Introduction: This lecture deals with ground-breaking, comparative research of the attitudes of Arab and Jewish Pre service teachers in Israel toward cheating in the matriculation exams. The phenomenon of cheating in the matriculation exams is becoming more prevalent from decade to decade and, according to the general atmosphere in Israeli society, is turning into a social norm that is accepted, especially in certain sectors of the population. The Prevalent Believes in the Israeli Society, that there is an atmosphere of leniency created by the institutional authorities throughout the school years. Objectives: This study will contribute to the exposure of the phenomenon of cheating in the matriculation exams among high school students and will strengthen the values of decency and honesty among them in relation to this negative behavior. From a social perspective, cheating promotes decreased morality, corruption, low morale, problematic identity and mistrust in institutional authorities .The problem is serious and demands in-depth attention in order to find ways to deal with this phenomenon and eradicate it completely. Theoretical background: It is difficult to investigate cheating because it is hidden and denied and it is difficult to cause people to admit to it retroactively. In Israel, as in many Western, Arabic and Muslim parts of the world, cheating in exams is widespread. The phenomenon has been studied for a few decades, but many questions remained unanswered (O’Leary, 2000; Clement, 2002; MacDonald, 2002). Research has shown that the phenomenon is more prevalent in certain cultures and becomes a social norm (Cahanaman, 1975; Enker, 1987; Tamari, 1996; Stephen, 2001). (Shefer, 1990; Lewis, 1992) find that in Israel, cheating in exams is higher in the ultra-religious and the religious population than in the secular, higher in the Arabic population than in the Jewish . Research questions: a.What are the prevalent reasons given for cheating in the matriculation Exams? b.Does the behavior of the establishment and institutional authorities representatives are seen as contributing to the cheating ? Method: 400 Pre service teachers, half Arab and half Jewish, 75% female and 25% male, from two different Colleges filled a qualitative questionnaire. Findings: The initial findings show that: a.About 25% admitted of cheating. b.The 2 most prevalent reasons given for cheating are fear of failure and parental pressure. c.The most common forms of cheating were writing on desks, other furniture and body parts. d.60% of the participants blame the Ministry of Education for the need to cheat. e.Observant students cheat more than secular one. f. Findings indicate that the extent of cheating among Arabs is greater than among Jews. Conclusion: The significance of this study is in its exposure of the problem of cheating, its causes and ramifications, and its attempt to bring to awareness the complexity of the problem for the purpose of gaining the attention of school personnel and other institutions for a combined effort to eradicate this phenomenon.

The significance of this study is in its exposure of the problem of cheating, its causes and ramifications, and its attempt to bring to awareness the complexity of the problem for the purpose of gaining the attention of school personnel and other institutions for a combined effort to eradicate this phenomenon.