagiarism and cheating. Almost no one uses plagiarism detection software and only one out of five check students´ projects for plagiarism and cheating. More than seven out of ten teachers believed that students commit plagiarism and cheating often and some times. Every educational institution should approach plagiarism and cheating, in order to reduce their occurrence. Also, secondary education teachers should inform students about plagiarism, in order to “built” future undergraduate and postgraduate university students that will be prevented from academic cheating.