Working on Plagiarism Paper and Need Input

[Tamela Chambers]

Hello:

 

I am working on a paper as part of my certificate of advanced study project at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign.  My topic is teaching students in grades 6-12 to avoid plagiarism.  I have decided to approach it from the standpoint of increasing student comprehension of what it actually means and why it should be avoided.  However, what I am finding is that while students can define plagiarism, they are experiencing difficulty translating the definition to the work being turned in.  In addition, it seems to be handled subjectively by teachers.  What is your perception of this issue?  Any insight you can share would be greatly appreciated!

 

Tamela Chambers

[Debbie Abilock]

Few schools have taken the time to discuss this as a faculty and develop a constructivist policy together which which everyone understands and supports. Teachers and librarians deal with plagiarism in three ways: education of learners; morality and moralizing; or laws and punishment - and the approach they take is generally colored by their view of their role toward students. However it is a more complex issue than any one of these approaches suggests. Educators who recognize this and are doing a good job are collaborating and using ongoing feedback at key places in the research process to help students learn academic scholarship.

[Hilary Anderson]

Tamela,
I'm in a high school with grades 10-12, and this is a hot topic for us! I have a couple of observations. First, teachers have told me that they have not had to think about plagiarism, citing and related skills since college, so they are not comfortable teaching it. I'd say that this is the source of the "subjectivity" that you refer to. It's also an opportunity for us as teacher-librarians to step in and educate them (and their students).

Secondly, in working with students, there are often comprehension issues. So I would add a "how to avoid plagiarism" piece to your instruction. It sometimes helps to begin with a discussion of how to identify key ideas in a passage. Several years ago we developed a lesson in which students are given a short passage and guided through (1) identifying a relevant direct quotation, (2) writing a paraphrased version of the passage and (3) writing a summary. We include both successful and unsuccessful examples.

I have to add that we now use Ms. Abilock's NoodleTools, which gives the students lots of instruction and support. But really, we are talking about thinking and writing skills, and until kids develop the tools to do otherwise, they will often resort to copying as a way out when faced with a writing assignment.

Good luck!

[Tamela Chambers]

Thanks!
@ Hilary, I have done the "how to" instruction as a student teacher and while the students can tell me what it is and correctly answer the multiple choice questions on the asessment tool I used, there was a considerable amount of disconnect between applying that knowledge when paraphrasing. In addition, I was also getting a lot of "what if I did____" in response to the ethical portion of the lecture. It almost seemed like the questioning was geared toward trying to elicit a response that would give them some idea of just how much plagiarism or copying they could get away with before it is detected! The students I worked with know about turnit.com and other websites that detect plagiarism from internet sources but it was quite eye opening for students to be asking about "what if they copied from a book"!

@Debbie
The morality component of this is issue is tricky. How do you effectively teach this as a moral issue when sometimes the punitive measures (getting an F, expulsion, etc) are not seen as that big of a deal to students? Saying "don't copy because it's the right thing to do" means very little to a student compelled to plagiarise because they have poor time management skills, lack confidence in their writing skills, etc. In addition, what constitutes as plagiarism for one teacher may not be that big of a deal to another. Seems like this may be a never ending battle...

[Hilary Anderson]

For me, it all comes back to how the assignment is structured. Is the topic something the kids care about -- and set up so it's not someting the kids can answer with a copy & pasted answer? Does the teacher step them through the project and check along the way (as opposed to leaving any checking until the end)? And does the teacher start early in the year to build the writing and thinking skills needed to make the kids confident enough to tackle a longer project? All of these are factors in the success of any project. I welcome all opportunities to work with teachers on this, but not as many teachers take the time as I'd like.

[Tamela Chambers]

You raise an important point. Sure teachers won't be able to interest everybody in everything, but I agree that interest and structure have a lot to do with it. Perhaps more collaboration with teachers and teacher-librarians would chip away at the problem.

[Hilary Anderson]

Absolutely -- that's key!

[Audrey Nay]

I developed this hotlist
It may be of some use to you:
http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/pages/listpreventiau.html

Very important that the topics are not "fact finding".
They must have a need for synthesis.

[Tamela Chambers]

Awesome!

Thanks Audrey!