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Collective cheating can have serious consequences in professional and educational settings. Existing data show that collective cheating is common and that individuals cheat more when they are in groups, highlighting the existence of some collective organisation in the endeavour. However, little is known about the emergence of this behaviour and the group processing involved. Drawing on qualitative data from 20 semi-structured interviews and a thematic analysis, the present study explored collective cheating in academic contexts. Seven themes emerged that retrace the chronology of collective cheating from its beginning to its impact on the group: reasons, birth and organisation of collective cheating, risk management, concealment strategies, justifications and social impact. Participants emphasised the extrinsic benefits, the interdependence of members and the importance of existing social norms, as well as the positive valence of this kind of dishonesty. In participants' recalls, cheating together means cooperating, showing solidarity, helping and supporting each other., Author(s): Cinzia Zanetti [sup.1] , Fabrizio Butera [sup.1] [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) https://ror.org/019whta54, grid.9851.5, 0000 0001 2165 4204, Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Lausanne, [...]

A partner's competence should logically favor cooperative learning. However, research in cooperative learning has shown that a partner's competence may or may not activate a threatening social comparison and yields dual effects: It is beneficial when students work on complementary information while it is detrimental when students work on identical information. Two studies conducted at elementary school (study 1 with 24 fourth graders working on encyclopedic texts, and study 2 with 28 fifth graders working on argumentative texts) replicated that interaction: Information distribution (complementary vs. identical information) moderated the relationship between partner's competence and pupils' learning outcomes. The relation between partner's competence and students' performances was positive when working on complementary information, but negative when working on identical information. A third study confirmed that working on identical information led to a competitive social comparison whereas complementary information reinforced the pupils' cooperation perception. Contributions to cooperative learning research are discussed in terms of the competitive comparisons that may arise during cooperative learning at elementary school.

"Jigsaw" is a peer learning procedure derived from social interdependence theory, which suggests that individuals positively linked by a common goal can benefit from positive and promotive social interactions (Aronson & Patnoe, 2011). Although jigsaw has often been presented as an efficient way to promote learning, empirical research testing its effect on learning remains relatively scarce. The goal of the present research is to test the hypothesis that a jigsaw intervention would yield a meaningful effect size (d = 0.40) on learning outcomes, in 5 randomized experiments conducted among sixth-graders. The jigsaw intervention was compared to an "individualistic" (N[subscript Exp 1]= 252; N[subscript Exp 2] = 313) or a "teaching as usual" (N[subscript Exp 3A] = 110; N[subscript Exp 3B] = 74; N[subscript Exp 3C] = 101) approach on the same pedagogical content. Across the 5 experiments, we did not find empirical support for this hypothesis. Internal meta-analytic estimates (ES = 0.00, 95% CI [-0.10, 0.09]) showed that, overall, the jigsaw intervention did not produce the expected positive effects on learning. The reasons why jigsaw classrooms may not always prove beneficial for learning are discussed.

The present research investigated the possibility to foster positive classroom climate, achievement emotions, and adaptive beliefs about errors by manipulating teachers' error handling strategies. Through a pre-post experimental design, teachers' error handling strategies were manipulated during a fictitious lesson in the primary school context. The experimenter, who was presented as an external teacher, carried out the lesson using positive and supportive error handling strategies (experimental condition) or neutral error handling strategies (control condition). The aim was to test differences in pupils' perceived error climate, achievement-related emotions, and error beliefs comparing the two conditions. A total of 108 fifth-grade primary school pupils took part in the research. The main results revealed that dealing with pupils' errors using a constructive and encouraging strategy that supports them in learning from their errors (positive error handling) increased, compared with a neutral error handling, their perception of being in a trustful and supportive learning climate. This study represents the first experimental attempt in which error-related teaching strategies have been directly manipulated to identify their causal impact on primary school pupils' perceived error climate.

