Academic Locus of Control, Tendencies Towards Academic Dishonesty and Test Anxiety Levels as the Predictors of Academic Self-Efficacy.

AbstractMany studies have focused on finding the level of effect that academic locus of control, tendencies towards academic dishonesty, and test anxiety levels have had on academic self-efficacy, and providing a separate explanation ratio for each. The relationship among the effects of the academic locus of control, tendencies towards academic dishonesty, test anxiety levels and academic self-efficacy with each other and explanation ratios of these relationships to each other were tested in this research. The participating group of the research consisted of 256 teacher candidates in their 2nd year of education at the Faculty of Education at a University in Turkey in the spring semester of the 2010-201 1 academic year. The research was conducted using the relational survey model. The Academic Self-efficacy Scale, Academic Locus of Control Scale, The Scale of Academic Dishonesty Tendencies, and The Scale of Test Anxiety Levels were used as data collection instruments. Data was analyzed via SPSS 16.0 and AMOS 17.0 software programs. Consequently, it emerged that tendencies towards academic dishonesty, test anxiety, arid academic locus of control together significantly and positively affect and account for academic self-efficacy. In other words, it was found that tendencies towards academic dishonesty, test anxiety levels, and academic locus of control are crucial predictors of the academic self-efficacy of teacher candidates.KeywordsAcademic Locus of Control, Academic Dishonesty Tendencies, Test Anxiety, Academic Self-efficacy, Structural Equation Modeling.Teachers, who are in a key position to raise qualified individuals should possess the desired characteristics to be able to fulfill this duty. This situation entails teacher training to include being qualified in cognitive, emotional and psycho-motor aspects during the process of pre-service education. These characteristics should exclude tendencies towards academic dishonesty and include being able to overcome test anxiety and use it positively, possessing good personal traits in terms of academic control, and having high academic self-efficacy.In literature, there is a relationship between academic self-efficacy and tendencies towards academic dishonesty, test anxiety levels and academic locus of control. In general, many studies on these variables are observed in the literature (Brannick, Miles, & Kisamore, 2005; Demirkasimoglu, Aydin, Erdogan, & Akin, 2012; Dunkin & Precians, 1993; Ferla, Valcke, & Schuyten 2009; Grimley, Dahraei, & Riding, 2008; Kreber, 2010; Lorenz, Slof, Vermue, & Canrinus., 2012; Martin, 2006; Pietsch & Williamson, 2010; Roman, Cuestas, & Fenollar 2008; Stephens & Nicholson, 2008; Sup hi & Yaratan, 2012; Watt & Richardson, 2012). In this study, the relationship ratio and statistical significance of the separate and combined effects of perceived academic locus of control, tendencies towards academic dishonesty and level of impact from test anxiety on academic self-efficacy are dwelt upon. For this study, this point is the biggest unique point when compared to the studies both stated above and which appear in the literature. To say this another way, no study has been conducted on the effect of and correlation between the academic locus of control, tendencies towards academic dishonesty, test anxiety level, and academic self-efficacy as well as their ratio to each other. Moreover, by beginning to use high-level analysis software (AMOS, Lisrel etc.) in the social sciences, the level of effect and explanatory ratio of one or more independent variables on one or more dependent variables can be detected.Academic DishonestyAcademic dishonesty is an unethical as well as illegal behavior that individuals exhibit in the process of testing their knowledge or ability (Eminoglu, 2008). Cheating and plagiarism rank first within the behavior of academic dishonesty. Therefore, the behavior of academic dishonesty is considered to be an important problem which negatively affects both the individual's behavior in his/her future life and the level of education in terms of achieving general and behavioral goals (Harding, Carpenter, Finelli, & Passow, 2004). …