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Editorial Vol 3, No 2
No full textJust days after farewelling delegates from all over the world who attended the 3rd Asia-Pacific Conference on Educational Integrity: Creating a Culture of Integrity, held at the University of South Australia, I am delighted to welcome you to Volume 3, Issue 2 of the International Journal for Educational Integrity. I am very pleased that since my entreaties in the last issue of the journal for high quality, original and relevant submissions, there has been a marked increase in the quality of manuscripts submitted for review.
This current issue provides an international and inter-disciplinary view of academic integrity. Contributors represent universities in Australia and the United States, as well as diverse disciplinary perspectives, including human pathophysiology, mathematics, health sciences, accounting, finance and economics. Each of the papers in the current issue examines a particular issue of academic integrity and contributes an original viewpoint.
Michael Kremmer, Mark Brimble and Peta Stevenson-Clarke, from the Griffith Business School at Griffith University, in Brisbane, Australia, report on data from a survey of 1 057 students across four major Queensland universities which investigated factors that may influence student engagement in academic misconduct. They found that a student's age, gender and nationality are useful in explaining the probability of a student cheating. The key finding, however, suggests that the likelihood that a student will engage in any given cheating behaviour is most strongly influenced by the extent to which the student engages in other forms of cheating, supporting the notion of 'once a cheat always a cheat'.
Steve McKillup and Ruth McKillup, from the Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Health at Central Queensland University, Australia, describe an original strategy for pre-empting plagiarism, called the 'hypothetical condition' essay. For this type of essay, the instructor invents a fictitious but entirely plausible physiological condition or concept which students must evaluate and discuss. The hypothetical condition essay was trialled with a second level undergraduate human pathophysiology class in 2007. No cases of plagiarism were detected and grade distribution was comparable with previous offerings of the course. The hypothetical condition essay also appeared to foster originality and critical thought, and the authors suggest that the concept of this type of assessment could be applied in many fields.
Ken Randall, Denise Bender and Diane Montgomery, from the University of Oklahoma Schusterman Center, in the United States, used Q method analysis to understand the opinions of students and faculty in health sciences programs regarding what they consider to be key aspects of academic integrity. Thirty-eight students and faculty sorted statements on academic integrity to represent their reactions to the condition of instruction, "What are your thoughts about values in your academic program?". The key finding was that although cheating occurs even in health sciences programs such as occupational and physical therapy, students and faculty appear to share a notable degree of common ground as it relates to their opinions on academic integrity.
The final paper in this issue, by Sven Trenholm from Herkimer County Community College in New York, is based on a survey of all listed Fall 2006 State University of New York (SUNY) Learning Network (SLN) mathematics faculty, and focusses on assessment in math e-learning. The study compared the practice of assessment in proctored math e-learning courses with that of assessment in unproctored math e-learning courses and sought to identify the most popular strategies for assessing math e-learning courses.
It is clear from the diverse papers in this issue, and those presented recently at 3APCEI, that academic/educational integrity is more than an emerging field of inquiry. It is genuinely inter-disciplinary and wide-ranging in the forms of research being undertaken. The streams at the conference and pre-conference workshop provide some indication of this diversity: institutional approaches to educational integrity, policies relating to academic integrity officers, research, teaching and learning, contextual factors, specific student groups, transnational issues, emotional work and ethics in theory and practice.
I encourage all readers of the IJEI, including teachers, researchers, writers and students to continue to explore the multi-various aspects of academic integrity from both a practical and theoretical perspective and to contribute manuscripts for review. In particular, we welcome contributions from scholars working in countries where educational integrity is only just beginning to emerge as an area of inquiry. Please send all submissions directly to me at [email protected]
Tracey Bretag,
Editor, International Journal for Educational Integrity
December 200
Adolescents Talking about Personal Responsibility
No full textThe role of personal responsibility in the lives of adolescents remains a largely overlooked area in the psychological and educational fields. The present study used focus groups of 20 white, middle-class adolescents to examine how they understand and integrate the notion of personal responsibility into their lives. Key themes, including awareness of thoughts and feelings, behavioural choices and control, and consideration of consequences were found to be important components of the personal responsibility variable. Interesting gender differences were noted, with females and males identifying different emotions as being within or outside their control, and only females said that concern for the feelings of others was a major factor in decision-making. The key themes served to generate parameters with which to define the personal responsibility variable
Staff attitudes to dealing with plagiarism issues: Perspectives from one Australian university
No full textThis paper reports on the results of an online staff survey at one Australian university on attitudes to plagiarism issues, the use and efficacy of the institutional plagiarism policy and Turnitin system and staff perceptions of institutional resources that were available to assist both staff and students reduce the incidence of plagiarism. The survey was designed to capture staff perceptions, rather than verifiable activity or plagiarism detection outcomes. The survey responses highlighted the need for a common understanding of plagiarism and approaches to the detection and dealing with suspected plagiarism incidents. The responses also signalled a requirement for improved assessment practices that reduce the opportunity for plagiarism. Staff responses indicated that there was a need to publicise more effectively existing University resources for avoiding plagiarism; only a minority of survey respondents were aware of these resources. The majority of staff perceived that the institutional policies and practices were adequate for dealing with suspected plagiarism incidents
Communicative integrity and moral education