AbstractCollective cheating is a widespread phenomenon in school and academia. A large majority of students report having cheated—individually or collectively—at school. In many settings, collective cheating is part of a culture and reveals a descriptive norm. However, no measure exists, to our knowledge, that captures the presence of a collective cheating culture in a school or academic environment. The present research aimed to develop and validate an instrument that could account for the existence and extent of a collective cheating culture that may constitute a descriptive norm, translating the acceptance of this form of dishonesty. Study 1 was planned to develop the Culture of Collective Cheating Scale (CCCS). Studies 2 and 3 evaluated the validity of the CCCS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural landscapes play a crucial role in enhancing biodiversity because of their widespread presence over the Earth and their ability to encompass diverse ecosystems. Recognizing this, numerous governments are incentivizing farmers through direct payments to adopt sustainable practices, such as managing extensive pastures and meadows, planting wildflowers, or establishing hedgerows. However, the benefit of such sustainable practices on vertebrate species is not well understood. From 2018 to 2020, we investigated nest occupancy, fledging success, and clutch size of a Swiss population of barn owls (Tyto alba) with respect to nest box characteristics and the presence of extensive agriculture and urbanization in areas surrounding nest boxes. Our results revealed that extensively used pastures were negatively associated with site occupancy but positively associated with clutch size. The proportion of urban areas was negatively related to both site occupancy and clutch size. The altitude of the nest box location was negatively correlated with occupancy, and the number of nest boxes placed at the same site (either 1 or 2) was positively correlated with site occupancy. Moreover, clutch size, but not fledging success, was larger in nest boxes placed outside barns than in nest boxes placed inside barns. Based on these findings, we recommend installing nest boxes at locations <700 m in altitude and in pairs on the same barn, incorporating biodiversity promotion areas into agricultural landscapes, and avoiding dense urban areas in favor of rural zones with lower urban density. Understanding the nuanced relationships between nest box characteristics, environmental factors, and breeding success provides valuable insights for optimizing artificial nesting sites and enhancing the overall reproductive success of barn owls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand the persistent social class achievement gap, researchers have investigated how educational settings affect lower versus higher socioeconomic status (SES) students' performance. We move beyond the question of actual performance to study its assessment by evaluators. We hypothesized that even in the absence of performance differences, assessment's function of selection (i.e., compare, rank, and track students) leads evaluators to create a SES achievement gap. In 2 experiments (N = 196; N = 259), participants had to assess a test supposedly produced by a high- or a low-SES student, and used assessment for selection (i.e., normative grading) or learning (i.e., formative comments). Results showed that evaluators using assessment for selection found more mistakes if the test was attributed to a low-rather than a high-SES student, a difference reduced in the assessment for learning condition. The third and fourth experiments (N = 374; N = 306) directly manipulated the function of assessment to investigate whether the production of the social class achievement gap was facilitated by the function of selection to a greater extent than the educational function. Results of Experiment 3 supported this hypothesis. The effect did not reach significance for Experiment 4, but an internal meta-analysis confirmed that assessment used for selection led evaluators to create a SES achievement gap more than assessment used for learning, thereby contributing to the reproduction of social inequalities.

Background: A growing literature focuses on reasons behind achievement goal endorsement, and mastery-approach goals (MG) specifically, and how these reasons influence academic performance. Past research provides evidence that student-level social value-related reasons behind MG moderate the MG-performance link in adolescents and young adults. However, we ignore whether this moderation is best conceived of as a student-level effect (i.e., students' social value-related reasons), a class-level effect (i.e., influence of class-dependent contextual social value), or both. Aims: This research aims at understanding the moderation of the MG-performance link by social value from a multilevel account, which is novel, as the student level has been the default level so far. Sample: The study was conducted on a sample of 436 primary school students, from 3rd to 6th grade. Methods: Students completed a MG scale adapted to their French classes under different instructions: standard, social desirability (answer to be viewed as likeable by your teacher), social utility (answer to be viewed as successful by your teacher), along with a dictation to measure performance, and socio-demographic measures. Results: Results show that the moderation effect of social utility on the MG-dictation performance link is observed at the student level, but that the moderation by social desirability is best accounted for by class-level differences. Conclusions: It is important to consider a multilevel framework when examining reasons behind MG reports, including social value-related reasons, both for future research and teachers in the classroom.

