1. Elements
1.1. plagarism
1.1.1. Academic Honesty - Theme of the Week 1. Rationale. Academic honesty (AcH) is deeply important to what we do, but is also difficult to retain in focus. The “Theme of the Week” program will use the broadcast feature of Schoology (next year email?) to highlight to students and faculty one aspect of AcH each week. This is designed to support the classroom teacher, who has the primary responsibility for teaching AcH. 2. Sources. The IB Continuum Document Effective Citing and Referencing [2014] will form the basis of the broadcasts. 3. Schedule. Beginning the week of Monday 20th November 2017: a. Nov 20: Why We Cite 1 i. show respect for the work of others, ii. help a reader to distinguish our work from the work of others who have contributed to our work, and iii. give the reader the opportunity to check the validity of our use of other’s work b. Nov 27: Why We Cite 2 i. give the reader the opportunity to follow up our references, out of interest; ii. show and receive proper credit for our research process; iii. demonstrate that we are able to use reliable sources and critically assess them to support our work c. Dec 4: Why We Cite 3 i. establish the credibility and authority of our knowledge and ideas; ii. demonstrate that we are able to draw our own conclusions; and iii. share the blame (if we get it wrong). d. Dec 11: What NOT to Cite i. Basic and common knowledge within a field or subject does not need to be acknowledged. ii. However, if we are in doubt whether the source material is common knowledge or not, we should cite!
1.2. intext citation
1.2.1. Many students don't understand when they should use the intext citation
1.3. bibliography
1.3.1. Students are often poor at creating a bibliography
1.4. use of trustful sources
1.4.1. students use open-sources that are already copying from other sources, as well as others that don't check their contents
1.4.2. Students search in the google, and they use the information without any resolution
1.5. note making
2. Issues
2.1. I have seen hard-working students fall foul of plagiarism software because they directly copy into their notes from textbooks and articles and then use their notes to write their IA/EE etc without putting it into their own words. It is a step removed from pure copying so they don't realise they are doing this. (Antonia)
2.1.1. Students need to be warned of this risk and taught how to take effective notes
2.1.1.1. This should be a school wide effort and done over subjects as well as over years
2.1.1.1.1. An issue I have had is different subjects have different expectations, for example citation systems being different. If you can bring these together in one place you can make much more progress in this area.
2.1.2. Pressure and expectations lure students to seek quick solutions using tutoring services or ghost writers
2.1.3. Teachers must see genuine and original work from their students early to build a feel for their language and conceptual understanding; without this it is almost impossible to spot atypical work
2.1.4. The development of IB Learner Profile attributes (thinker, reflective and principled), ATL Skills (Time-Management and Research) must be reinforced in class so it defeats the need to plagiarize someone's work.
2.1.5. Sometimes, the students that struggle the most are those coming from non IB schools where sometimes there is no clear policy against plagiarism.
2.2. Some students are unaware of the academic integrity policies and the negative consequences within the IB program. By Alberto Ottati
2.2.1. Some issues can be fixed by following-up meetings to feedback academic integrity policies in one-on-one with the student and by providing workshops focused on research with bibliography.
2.3. The use of ChatGPT and other AI is becoming an issue. Students can use it to help them write their IA. It is becoming increasingly difficult to identify what is student work. The use of AI seems like something that will have net benefit to society so we must consider 'ought we allow them to use it'.
2.3.1. I don't think there is any use in telling students they are not allowed IA tools. We need to educate them on how to use these tools effectively and within academic integrity standards
2.3.1.1. I agree with opinion, that we should teach students to use AI in the learning process within academic integrity standards.
2.4. lack of organization of sources and material referenced from them
2.4.1. Organization is an across-the-board problem. Look how students organize their files on their devices. They expect to search for everything, never to browse.
2.4.1.1. We all assume students have these skills. We do need to teach these skills explicitely. Most students need that. There should be 'standards' what students need to be able to do per year/grade so each teacher can refer to that and help students by implementing these standards
2.5. Teach the Annotated Bibliography concept. It supports LP and Econ analysis.
2.5.1. I agree, and I also think any type of citation style is fine as long as it's consistent.
3. many students enter the programme not having much idea about how to acknowledge others work and plagiarisms.
3.1. DP teachers and MYP teachers must collaborate to encourage Academic Integrity early
3.1.1. All teachers need to work together on this and be consistent in what they teach. Librarians, and other staff need to be aware as well
3.1.2. If your school has the MYP programme you can use this a 'training camp' for academic integrity. It is good to iron out these issues early on.
3.2. When students are sitting during the exam, they found they have no valid examples to use in the evaluation, some of them will try to use an fake example to earn more marks.
3.3. Academic integrity should be something that schools integrate before students reach the DP.
3.3.1. Creating standards on what a student should know in each year group/grade so it can be build up and scaffolded
4. students mostly make use of someone else's work without properly acknowledging or giving credit to the rightful author.
4.1. In order to prevent copy and paste from sources without citing it, or any other form of plagiarism its important to educate the learners aboiut the risk they face by doing that. The various stakeholders all have a crusal role to play. The parents, the teachers, school administration as well as the learners thelselves also have their responsibility.
