Academic Integrity mind map
by Georgieva Lydia
1. need to identify specific consequences for repeated incidences - policy should be in school diaries.
2. use of personalised contracts
3. There are only so many ways you can explain a basic theory
4. needs clear collaboration between pastoral and academic wings of the school to ensure fair outcomes for both good and bad behaviour
4.1. Pastoral members can monitor the causes of student plagiarism eg pressure to perform/lack of organisation
5. Be explicit what does academic integrity looks like when they write their essays
5.1. https://www.bklynlibrary.org/sites/default/files/documents/Citing%20Sources.pdf
5.2. You can use this website for correct referencing of different sources for all styles https://www.citethemrightonline.com/
6. There is an academic integrity manual for all teachers and students in my school. Heads will present this at the start of each academic year to the students.
6.1. we do not provide our students with actual samples of past students' work for EE and IA to minimise cheating.
7. Use of technology for checking is easily available now - eg version history on Google/Word doc through to Turnitin and the like
7.1. Unfortunately can't use Google docs in China
8. Previous breach in academic policy where student "memorised" markscheme answers was deemed a breach as no independent thought process evident. This was a special needs student with laptop in exam and very IT savvy - couldn't prove online access but "balance of probabilities" as per IB policy, so exam was not used for formative report card grading.
9. Check for student's own work knowing the capability of student, while writing their IA's and EE. we in our previous school in case of suspicion would conduct a viva voice for IA, ask to draw the diag, and ask questions from article. sure
10. Regular (timely) sessions to remind students of the importance of academic integrity. Teach them proper citation early.
11. Support of admin essential when teacher reporting breach of policy - without consequences for student and further investigations, teachers will not continue to enforce policy
12. Consistent policy from junior years to senior studies, students become aware of what plagiarising actually looks like - we have turnitin which can be set for any submission for any class.
12.1. This also becomes formalised when formal assessment begins and students receive a letter to parents with warnings from the head of studies
12.2. Students find it difficult to understand changing 20 words of a 100 word extract from the internet still counts as plagiarising
13. Need to start teaching students early. Explicit lessons on the method of citation etc.
13.1. Informing students about non tolerance attitude towards academic dishonesty
14. Integrity promoted throughout the school- part of the wider school culture of 'doing the right thing even when others are not watching you', use of gdocs and turnitin to check for academic malpractice, most common problem is gdocs shared with parents and tutors who they "help" edit students work-we catch students this way more than through turnitin- but usually only about 1 or 2/130 students in econs have issues in this respect. Students have assemblies and supported tutor time to explain what malpractice is, we have a policy on this that runs up from teacher to HOD to HOG and IB co-ordinator then principals, students and parents sign doc when a problem is found which underlines the seriousness of the situation. If we think there is an issue but have no hard evidence we 'interview' the student and ask them what they meant by certain comments/tunrs of phrase but if they insist it is there work, there is little we can do.
14.1. Promote and introduce time management techniques so students won't procrastinate and would not feel the need to cheat.
15. We had a 'cover your bum' policy at my last school where students needed to sign a document for every IA turned in that stated that all work was their own. It was a bit of a hands off approach, but help from external tutors was so rampant, the school felt like it had no choice.
15.1. Question here, how your school addresses help from external tutors? It is a huge issue in our centre as well.
15.1.1. Our DP coordinator reiterated the Academic Honesty policy to all our DP students and then fielded questions as to what was acceptable and what wasn't. Any question he didn't know, we got back to all the students through an email to all students after conferring with all the DP teachers/IB policy. This ensured we had consistency and support from both the DP teachers and the IB.