"Sharing is caring" the old adage goes, with its implied message that both are morally desirable. But what if it's test answers that students are sharing with their friends? Integrating values, cheating, and in-group bias theory, we hypothesize that adherence to group-loyalty benevolence values--considered as some of the most moral values--positively predicts the acceptance of collective cheating, that is students cheating "together" with in-group peers, when competition is salient. Operationalizing competition in three different ways we test this in four studies. In Study 1, adherence to benevolence values predicted positive attitudes toward collective but not individual cheating among students presented (vs. not) with a portrayal of society as competitive. Study 2 revealed that, within the competitive context of an end-of-year exam, adherence to benevolence values positively predicted moral disengagement toward collective cheating but negatively predicted individual cheating. Study 3 showed that valuing both being a dependable friend and attaining power and influence, predicted the acceptance of collective cheating. Finally, in Study 4, carried out with dyads of students, groups composed of students who knew each other cheated more than students composed of strangers. Furthermore, dyad adherence to power values positively predicted cheating behavior among dyads that knew (vs. did not know) each other. These results signal that group loyalty can, in certain conditions, lead to justifying and engaging in collective cheating, and that the motivational underpinnings may be the moral status of benevolence values.

Numerous studies have examined the effects of gender diversity in groups on creative performance, and no clear effect has been identified. Findings depend on situational cues making gender diversity more or less salient in groups. A large-scale study on two cohorts (N = 2,261) was conducted among business students to examine the impact of the gender diversity in small groups on divergent thinking in an idea-generation task performed by synchronous electronic brainstorming. Participants were automatically randomized in three- or four-member groups to generate ideas during 10 min on a gendered or neutral task. Then, five categories of groups where the proportion of men/women in groups varied from three/four men to three/four women were compared to examine creative performance on three divergent thinking measures (fluency, flexibility, and originality). A Multivariate Generalized Linear Mixed Model (mGLMM) showed greater fluency in all-women groups than in other groups (except mixed-gender groups composed of two men and two women), and more specifically “solo” groups composed of a single woman/man among a majority of men/women. For flexibility and originality, the superiority of all-women groups was found only in comparison to “solo” groups composed of a single woman. As gender differences are more salient in “solo” groups than in other groups faultlines may appear in groups, leading to a deleterious impact on creative performance.

Introduction: Preparing host-society children for contact with refugees coming into their classes poses a new and important challenge for countries with little prior experience in integration. Imagined contact is a prejudice-reduction intervention that can be particularly useful in this context. However, its longterm effects and potential age-related variations in its efficacy among primary school children remain understudied. Methods: This study investigated the short-term and long-term effects of an imagined contact school intervention on the change in attitudes and contact intentions of 1,544 children aged 7–15. Of these, 827 participated in a foursession-long intervention delivered by their teachers within their regular classes, while 717 served as a comparison group. Short-term effects were assessed approximately one week after the last intervention session, with long-term effects evaluated around two and a half months later. Results: Our findings indicate that the imagined contact intervention instigates positive changes in intergroup attitudes and contact intentions in both the short term and long term, but only for the children in the lower grades of primary school. Discussion: While the durability of these effects among younger participants holds promise for future use of imagined contact in schools, we also scrutinize potential developmental and methodological explanations of the absence of expected intervention effects among older children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the recent research, the educational system fulfills both an educational function (i.e., teaching and training students) and a selection function (i.e., determining students' future position in the social hierarchy), particularly in higher education. It has been argued that in the university system the selection function provides a social utility value to performance-approach goals (i.e., the goal to demonstrate one's own competences relative to others), which in turn increases the extent to which students endorse these goals. Two experiments investigated the influence of the salience of the selection function on performance-approach goals' social value and endorsement. The results showed that the salience of the selection function increased both performance-approach goal endorsement (experiment 1 and 2) and performance-approach goals' social utility (experiment 2). These goals' social utility contributes to explaining the effect of the salience of the selection function on performance-approach goal endorsement. Limitations of the present experiments and practical implications are discussed.

