Using the theory of planned behaviour to understand Thai students’ conceptions of plagiarism within their undergraduate programmes in higher education

ABSTRACT

High standards of academic conduct, including the awareness raising of plagiaristic behaviours, are regarded as a central part of the development of individual scholarship in higher education systems worldwide. This research contributes to original knowledge in relation to understanding how students develop an understanding of plagiarism and how they actualise it within their undergraduate programmes in Thailand. Data were collected through a survey, numerical modelling and interview, and the Theory of Planned Behaviour is adopted as a lens through which the issues are interpreted and explored. The findings expose in detail not only the inadequacy of students’ understanding of both the gravity and complex and extensive nature of plagiarism but also their motivations for engaging in plagiaristic behaviour, which mainly centred upon lack of control and confidence in their academic endeavours. The study has implications for practitioners and administrators in higher education, particularly in relation to explicit expectations of students’ academic conduct.

KEYWORDS:

• Plagiarism
• student behaviour
• higher education
• theory of planned behaviour
• Thai undergraduate students

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The curriculum mapping is what lecturers who are responsible in each subject need to follow and use it to guide their students as indicated in the mapping. The indicators are being honest, being self-responsible and punctual, being aware of professional ethics, being open-minded and respecting others, and being public-minded (TQFHE 2013).

2 Inferential reasoning refers to “a process of generating new semantic information from old semantic information” (Rickheit et al. 1985, 3, quoted in Thienthong 2018, 13).