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.


Introduction
Students can apply to various strategies such as studying daily, creating study groups, reading the course content, and keeping note cards (Dapremont, 2014) to achieve academic success. Some researches stated that students believe that they can be successful and that this belief is a source of motivation for success (Coleman, 2008;Love, 2010). A person's self-belief is one of the factors that make him / her successful, which also coincides with the social cognitive theory of Bandura (1986).
However, individuals can adopt a variety of study approaches that have been conceptualized as deep (Marton & Säljö, 1976;Juklová et al., 2015) or strategic (Ramsden, 1988;Entwistle & Waterson, 1958) study approach to succeed in academic tasks such as assignments, exams, and lectures.
An individual's approach to learning, and therefore studying, can also affect the processes and perceptions of academic achievement (Yıldız, Şenel ve Can, 2018). Among these approaches, unlike academic students, the approach that is conceptualized as a surface approach and that is related to students' memorization, and fear of loss (Biggs, 1999;Juklová et al., 2015) may encourage students to choose non-moral paths for success.
The students who have a surface approach may be more likely to exhibit a cheating tendency to achieve academic tasks, pass exams, and get good grades. However, this approach of students may lead to failure rather than success. There is a possibility to fail for the students who turn to non-moral paths to achieve academic success. Although some researchers found no significant relationship between academic achievement and academic dishonesty tendencies (Robinson et al., 2004;Chase, 2010;Bourassa, 2011;Genereux & McLeod, 1995;Mustaine & Tewksbury, 2005) and some revealed negative relationships (Zhang, Yin & Zheng, 2017;Cochran, 2017;McCabe & Trevino, 1997;Ömür, Aydın & Argon, 2014), the role of moral attitudes and being committed to academic goals should be examined in detail. Because their personal beliefs can be effective in achieving academic achievement, their commitment to this goal, and their resistance to obstacles can play a key role in academic achievement. Therefore, commitment to academic goals can increase the academic success of the individual, lead to a moral approach by moving away from the tendency to cheat.
Goals are intentions that are specified in detail (Orlich et al., 2010). The goals of the students are described as multivariate profiles that can be defined as the different criteria profile that the learner determines for a learning task (Pieschl, Stahl & Bromme, 2013). Learning goals are determined to focus on development. Individuals make efforts to learn and develop their abilities without considering if they are compared with others or according to some particular standards. On the other hand, performance goals focus on assessing individuals by comparing them with predetermined standards or the capabilities of others (Arends & Kilcher, 2010). Locke et al. (1981) emphasized that goal commitment referred to a commitment to achieve a goal, while Naylor and Ilgen (1984) stressed that goal commitment is focused on the willingness of a problem solver to continue the effort and achieve a difficult goal over time. Klein et al. (1999) stated that the main outcome of the goal commitment was to provide the relationship between task difficulty and performance. Klein and Wright (1994) point out the importance of goal commitment by emphasizing that individuals who are committed to their goals are more likely to have higher performance than others when their task is equally challenging.
Since goal commitment is directly associated with academic achievement (Johnson, 2007;Girrardi, 2011;Lord, Bjerregaard & Hartman, 2013), determining the goals of the individuals correctly, and showing their commitment to these goals can remove them from the tendency to cheat.
This study aims to examine the effect of moral attitude, goal commitment, and the cheating tendency on academic achievement, to test whether the cheating tendency will bring success, and the role of goal commitment and moral attitude in this path.

Research Design
This study was designed to provide evidence of the role of moral attitude, goal commitment, and cheating tendency on academic achievement. A theoretical model was hypothesized to reveal the relationships.

Attitudes Towards Cheating
The Moral Attitude subscale of Attitudes Towards Cheating, developed by Ay & Çakmak (2015), was used to determine the moral attitudes of the students. The scale has 16 items, while the moral attitude subscale includes seven items that are rated between 1 (strongly disagree) -5 (strongly agree). They found the internal consistency coefficient as 0.85. For this study, the results of the CFA and alpha coefficient were displayed in table 1.