No full textThis paper suggests that moral education might be advanced where students are granted expressive tolerance in academic work. It is acknowledged that, in some instances, expressive tolerance may result in the disclosure of morally questionable or discriminatory opinions and that this disclosure presents difficulties for educators. However, it is argued that moral education is hampered by any process that blocks open and honest communication/debate and it is suggested that communicative
integrity between educators and students may be foreclosed when educators from practice-based disciplines that espouse strong moral claims impose non-academic normative or professional values upon debate and/or assignment assessment (marking). It is noted that significant logical and practical problems attend attempts to 'police' moral content and, to illustrate these problems, an argument that might be described as homophobic is presented. It is suggested that educators who threaten or
act to penalise or fail student written work containing discriminatory statements/arguments such as that described in the 'homophobic' example may encourage students who hold such opinions to hide (self-censor) their views so that such views
remain or continue unexamined. It is proposed that communicative integrity in educator-student relations is a necessary prerequisite for open dialogue and moral development/education
Investigating the probability of student cheating: The relevance of student characteristics,assessment items, perceptions of prevalence and history of engagement
No full textAcademic dishonesty is a fundamental issue in terms of the educational integrity of higher education institutions. Accordingly, there is a growing pool of literature that examines this issue. This study adds to this literature by investigating factors that may influence student engagement in academic misconduct. We examine the influence of the type of assessment items, age, gender, nationality, discipline and level of study and the students' self-reported history of cheating. Drawing from a survey of 1,057 students across four major Queensland universities, we find that a student's age, gender and nationality are useful in explaining the probability of a student cheating. Our key finding, however, suggests that the likelihood that a student will engage in any given cheating behaviour is most strongly influenced by the extent to which the student engages in other forms of cheating, supporting the notion of "once a cheat always a cheat". We conclude that more needs to be done to combat a culture of acceptance of academic dishonesty and to minimise defensive misconduct by students who otherwise might not engage in such behaviour. We suggest that university administrators devote increased resources to this issue and develop mechanisms for managing and curtailing the level of academic misconduct. A failure to do so may result in a further undermining of the academic integrity of the Australian tertiary sector
Belonging, Connectedness, and Self-Worth: Building Socially Sustainable Communities through a School based Student Support Program
No full textThis article draws from an evaluation of a school-based student support program operating in the Elizabeth-Munno Para region of South Australia (“Author”, 2005). Based on a community development model, The Turn Around Program (TAP) extends beyond the parameters of the classroom to provide educational, social and health services to students and families affected by economic and social disadvantage. Data collected from children, parents, teachers and school principals, indicated that the Program enhanced the capacity of families and communities affected by disadvantage and poverty to more effectively support and nurture their children. The marked improvements in parenting capacity and in child-parent interaction and communication provided children with a more open and supportive home environment, which in turn, improved children’s experience of schooling and their capacity for learning. Through an examination of key aspects of the Program, the paper demonstrates how TAP has successfully melded long held ecological perspectives on schooling and child development with a number of strategies that promote the development of socially sustainable communities
NESB and ESB students' attitudes and perceptions of plagiarism
No full textConcern about plagiarism by students from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB) has grown apace with the increased numbers of international students attending western institutions. We present an exploration of student attitudes, perceptions and understandings of intellectual property, particularly plagiarism and copyright, and explore potential differences between NESB and ESB (English speaking background) students. The results indicate that while NESB students are more likely have engaged in plagiarism than ESB students, plagiarism overall is very common and reflects a combination of disrespect for material from the Internet and significant confusion about what actually constitutes plagiarism
The problem of plagiarism in academic culture
No full textFor those new to Australian academic culture, particularly international students, the emphasis on the importance of avoiding plagiarism can herald a new concept and a new way of using source material and constructing text, while for those familiar with academic culture the concepts of plagiarism may seem to need no explanation. In this paper I explore the idea that concepts of plagiarism are embedded in Australian academic culture, which explains why university lecturers as members of this academic culture can ‘know’ what plagiarism is, while new students by contrast can be concerned and confused. I argue that students new to university in Australia are entering ‘a high context culture’, which means that they are trying to learn from those within this culture whose understandings of some of the complexities of academic culture and academic writing are often implicit and taken for granted. In this paper, attitudes to text in the culture of the English speaking university are reviewed. I also review perspectives from scholars and lecturers working in the area of university learning and teaching. Finally, I suggest some critical ways of teaching about the problem of plagiarism
Counting beans in the degree factory
No full textThis paper examines how material conditions constrain the capacity to act with academic integrity, particularly in the context of severe resource limitations within Australian higher education. It describes the current situation in Australian universities illustrating this with statistics as well as the authors’ experiences. Drawing on the recent report on plagiarism policy and implementation at The University of Newcastle produced by the St. James Ethics Centre, the paper shows how policies and procedures can run aground due to resource scarcity. It also explores the breakdown of traditional academic culture and its impact on integrity, making reference to the University of Maryland Student Honor Code. Finally, the paper raises the question of what constitutes ethical action when resources become stretched to the breaking point