CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of Study

Cheating behavior is one of students‟ action which happen during the

test or the exam. The situation happens when they are unready for the exam

or when they feel that the material is difficult or when they want to pass the

exam with good score.1 Nowadays, cheating becomes serious problem for the

students because it makes them to be dishonest and they do not believe

themselves. Getting good score and pass the exam become the reason for the

majority of the students think instantly that is cheating. 2 This phenomenon

often occurs in teaching and learning process. Yet, we never hear the

educational institution gives serious attention in term of how to solve or how

to destroy students cheating behavior. The solving problem only comes from

the headmaster and the teacher itself.3

Students cheating behavior happens start from beginner level until

advance level. It is not only for the students but also for worker in job

competition. This behavior does not occur in Indonesia but for around the

1
Dr. Hamzeh M. Dodeen, David Sandom and Larier Logus, 2010”Undergraduate Students Cheating
in the Exam, and Cheating Behaviour Problem”. United Arab Emirates University vol 73 page 30
and page 24
2
Nida Bayindir & Aykut Ozel* & Mustafa Bakir, “A Research on the Students of the Faculty of
Education for Identifying Tendency of Cheating in Exam”. Dumlupinar University
(DPU) Sample 2013 page 4
3
Emile Hamim,”KecendrunganMencontek di KalangansiswaSekolahsampaiUniversitas.” Universitas
Gajah Mada. Vol 43 Page 10

1
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world. It can be called that cheating behavior is already became bad students‟

habitual for some levels. If there is no reaction from educational institution to

solve this problem, this institution will get a bad label from the society of

building students‟ bad moral. Which is educational institution has big

responsibility how to control students cheating behavior.4 Cheating behavior

caused great damage for the students because by cheating the teacher cannot

distinguish whether they do their assessment by themselves or not. It makes

there is no fair score among the students.5

Cheating behavior is increased year by year as a result of score

standardization from the teacher, school or government. Another reason is

because of the development of technology. Technology makes the students

feel lazy to study.6 They prefer to play on line game and use social media

such as facebook, twitter and instagram any time. Finally they decided to

cheat during the evaluation because there is no preparation before7

In the process of learning the teachers will gives assessment to

measure the students understanding with the teachers have teach. For English

4
Ahmad Rizal Husein.2009“Kebiasaan Mencontek Siswa dalam Ujian.”
(http://eningwidihastuti.wordpress.com/kebiasaan-mencontek-3/. diacseses April 21 2012) Vol 15
Page 12-14
5
Emile Hamim,”Kecendrungan Mencontek di Kalangansiswa Sekolahsampai Universitas” vol 17.
Page 12
6
Gary J. Niels 1996. Academic Practice, Schools Culture and Cheating Behaviors. Winchester
Thurston school. Vol 189 Page 12
7
Ahmad Rifa‟i, 2004. “Metode Pembelajaran Kejujuran pada Siswa dalam Proses Belajar”
http.wwwedu.Journalpendidikan,metodependidik.ip.elt. diakses pada senin 14 juli 2014
 3

assessment, students cheating behavior happens for skills including writing

assessment. In another word, cheating in writing assessment is closed with

plagiarism. They copy their friends‟ work and stated as their own work.8

Students cheating behavior in writing assessment can be from lack of

vocabularies.9 They not only cheat in writing assessment but also in their

homework. They more prefer to find the answer of their task in the internet

then they copy the answer without any paraphrasing before that is called

plagiarism. It usually happens in the college, when there is final project

(thesis), the students cheat another work as their own work, even though in

fact they got the work from the internet of from books.10

Based on national survey of public cheating behaviors which the

researcher read, there are twenty one plagiarisms in the college, such as in

Midlands State University and UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya. Another

research which stated about plagiarism is conducted by Nur Habiabah, under

the title “An Analysis in Seminar Proposal by the eight semester students of

English Education Department”. This research discusses the students of

English Education Department who do plagiarism in their subject; seminar

proposal. In this research stated that the majority of plagiarism comes from

8
Ever Taderera and Loveness Nyikahadzoi. “ Exploring management strategies to reduce cheating in
written
Examinations”: case study of Midlands State University. Page 12
9
Ibid8.
10
Nur Habibah. 2012 “An analysis of plagiarism in seminar proposals by the eight semester students
of PBI ” (IAIN SUNAN AMPEL SURABAYA) page 1-2
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social media.11 The researcher chooses this research because it has correlation

with the same topic of writing ability even the place of the subject is

different, one is in the college while the researcher is in the Junior high

school.

