Relationship between Selected Personal Determinants and Examination Cheating among Kenyan Secondary School Students

The present study investigated the relationship between selected personal determinants and examination cheating among Kenyan secondary school students. This study used a Sequential Explanatory design. The target population was 51,900 students in Kisumu County within 153 public secondary schools categorized as 2 National secondary schools, 21 extra county schools, and 130 county and sub-county schools. A simple random sampling technique was used to determine sample size which comprised of 380 respondents since the study was confined within specific ecological boundary which was public secondary schools. Data collection instruments included questionnaires, for general data collection from the respondents and in-depth interview schedules for one to one interview of respondents. The finding of the study shows that there was statistically significant positive correlation (r=.592, n=360, p<.05) between Personal determinants and overall perceived level of exams cheating. It is evident from the model that student personal characteristics accounted for 35.1%, as signified by coefficient R2= .351, of the variation in perceived level of examinations cheating among students in secondary schools. it is evident that gender made the highest (Beta=.467) contribution as personal determinant on explaining the dependent variable, when the variance explained by all other variables in the model was controlled for. Student self-esteem had the least effect (Beta=.048) on examinations cheating. However, all the personal determinants had statistically significant influence on examinations cheating among the secondary schools students. The calculated effect size (eta squared=.3514) indicate that there was quite a substantial amount of variance in level of examinations cheating caused by variability in the personal determinants of the students. This suggests that 35.1% of the variance in the perceived exams cheating was accounted for by the personal determinants of the secondary school students, when other variables were controlled. Teacher counselors to assess and identify those students at risk and change their perception on examination cheating due to low self-efficacy.

Influence of Psychological Factors on Climate Change Perceptions Held by Local Farmers in the Northeast of Thailand

Global climate change is considered one of the most critical socio-ecological challenges of the 21st century. In recent years extreme weather events have increased significantly in Thailand asin other parts of the world. In most cases, climatic variability has always been associated with its implications for agriculture. To date, however, there has been inconclusive understanding of farmers’ capacity to detect climate change and its potential impact. This study therefore explores how Thai farmers perceive global climate change and, further, to examine the influence of psy-chological factors on these perceptions. The study used mixed research methods, with both quali-tative and quantitative approaches. Questionnaires were distributed to 70 randomly-selected agri-cultural households in Village 4 of the Nongbuasala sub-district, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand. The survey results indicated that the majority of respondents view climate change in terms of extreme high temperatures and flooding. Regression analysis also revealed positive correlations between perceptions of climate change and six psychological variables of awareness in general andmitigation, belief in the reality of climate change and human causes, feelings of worry, and self-efficacy (0.201 ≤ r≤ .592; p ≤ 0.05). Conversely, in terms of perceived barriers, three compo-nents of cognitive dissonance (r= -0.831), belief in limitation of lifestyle changes (r= -0.305) and fear (r= -0.283) were found to be negatively correlated with climate change perceptions by Thai farmers. Recommendations to deal with those perceived barriers are also discussed.