1192 Journal of Dental Education ■ Volume 68, Number 11 Cheating Behaviors of Dental Students Ziad Nawaf Al-Dwairi, B.D.S., Ph.D.; E.M. Al-Waheidi, B.D.S., Ph.D. Abstract: There has always been some degree of cheating in educational institutions. Many students who have difficulty retaining information, or who are just too lazy to work, turn to cheating as an easy way to obtain high marks. The aims of this study were to investigate undergraduate dental students’ attitudes about the seriousness of thirteen cheating behaviors and to determine the students’ attitudes about justification for cheating. A multiple choice questionnaire was distributed to 200 undergraduate dental students at the Faculty of Dentistry of the Jordan University of Science and Technology in the second through the fifth year of the curriculum in order to rate thirteen cheating behaviors and report their degree of satisfaction with studying dentistry. The response rate was 100 percent. Nine out of the thirteen cheating behaviors were considered as serious by about 85 percent of students. This majority also reported that they enjoyed studying dentistry compared to 10 percent who liked dentistry and 5 percent who disliked dentistry. Those 85 percent reported that they considered themselves to be ethical, while 10 percent selected somewhat ethical and 5 percent selected not ethical. This study revealed the importance of the issue of cheating and how it is evaluated by dental students who may benefit from educational programs as part of their curriculum. Dr. Al-Dwairi is Lecturer, Department of Restorative Dentistry, Jordan University of Science and Technology; and Dr. Al-Waheidi is Consultant Orthodontist in Amman, Jordan. Direct correspondence and requests for reprints to Dr. Ziad Nawaf Al-Dwairi, Department of Restorative Dentistry, Jordan University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 3030, Irbid-Jordan; 0096227201000 phone; 0096227095115 fax; ziadd@just.edu.jo. Key words: dental, ethics, students, cheating Submitted for publication 6/16/04; accepted 9/4/04 T he ethical and practical implications of cheat- ing have been extensively explored in the medical and dental literature 1,2 and in studies of undergraduate students by Seirles et al. 3 and Lancaster et al. 4 Collectively, these studies revealed that student cheating is a serious problem even in higher education. Students often see cheating as the only means left to retain control over a situation that is slipping away from them. 1 The most obvious prac- tical outcome of cheating is that underqualified stu- dents are able to graduate by taking shortcuts to pass- ing grades without acquiring the knowledge or the skills needed for patient care. 3 Cheating is not limited to examinations. Cheat- ing can occur on laboratory projects and in the clinic by falsifying patient records. It can occur by forging faculty signatures on prescriptions or by pocketing money from patient treatment. 5 Undetected cheating is reinforced when the cheater gets rewarded; however, it is unrealistic to assume that rewards for cheating are limited to den- tal students. For example, faculty who cheat by fal- sifying research data or engaging in plagiarism are rewarded with promotion and higher salaries if their unethical behavior is not detected. The aims of this study were to investigate un- dergraduate dental students’ attitudes about the seri- ousness of thirteen cheating behaviors and to deter- mine the students’ attitudes about justification for cheating. Materials and Methods The study was carried out at the Faculty of Dentistry at Jordan University of Science and Tech- nology, Irbid-Jordan. A multiple choice questionnaire was distributed by the authors to 200 undergraduate dental students who were in the second through the fifth year of the curriculum. The questionnaire con- tained questions in English, which is the medium of instruction that asked students about their educational experiences in dental school and attitudes toward cheating. The questionnaire asked the students to rate the seriousness of thirteen cheating behaviors as ei- ther very serious cheating or not serious cheating. A cheating behavior is considered serious if it is against the moral principles of the dental profession and will result in a penalty that will affect the students’ pro- fessional education. The questionnaire was adapted from an article by Warman et al. 9 and pilot-tested to make sure that the students’ responses were reliable. The students indicated their gender, year of school, and average grades as the questionnaire differenti- ated between males and females, the undergraduate year, and their grade point average (GPA). Students were also asked to indicate their degree of satisfac- tion with studying dentistry by checking “enjoy,” “like,” and “dislike.” A scale from 1 to 10 was de- veloped and used to classify the degree of satisfac- tion as follows: <5: dislike dentistry and would