The other researches stated cheating behavior is as a social

interaction means that cheating behavior is one of the problem which

becomes social habitual, such mentioned above cheating happens not only in

education level but also in job career.12 Another research stated the strategies

to reduce cheating behavior for written examination in university entitled

“Exploring management strategies to reduce cheating in written

examinations: case study of Midlands State University”. As a result, the

teachers‟ strategies are give the students interesting topic, assign paper topics

which are specific rather than general, ask for a personal commentary on the

research process and require two opposing view points of the same issue.13

Based on the two previous researches above, the researcher focuses

on the students cheating behavior in writing assessment and the teacher

strategies to overcome students cheating behavior. The writing assessment is

given by the English teachers is to measure the students ability in writing

11
Ibid.
12
Appeby D.C. “The Students Perception of Irritating Behaviors in College Classrooms and jobs”.
Vol 83 Page 41-45
13
Ever Taderera, 1990. Exploring management strategies to reduce cheating in writing examinations:
case study of middle state university. http.journaofcasestudiesineducation.edu.id access on July 2014
 5

skill. By giving writing assessment, the students know their ability in writing

English, whether they less of this skill or not.

Writing assessment that will be studied in this research is formative

assessment. Writing assesment given by the English teachers to measure

students' writing ability after what has been described by the teacher.

Formative assessments are on-going assessments, reviews, and observations

in a classroom.14 Teachers use formative assessment to improve instructional

methods and student feedback throughout the teaching and learning process.

For example, if a teacher observes that some students do not grasp a concept,

she or he can design a review activity or use a different instructional strategy.

Likewise, students can monitor their progress with periodic quizzes and

performance tasks. The results of formative assessments are used to modify

and validate instruction.

The researcher chooses writing skill for the subject because writing is

called as the difficult skill for some students. The difficulties such as the

students are lack of vocabularies and lack of grammar.15 This situation makes

the students try to find instant way and that is called cheating. Cheating

14
Sandra Tauline. 2003. classrooms Assesment. http://fcit.usf.edu/assessment/basic/basica.html
acseess on friday 15 August 2014

15
Ever Taderera, 1990. Exploring Management Strategies to Reduce Cheating in Writing
Examinations: case study of middle state university. http.journaofcasestudiesineducation.edu.id access
on July 2014
 6

usually happens in some cases including in writing assessment. In writing

assessment most of the students cheat more than in other skills. In speaking

assessment is impossible to present cheating behavior because it is oral

assessment. In the reading assessment, students have a little opportunity in

cheating because of the answer are already stated on the text.16

In this research the researcher took two Islamic private schools in

Wringinanom, those school is MTs. Raden Paku and MTs. Maulana Malik

Ibrahim. MTs. Raden Paku is in the midst of districts area where the students

are from various villages in Wringinanom. This school is also near with

SMPN 1 Wringinanom. Some of the students who entered in MTs. Raden

Paku are the students who did not pass joining SMPN 1 Wringinanom. While

MTs. Maulana Malik Ibrahim is in one village in Wringinanom and the

students are mostly from rural villager itself. The majority of their friend

decided to do not continue their education after primary school. As the

addition, the researcher chooses those two Islamic private schools because

those are the oldest school in Wringinanom. Both of them have English club

program especially for grade eight. This program is held two months in a

year. The tutors are from pare- Kediri who are expert in English. After two

months, all of the students having study tour in Bali in order to practice their

English Ability with the foreigner. Yet, there is a problem dealing with the

16
Ibid.
 7

students output. Logically after having this program, the students are able in

English but when the English teacher gives the assessment for English

students‟ writing the students still cheat each others. This is to be the main

reason for the researcher to choose those two schools.

