Moral Intelligence: An Antidote to Examination Malpractices in Nigerian Schools

Abstract

Moral intelligence is the capacity to apply moral principles to one's own values, goals and actions (or the ability to see what is right and integrate it into one's life and actions) It is considered as the individual capacity to understand right from wrong, to have strong ethical convictions and to act on them to behave in the right and honourable. This study examined the level of moral intelligence among senior secondary school students in Osun State. It also investigated whether there is a relationship between moral intelligence and students' perception of examination malpractice as well as examined the influence of variables such as students' gender and family structure on their moral intelligence. The study adopted survey method. The sample size was 240 Senior Secondary School class two students (Mean Age =15.62, SD =1.26)in Ife North Local Government Area of Osun state, Nigeria . Two instruments were used to collect data for the study. They were: Students' Moral Intelligence questionnaire adapted from Moral Competency Inventory (MCI) by Martin and Austin (2008) and Students Perceptions of Examination Malpractice in the Society (SPEM) which was adapted from Ejide (2005). Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency and percentage, Pearson Product Moment Correlation Test, t-test and ANOVA. The results showed that 2.6% of the students had low level of moral intelligence, 12.6% of them had moderate level, 38.7% of them had high level while 46.1% of the students had very high level of moral intelligence. Result also showed that moral intelligence significantly correlated with students' perception of examination malpractices (N = 230, r = -.371 p < 0.05). Also, significant difference were found in male (M=86.27, SD=14.144) and female students (M= 80.87, SD= 16.61; t (228) = 2.637, p =.009) moral intelligence while there was also a statistically significant difference at the p < .05 level in moral intelligence scores for students under the five different living arrangement: F (4, 221) = 3.90, p =.004. The result of Post-hoc comparisons using the Turkey HSD test indicated that the mean score for students living with mother only (M=77.18, SD=19.81) was significantly different from those living with father and mother together (M=85.89, SD=14.39). Mean score for students living with father only (M=73.69, SD=18.79) was significantly different from those living with father and mother together (M=85.89, SD=14.39). It therefore concludes that moral intelligence enhancement training could have positive and an enduring impact on their decision making process regarding involvement in examination malpractices.