Teachers’ and School Counselors’ Strategies for Preventing Cheating Behavior: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Cheating behavior poses a significant challenge in education as it threatens academic integrity and undermines the character formation of students. This article aims to analyze the underlying factors that influence cheating, examine the preventive strategies employed by teachers and school counselors, and synthesize approaches adopted across prior studies. The research applies a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) guided by the PRISMA protocol, encompassing stages of identification, screening, eligibility assessment, and article selection. Data were retrieved from the Scopus database, resulting in 53 articles that met the inclusion criteria. The findings reveal that cheating behavior is shaped by psychological, social, cultural, technological, and educational dimensions. Preventive strategies identified include strengthening academic integrity, providing counseling services, fostering self-regulation, promoting digital ethics literacy, and cultivating a school culture grounded in honesty. The study emphasizes that prevention cannot rely solely on surveillance and sanctions but requires integrated and sustainable collaboration among teachers, counselors, schools, and students. These results contribute to the development of comprehensive preventive frameworks and provide a foundation for future empirical research, particularly in primary and secondary education, to reinforce academic integrity in the digital era.