Cheating Tendency
The cheating subscale of the Academic Dishonesty Tendency Scale, which was developed by Eminoğlu & Nartgün (2009) to measure the academic dishonesty tendencies of individuals, was used in this study to measure university students' cheating tendencies. The scale includes 22 items, while cheating tendency has five items that are rated between 1 (strongly disagree) -5 (strongly agree). The alpha coefficient for the cheating tendency was 0.71 in the original study. For this study, the results of the CFA and alpha coefficient were displayed in table 2.

Data Collection
The authors collected the data during the 2017 -2018 academic year with the participation of teacher candidates. The students were asked whether they wanted to participate in the research voluntarily, and the purpose of the research was explained to the volunteers, and the form was introduced.

Analysis
The demographic variables of the participants were analyzed by percentage and frequency. While the differences between the genders were determined by using the independent ttest, the relationship between the variables was calculated with the Pearson Correlation Coefficient. Primary level confirmatory factor analysis was performed in the AMOS program to determine whether the scales were suitable for path analysis. To calculate the fit indices of the hypothesized model, path analysis was performed in the AMOS program, the maximum likelihood method was used, and the direct and indirect effects of the variables were calculated.   Path 1 is the direct prediction of moral attitudes to goal commitment. The path 2 is between goal commitment and GPA, while path 3 is between moral attitude and cheating tendency. Path 4

Results
represents the prediction of goal commitment to cheating tendency. Path 5, which is the last direct effect, is between cheating tendency and GPA. The path 6 is the indirect effect of moral attitude on GPA via goal commitment. In path 7, it is hypothesized that moral attitude indirectly predicts cheating tendency via goal commitment. Path 8 shows the indirect effect of moral attitude on GPA through goal commitment and cheating tendency. Path 9 displays the indirect effect of goal commitment on GPA via cheating tendency. Path 10 is the indirect effect of a moral attitude on GPA via cheating tendency.

Discussion and Conclusion
This study aims to examine the effect of moral attitude, goal commitment, and the cheating tendency on academic achievement, to test whether the cheating tendency will bring success, and the role of goal commitment and moral attitude in this path. The results revealed that moral attitude increased goal commitment, which directly and positively predicted GPA. Additionally, the moral attitude towards cheating indirectly and positively predicted GPA. Contrarily, cheating tendency decreased GPA. There was a positive correlation between moral attitude and GPA (Table 5), and cheating tendency decreased this relationship level in the model (Table 6). When the indirect effect of MA on GPA (via cheating tendency) was examined, the positive effect of moral attitudes proceeded.
Thus, it can be inferred that a moral attitude reduces the negative impact of cheating tendency on GPA. In the model, it is seen that goal commitment decreases the cheating tendency. Besides, cheating tendency reduced the relationship between goal commitment and GPA. It was found that moral attitude decreases the level of cheating tendency through goal commitment. Moral attitude directly decreased the cheating tendency; however, it is a surprising finding that goal commitment negatively affected the prediction level of moral attitudes on the cheating tendency. Some researchers state that there are no significant associations between GPA and cheating (or academic dishonesty) (Robinson et al., 2004;Chase, 2010;Bourassa, 2011;Mustaine &Tewksbury, 2005;Genereux &McLeod, 1995) while some found significant relations between these variables. For example, Zhang (2017) revealed that the students having lower grades were more prone to cheating, while Cochran (2017)  Educational Policy Analysis and Strategic Research, V 15, N 1, 2020 © 2020 INASED Consequently, moral attitude and goal commitment independently increase academic achievement while cheating tendency negatively affected academic success. Increasing the commitment levels of the individuals having a moral attitude toward cheating on academic goals may cause an increment in cheating tendency. The student's goal perception, task difficulty, and being over motivated may lead students to cheat for academic success. It is possible to infer that cheating tendency brings failure. Correspondingly, it can be said that the teacher candidates having a moral attitude, studying for the academic tasks and goals, and being committed to these goals will reach academic success.
Every part of the educational institution has an important role in determining academic goals and adopting a moral attitude. Research shows that if higher education institutions such as faculties, schools, and similar elements include and provide guidance, students are more likely to achieve academic success (Dapremont, 2011;Etowa, Foster, et al., 2005;Gardner, 2005;Higgins, 2005;Wong et al., 2008)