5. Studnts sometimes struggle to collect primary data and rely heavily on desk reserch.
6. Working too closely with others or receiving unauthorized help can blur the line between collaboration and dishonesty
7. If students conduct surveys or interviews, they must respect participants' consent and confidentiality.
8. What do we actually do?
8.1. Administrator: Advertise/Propagandize on a whole-school basis. Passive student-created posters - really, IBO should get better at this. The online selections are dire.
8.2. Teacher. Use the whole-school resources PLUS the technical tools: TURNITIN. 'anything you can Google I can Google better, I can Google anything better than you."
8.2.1. as I was the only one who did this at my school I was personally penalized because I caught the most plagiarism.
8.2.1.1. I think using TRUNITIN is necessary, especially when checking students' IA and EE works_ by Fei 2024 March
8.3. Students. Students shouldn't be the passive follower of the integrity policy. Integrity should be one core characteristics for their life time. We need to create the awareness and help them to understand the importance of integrity.
8.3.1. Could integrity be an IB Learner profile attribute - or at least more specific language to the principled attribute .
8.3.1.1. There should be some punishment and education for dishonest actions to emphasize the significance of integrity. _By Fei 2024 March
8.3.1.2. Our DPC usually organizes sessions for students and parents on academic integrity policy of the school. The teachers are regularly invited for online workshops on application of AI in learning process.
8.4. In relation to IB policies we work hard on giving feedback about progressive measures for assessments, academic honesty policies, and the IB Learner Profile permanently. By Alberto Ottati
9. Academic Integrity at school
9.1. The school designs academic integrity policy and clearly communicates to the whole school community. school also communicates academic integrity policy to parents . As school has moved to virtual set up due pandemic school organized an orientation programme for parents and teachers setting protocols about fair attendance approaches to teaching practices and assessment. school asked parents and teachers to make sure during exams and assessment the work that students produce it should be their own individual work no help to be provided to students by their parents and others
9.1.1. Essential that all colleagues follow uniform approaches to monitoring and flagging IA in their subjects
9.1.1.1. When all staff require IA drafts to be produced on a shared document this helps to see how work develops but does not entirely eliminate problems
9.1.1.1.1. Viva Voce can be used to establish clarity in doubtful situations such as a final submission that differs significantly from the previous draft without documented evidence of the transformation
9.1.2. Consistent and graduated age appropriate expectations should be evident in the pre-DP levels so students enter the IB fully cogniscent of the requirements and the consequences
9.1.2.1. Trainings about academic intergrity, especially in IB couse, should be given out to students at least every year.
9.1.2.2. This is a big part of the School’s ethos, with academic integrity being pushed as a personal goal and something that comes with a high price tag when not achieved. (Bryan)
9.1.3. Teachers must model AI expectations in the resources they use and present to their students to show that good work can be made better if AI is adhered to
9.1.3.1. Teachers themselves should be provided with training so they themselves are clear on expectations.
9.2. All classes in the school are based on the value practices and not only in contents. By Alberto Ottati
9.2.1. Respect for the work of others
9.2.1.1. All students are evaluated to acknowledge external research by giving credits and developing APA bibliography.
9.2.1.1.1. Supported on practical workshops about how to build a bibliography efficiently with teacher guidance.
9.3. Clear and transparent support for teachers who flag concerns encourages doubts to be raised early and appropriate measures taken to help both the student and the teacher
9.3.1. clear consequences for teachers who knowingly enable or ignore academic misconduct
9.4. Turn It In effective if the results are viewed with some critical engagement - some concepts in economics are impossible to express in a unique way so get highlighted as being unoriginal when its just how language is used in economics
9.4.1. Google classroom has a similar academic integrity function. Seeing how their work is analyzed by these softwares provides students with greater academic honesty awareness.
9.4.1.1. Teams and TURNITIN perform a similar function
10. Academic integrity in Economics
10.1. Group work: while writing practice IA students were allowed to collect data in group but students were informed that each member must write an individual report for practice IA.
10.2. ITGS: not to fabricate responses to make analysis and solution stronger.
10.2.1. Plagiarism is the most talked about, and the use of AI is a common talking point. The extended essay and IAs are areas which create most concern about academic integrity. I personally have explained the IB’s stance on AI, but some staff are not happy with it. Having said that, they do not seem able to come up with a way to negate the use of AI. (Bryan)
10.3. In any coursework or group work, student should use real information and data, they should be taught that using fake data is even worse than limited data, and will be punished seriously.
10.3.1. I think an issue here is the time of the examiner and teacher. In IB forums students often encourage each other to cheat, because frankly nobody has time to check their actual sources or their personal results of surveys and studies.
11. In spite of having the official academic integrity policy at our school, there are some challenges.
11.1. What person/team should be resposible, what are their duties and the framework of responsible actions?
11.1.1. How can the school community ensure embedded policies in long term? Ideas for a good communication of the policy to students, parents, others?
11.1.2. The idea of assigning this as a role/responsibility is very appealing. That person can help implement standards, strategies, give workshops to students and teachers....
11.1.3. The problem of use of AI chats in writing IA commentaries is to be discussed and solved with the help of teachers, parents and administration. The second challenge is the use of real world examples in paper 1 responses.