Catching Them When They’re Young

1. Catching Them When They’re Young Strategies for Tackling Plagiarism Anne-Marie Tarter and Marianne Bradnock

2. Could be helpful to start with an example of how to introduce the topic of plagiarism to Year 7 classes Try to imagine that you are 12 years old….

3. Use your imagination….

5. Count up the words on the page and anyone with over 100 words will receive a sweet!

6. Is everyone happy???

7. When you use ideas that are not your own and do not acknowledge the source, you are guilty of plagiarism • You are taking the credit for work you did not do • And someone else is not getting the reward due for their ideas and work Plagiarism is stealing….

8. What happens now….

9. When you plagiarise you don’t use your brain to make connections and develop your own thinking • You ultimately are the loser when you are called upon to use that knowledge in another way • Plagiarism prevents you from developing your own thinking, and understanding…so you don’t really benefit from the learning experience Plagiarism hurts you too…

10. Instead….

11. When you use the ideas of others as a method of stimulating your own thinking, that is real learning! (but you still need to acknowledge their contribution….) The aim of research…

12. How big is the problem?

13. 1 in 20 applicants copy their personal statements from websites From UCAS ...

14. 58% said plagiarism is a problem • 28% of these estimated that half or more of pupils’ work contained plagiarism • Over 55% said students don’t understand what constitutes plagiarism • Over 55% were unaware of any school policy on plagiarism A survey of 300 teachers

15. From 2004 to 2005 the number of candidates penalised for "malpractice" in A-level and GCSE exams and coursework rose by 27% to more than 4,500. The coursework problem

16. “The sanctions applied to a candidate committing plagiarism range from a warning regarding future conduct to the candidate being barred from entering for one or more examinations for a set period of time.” (Joint Council for Qualifications) The examination boards

17. “Merely assembling other people’s material, extracted from books or downloaded from websites, would miss the point and could constitute plagiarism. You must therefore acknowledge where specific ideas and information come from. Copied chunks from any source will not be marked.” (Cambridge Pre-U Syllabus) Other qualifications

18. From OFQUAL

19. ““We think these [information] skills need to be incubated during the formative years of childhood: by university or college it is too late to reverse engineer deeply engrained habits.” (UCL. Information behaviour of the future, 2008. Quoted in OFQUAL booklet Authenticity: a guide for teachers). Catch them when they’re young...

20. How can teachers and librarians prevent plagiarism? Ask questions that • don’t have published answers • require multiple sources to answer • have more than one answer (or no one right answer) • Require higher level thinking! The tasks we set are the Key!

21. Working in teams • Each child is responsible for researching and then teaching the others part of the topic • Together they help each other gain understanding • Together they use that new knowledge to create something of their own Adopting ideas from the workplace….

22. How to plan the work • How to evaluate and select resources • How to take notes effectively • How to self-evaluate and modify strategies • How to analyse and synthesize • How to structure and draft the final product • How to acknowledge resources By teaching independent learning skills….

23. The PROCESS is as important as the PRODUCT • Ongoing pupil self-assessment • Reflection is valued • Allow for failure! (and strategies learned) • Through lesson observation • Assessment at each stage • Across several projects…ongoing ! Assessment of learning…

24. Need time for these skills to become embedded into student’s learning strategies • Need to be repeated across the curriculum to make them transferable • Need to be adapted as students mature and can take over more control • Can be threatening to teachers who are responsible for content based exams A risky and time consuming process…

25. OFQUAL’s new guides • Importance of a three prong approach • Students • Teachers • Parents ONLINE tools • Bibliography Makers • Wikis and other Web 2.0 tools New tools to help….

26. Independent learners are confident of their own thought processes • They know how to find and use information effectively, efficiently and ethically • Independent learners are creative, reflective, flexible and powerful thinkers Independent Learners have no need to plagiarise…..

27. Independent learning is a skill that needs to be taught and developed over time • It needs to be a core part of all curricular stages (PLTS in the new KS3 curriculum) • It needs to be seen to be as important as subject knowledge Catching them when they’re young…

28. What would you like to see schools do to better prepare students to be independent learners BEFORE they leave secondary education? • What do you see as the best way forward to ensure that all schools deliver the preparation needed? Your own views….

29. McKenzie, J. The new plagiarism: seven antidotes to prevent highway robbery in an electronic age in From Now On: the Educational Technology Journal, Vol 7 No 8, May 1998. http://www.fno.org/may98/cov98may.html • Furedi, Frank. What’s wrong with cheats. 28 March 2006. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2006/mar/28/comment.highereducation • Smyth, Lisa. We’re on the lookout for cheats, pupils are warned. Belfast Telegraph, 9 October 2007. http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/education/were-on-lookout-for-cheats-pupils-are-warned-13482887.html • Berlins, Marcel. Cheating has always been around in schools and universities – but the internet is making it worse. The Guardian, 20 May 2009. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/20/comment-marcel-berlins-plagiarism-students-internet • Association of Teachers and Lecturers. School work plagued by plagiarism – ATL Survey. 28 January 2008 http://www.atl.org.uk/Images/18%20Jan%202008%20-%20School%20work%20plagued%20by%20plagiarism%20-%20ATL.pdf • Frean, Alexandra. Exam chiefs scrap GCSE coursework to stamp out cheating. The Times, 6 October 2006. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article663225.ece • Frean, Alexandra. New GCSE: bite-sized exams and no coursework. The Times, 21 December 2007. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article3081259.ece • Joint Council for Qualifications. Plagiarism in examinations; guidance for teachers/assessors. http://www.jcq.org.uk/attachments/published/197/Plagiarism%20in%20Examinations%20FINAL.pdf References

30. Cambridge Pre-U Syllabus 2nd ed: Global Perspectives and Independent Research for examination in 2010, 2011 and 2012.http://www.cie.org.uk/docs/qualifications/preu/syllabuses/Pre-U%20GPR.PDF • OFQUAL. Avoiding plagiarism: a guide for parents and carers. 2009. http://www.ofqual.gov.uk/files/2009-12-24-plagiarism-parents.pdf • OFQUAL. Using sources: a guide for students – Find it – Check It – Credit it. 2009. http://www.ofqual.gov.uk/files/2009-12-24-plagiarism-students.pdf • OFQUAL. Authenticity: a guide for teachers. 2009 http://www.ofqual.gov.uk/for-teaching-and-training-centres/124-for-teaching-and-training-main-box-2-no-image/269-plagiarism-guide-for-teachers • Interview with Anne Flood, September 2009, Ripon, North Yorkshire • PowerPoint presentation by Anne Flood, September 2009, Ripon, North Yorkshire • Interview with Geoff Dubber, May 2010, London References (2)