Beside the main reason above, the researcher took those two schools

as the place of the sample because of for several reasons. The first reason is

the rank of students cheating behavior in those schools is highest. Based on

the preliminary research the last fifth years from academic year 2008 - 2009

until academic year 2013 – 2014, there are 60% students of second grade

cheat in writing assessment. Compared to the public schools are located in

areas other Wringinanom, both these Islamic schools menconteknya higher

level. The evidence is the writing results among students are often similar.

The students does not know the actual writing, they just write what other

students said.17

Second reason is Islamic private school, the school which emphasizes

on teaching honesty, good moral value and good manners of Islam even

though, in fact, cheating behavior occurred at some Islamic Private Schools.

While, the next reason of students cheating behavior in Islamic private school

are because of they face hard subject, hard evaluation, time pressure and fear

of failure. There are some cheating techniques which are done by some

17
Berdasarkan hasil ulangan writing dari kedua guru BahasaInggris yang mengajar di kelas delapan
 8

students, those are looking at another‟s test paper, giving signals and writing

the answer on hands or on desks.18

In Islamic private school, teaching religious is more priority than

teaching common subjects.19 Yet, this school still follows our government for

teaching other lessons because there are three lessons which have been

mastered for final national exam (UNAS). Those lessons are math, science

and English. Most of the students in Islamic private school are more able in

Islamic lesson rather common lessons because some of them were graduated

from Islamic primary school; MI (Madrasah Ibtidaiyah).20 It is makes the

student‟ motivation in learning English is low, they more prefer to learn

Arabic than English.

According to preliminary research in those two Islamic private

schools, some of the students stated that learning English very is difficult.21 It

makes them prefer to cheat others when there is evaluation because they want

to get good score. Those schools are located in Wringinanom is one of the

districts area in Gresik. There are many factories there. Many people who live

in district area have opinion that education is as secondary needs rather than

18
Dr. Hamzeh M. Dodeen, “The influence of the Student Cheating in Exams”, Damascus University
Journal, Vol. 28, No (1), 2012
19
Latif Hisrain. 1997. “Tinkat Kemampuan Antara Siswa Sekolah Islam Swasta dengan Sekolah Negri
” vol 121 page 34 www.sagepub.com . Accessed on 10th, June, 2014
20
Ibid19
21
Interview the students of MTS RADEN PAKU and MTS MAULANA MALIK IBRAHIM
 9

having work. This condition makes the students feel lazy to study.22

According to preliminary interview with a resident who lives in that place

stated that having work is more valuable rather than going to school. The

students think that by having work peoples get some money to complete their

daily needs that are the most important to them than waste of some money for

education.23

This research is supposed for English teacher and this research is

totally different with the previous studies which focus on cheating problems

in writing assessment. The differences are this research discuses cheating

behavior in writing assessment of Islamic private schools in district area in

Wringinanom. The previous studies which already mentioned above talk

about cheating behavior in private school and focus on writing assessment.

This research only focuses on second grade of Junior high school and

discusses English teachers‟ strategies to overcome the students‟ cheating

behaviors in writing assessment and the factors which influent students

cheating behavior in writing assessment such as individual, situational and

teacher factor.

22
Tomas Luqman. „Kecendrungan Siswa di Daerah Industri.
”http://kumpulankaryasiswa.wordpress.com/category/artikel-siswai/ di accsess pada 7 juni 2014 vol
64. Page 45
23
Dodi Muhammad. 2003, ” Pola Pikir Masyarakat Plosok Desa”. Universitas Muhammadiyah
Malang. Vol 34 page 22
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B. Research Question

Based on the background of the research above,the researcher has

formulated two research questions as follow:

1. What are the factors which influence students‟ cheating behavior in

writing assessment of eight grade students‟ of Islamic Private Schools at

Wringinanom - Gresik?

2. What are the strategies which are used by English teacher to overcome

students‟ cheating behavior in writing assessment of eight grade students‟

of Islamic Private Schools at Wringinanom - Gresik?

C. Objective of the Study

1. To identify the factors which influence students cheating behavior in

writing assessment of eight grade students‟ of Islamic Private Schools at

Wringinanom – Gresik.

2. To find English teacher the strategies to overcome students‟ cheating

behavior in writing assessment of eight grade students‟ of Islamic Private

Schools at Wringinanom– Gresik.

