Understanding Academic Integrity in Group Work Learning: A Study of Personality Traits Among In-Service Teachers

This experimental study investigates the interrelationships among personality traits, academic integrity, and group work learning, aiming to identify factors associated with dishonest behaviour in group work learning through a social constructivist lens. The sample consisted of 345 in-service teachers enrolled in a master’s degree programme in education, who were divided into three experimental conditions (sharing, cooperation, and collaboration) to complete a written assignment on Moodle. Participants also completed an online questionnaire assessing their personality traits, academic integrity and group work experiences. The findings reveal that agreeableness, extraversion, emotional stability, and openness to experience are positively associated with academic integrity. The findings indicate that group-work patterns were differentially associated with academic misconduct, with collaboration showing more favourable integrity-related outcomes than sharing or cooperation. These results should be interpreted cautiously in light of the mixed fit of the structural model. These results suggest that the structure of group work may be relevant to academic dishonesty, with more collaborative arrangements showing comparatively more favourable outcomes. Thus, incorporating well-structured collaborative learning strategies into curricula may support positive social dynamics and may be associated with lower levels of academic misconduct, ultimately fostering an ethical learning environment.