At school, pupils often cooperate on common projects and must coordinate their different individual actions. However, grades are pervasively used even in cooperative situations, which make the pupils' differences in achievement and their relative rank salient and may reduce their inclination to work constructively with others. Thus, we hypothesized that grades would elicit disruptive interactions and reduce performance in a cooperative cognitive-motor task necessitating inter-individual coordination of members. In a study with 5th graders, grades (vs. a neutral concept) were primed at the onset of a cooperative group interaction. Results showed that, although pupils were set to work cooperatively, priming grades (vs. neutral concepts) harmed inter-individual coordination by eliciting more negative dominant behaviours among pupils during interactions, which decreased group performance.

Existing research on the education of refugee children has been conducted in countries with a longstanding tradition of refugee integration. The aim of this study was to gain insight into the integration process of refugee children in Croatian schools. Croatia is a small EU country with limited experience in refugee integration. The phenomenological approach was used to examine the experiences and perspectives of the relevant actors. Interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with refugee children (N = 15), their parents (N = 5), classmates (N = 50), and school staff (N = 54) from six elementary schools in Zagreb. Data analyses suggested three general needs: educational, language, and social, each of them connected to more specific needs, challenges, and suggestions. The results of the study are discussed within the Schachner et al. (2017) framework of immigrant adolescents' acculturation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the potential benefits of cooperative learning at university, its implementation is challenging. Here, we propose a theory-based 90-min intervention with 185 first-year psychology students in the challenging domain of statistics, consisting of an exercise phase and an individual learning post-test. We compared three conditions that manipulated the exercise phase: individual work, cooperative dyadic instructions (structuring three basic components of cooperative learning: positive goal interdependence, individual responsibility and promotive interactions) and cooperative dyadic interactions (the three basic components with an additional cooperative nudge, namely explaining why and how to cooperate in this task) in order to test whether a progressive increase in benefits occurs as the cooperative structure is reinforced. Results indicated a linear trend in individual post-test learning and competence perception, from individual work to cooperative instructions to cooperative interactions. Competence perception mediated the effect of experimental conditions on learning. The results highlight the benefits of the cooperative nudge.

Recent research has shown that, in a university context, mastery goals are highly valued and that students may endorse these goals either because they believe in their utility (i.e., social utility), in which case mastery goals are positively linked to achievement, or to create a positive image of themselves (i.e., social desirability), in which case mastery goals do not predict academic achievement. The present two experiments induced high versus neutral levels of mastery goals' social utility and social desirability. Results confirmed that mastery goals predicted performance only when these goals were presented as socially useful but not presented as socially desirable, especially among low achievers, those who need mastery goals the most to succeed.

Despite the fact that most competence-relevant settings are "socially" relevant settings, the interpersonal effects of achievement goals have been understudied. This is all the more surprising in the case of performance goals, for which self-competence is assessed using an other-referenced standard. In the present research, performance goals are conceived as a social tool for regulating interpersonal behaviors with more-competent others. In the confrontation with a more- (vs. equally) competent disagreeing partner, performance-approach goals (focus on approaching normative competence) should be associated with more-dominant behavior (i.e., competitive conflict regulation), whereas performance-avoidance goals (focus on avoiding normative incompetence) should be associated with more-submissive behavior (i.e., protective conflict regulation). Four studies give support to these predictions with self-reported conflict regulation measures (Studies 1 and 3) and evaluation of models associated with self-confirmation and compliance (Study 2) and conflict regulation behaviors (Study 4). Theoretical contributions to both the literature on achievement goals and that on socio-cognitive conflict, as well as practical implications for the issue of competence asymmetry in educational settings, are discussed.

Achievement goals have been defined as the purpose of competence-relevant behavior. In this respect they connect one of the basic human needs, i.e., competence, to one of society's core values, i.e., achievement. We propose to look at achievement goals through the lens of social influence. We review both the influence that cultural, structural, and contextual factors have on achievement goal endorsement and the influence that endorsing achievement goals allows people to have within their social space. The review allows us to propose a circular model of the influence on and of achievement goals: The culture, social structures, and contexts that are typical of a certain society shape the specific environments in which individuals develop their achievement goals, which in turn has an influence on the expression and circulation of these achievement goals into society, in a social influence cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]