D. Significance of Study

This research is useful for English teachers, principals, and further

studies. The researcher expects this research will help English teachers in

term of how to handle students‟ cheating behavior in writing assessment. By

applying the appropriate strategies to overcome students cheating behavior in

writing assessment reduce students‟ cheating behavior.

This research also helps the new English teacher in the first teaching.

Furthermore, the result of this research helps the English teacher to assist and

to guide the students that they do not cheat during the writing assessment. By

knowing the result of this research, the English teacher will anticipate the

problem of facing students‟ cheating behavior. The result of this research

helps the further researches to analyze more which related with this research.

The researcher hopes that Islamic private school can apply suitable strategies

to overcome students‟ cheating behavior in writing assessment such as

seating arrangement during the assessment or other strategies which are found

in the section.

E. Scope and Limitation of Study

The researcher conducts the research by choosing the English teachers

who teach in second grade of Islamic Private Schools at Wringinanom -

Gresik. The scope of this research is the teachers‟ strategies and the factors

which influence students‟ cheating behavior in writing assessment. The

researcher limits the academic year only in 2013-2014 and discuses three

categories factors which influence students‟ cheating behavior in writing

assessment; those are situational, individual and teachers‟ factors and focus
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on writing formative assessments. The researcher does not discuss non

classroom factors such as family factors and their backgrounds.

F. Definition of the Key Terms

To avoid misunderstanding, the terms are used in this research which

is provided as follows:

1. Strategy

Strategy is a general method for achieving specific objectives. It

describes essential resources and their amounts which are to be committed

to achieve those objectives. It also describes how resources will be

organized and the policies that will apply for the management and use of

those resources.24

Another definition, strategy is any method that the teacher uses to

help students accomplish mastery in the classroom evaluation. Or the best

common ways to effectively to deal with classroom behavior.25

2. Overcome

Overcome is one the teachers‟ way to overcome the teachers‟

misbehaviors and also teacher uses some ways to desist the discipline

problem.26

24
Stark, John. 2000, ” Definition of Strategy”. http://www.johnstark.com/es5.html, accessed on july
2014
25
The definition of a teaching strategies, www.ask.com.Q&A.society.sosialscience accessed on 22
July 2014
 13

3. Cheating Behavior

Students‟ action which happens during the test or exam, cheating

behavior is the students‟ habit that do in the writing evaluation. The

purpose is to get some good answers from their friends.27

Cheating is defined as obtaining or attempting to obtain, or aiding

another to obtain credit for work, or any improvement another students.28

Cheating behavior in writing evaluation is students‟ action to copy

another students writing as a work.29

4. Writing Assessment

Teacher strategies to measure the students‟ understanding and also

students‟ ability in writing such as make essay or argumentative essay.30

Another definition writing assessment is the students‟ creativity in

writing evaluation which gives by the teacher to measure students ability.31

26
Cambridge, Advance Learner’s Dictionary Third Edition Digital Version.
27
Sibaya .The Psychological Assessment of Children’s Learning and Behavioral Problems as
Manifested in Kwazulu Primary School.
28
Lewis takol. 2003. Definition of Cheating. www.academicprograms.calpoly.edu accessed Tuesday
22 July 2014
29
Bill Marsh , Cheating Behavior in Written Exercise, (USA: state university of New York Press,
2007
30
Tomas George. 2012. Academic Writing. Middle State University
31
Graham & Harris, 1993, Paragraph – Academic Writing to Essay. Mancmillan.
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Yang-Writing.html accessed on 19 June 2014
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5. Islamic Private School

Islamic private school is private school that the basic is Islamic

studies. Another definition is the schools which emphasize learning

honesty, the moral, the manner.32

6. Factors

Factors is some students factors which influence students' cheating

behavior such as individual, situatioal and teacher factor.33

7. Formative Assessment

formative assessment informs both teachers and students about

student understanding at a point when timely adjustments can be made34

32
Cambridge, Advance Learner’s Dictionary Third Edition Version
33
Stark, John. 2000, ” Definition of factor”. http://www.johnstark.com/es5.html, accessed on august
2014
34
Catherine Garrison and Michael Ehringhaus, Ph. D. 2003 Formative and Summative Assessments
in the Classroom new york press