Academic Integrity

A Teacher’s Guide to Addressing the Issue of Plagiarism and Cheating

Norwich Free Academy

Academic Integrity Case Study:Norwich Free Academy At NFA, many precautions are taken to address

the issue of Academic Integrity. NFA Academic Honor Code NFA Research Guide NFA Pilot- student handbook

Defines Academic Integrity Gives examples of academic dishonesty Outlines consequences to academic integrity offenses.

Norwich Free Academy’s Academic Honor Code

“I declare that I am the sole and original author of this work. This assignment was completed in compliance with the requirements of the ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICY of Norwich Free Academy as published in the Pilot.”

*Posted in every classroom

NFA Pilot

“Students shall avoid any form of academic dishonesty on any assessment. Academic assessments include, but are not limited to, homework and class work (worksheets, written work, assigned questions to answer, problems to solve, graphs, map, charts, etc.), quizzes, tests, projects, oral presentations/reports, essays, papers, lab reports, and research papers.”

(“NFA Pilot”, 2007, p.37)

Forms of Academic Dishonesty, outlined in the NFA Pilot: “To plagiarize: using the intellectual, artistic or

musical ideas, materials, data, or language of another without specific or proper acknowledgement”

“To Cheat: using or giving or attempting to use or to give unauthorized assistance, materials or study aids in examinations or other academic work; or preventing or attempting to preventing another student or students from using authorized assistance, materials, or study aids.”

(“NFA Pilot”, 2007, p.37)

To use or attempting to use or to give unauthorized materials or technologies

To “take, buy or receive a paper written by someone else and present it as your own” (Corder & Ruszkiewicz 633)

To participate in collusion: working with someone else without permission of the instructor.

(“NFA Pilot”, 2007, p.38)

To turn in the same work two or more times for credit without the permission of the teachers involved.

To Fabricate: submitting contrived or altered information in any academic exercise.

(“NFA Pilot”, 2007, p.38)

NFA Consequences to Academic Integrity offenses: 1st offense: A “0” on the assignment in

question, teacher notification of parent and guidance, discipline referral and a Saturday Detention.

2nd offense: An “F” for the marking period, teacher notification of parent/guidance, discipline referral and Saturday School

3rd offense: An “F” for the semester, teacher notification of parents/guidance and discipline referral.(“NFA Pilot”, 2007, p.38)

NFA Research Guide

The NFA Research Guide is a compilation of strategies and procedures for formatting written work including Proper citations- both bibliographic and in-

parenthetical

Problems

Even with all the precautionary steps NFA faculty and staff have made, Academic Integrity is a growing issue, especially in the higher level classes.

Contributors: Abundant access to information online including sites

created for plagiarism Word processors Cell phones Larger class sizes Overall competitiveness of today’s education systems and

work force.

Faculty Address

In a recent Professional Development day, faculty and staff discussed the issue.

An anonymous survey was taken of NFA students (results to follow)

In small groups, faculty discussed possible solutions to the Academic Integrity issues.

A Recent Survey at NFA

59% of students believe: In the real world, successful people do what they have to do to win, even if others consider it cheating.

44% of students agree: A person has to lie or cheat in order to succeed.

62% of students have lied to a teacher abut something significant at least once in the past year

(“Academic and Personal”, n.d.)

26% of students have copied an Internet document at least once in the past year.

59% of students have cheated during a test at least once in the past year.

82% have copied another’s homework at least once in the past year.

(“Academic and Personal”, n.d.)

Cell Phone Use

Texting has become a serious issue in classrooms, students could be sending each other answers to tests

-the consequences of cell phone use should be more strict

-students should hand in the cell phone when they get into class and pick up at the end of class

-install large mirrors in the back of the room (the group was half kidding)

Internet Use and Word Processors

Students are simply copy and pasting the information from websites like wikipedia.com and infoplease.com.

Strategy to combat this issue: Search the exact wording of the work by putting it in

quotation marks using google.com, the sites that have the same wording will pop up.

Use www.plagiarism.com to catch offenders (Schwartau Ch 21)

Common Misconceptions:

Many students believe that you only have to cite information if you use direct quotes.

Many students believe that copying homework is not an infraction of academic integrity

Many students believe that group work allows for plagiarism (Cooper, 2004, p. 2)

Other related issues

Many times, students do not know the boundaries for plagiarism.

For many students, they lose track of their sources while researching and then do not backtrack to get proper citations.

I explain it to my students: “If it was not your original thought, tell me

where you got it from.”

Teacher Tips: Research Strategies 1. Keep track of information resources as your search

progresses. 2. Note taking- organize quotes and paraphrased information

separately. 3. Organize- put all the relevant notes in an outline to plan for

writing. 4. Writing the Paper- begin in a new document and follow the

outline, using the supportive information found from the research.

(Willard, 2007, p. 262-263)

Work Cited

Cooper, Tuesday L. (2004) Collaboration or Plagiarism? Explaining Collaborative-Based Assignments Clearly. Eastern Connecticut State University: author.

Corder, J.W. & Ruskiewicz, J.J. (1985) Handbook of Current English. Glenview, IL: Scott Foresman.

Schwartau, Winn. (2001). Internet & Computer Ethics for Kids. Winn Schwartau & Interpact, Inc.

The Norwich Free Academy PILOT. 2007-2008. Willard, Nancy E. (2007). Cyber-Safe Kids, Cyber-Savvy Teens. Wiley

(Jossey-Bass division). Norwich Free Academy (2008). “Academic and Personal Integrity.” Norwich,

CT. Retrieved on February 28, 2008.