I recently ran a small "experiment" on referencing with 14 first year
linguistics students, only three of them said they had been given any
explicit teaching on how to reference prior to coming to Sussex.
Interestingly for us there was a US exchange student among the group
who said she'd heard less on plagiarism in her 2 yrs at her home
university than she had in 2 months here - but I have to confess that
our Linguistics department is particularly hot on methodology issues.
I have three teenagers in various stages of high school - so the small
number who had been taught about referencing didn't surprise me in the
slightest. "put it in your own words" and "don't copy" are mantras
teachers in all subjects use without really thinking about what they
are really saying i.e. "paraphrasing is OK" and "you shouldn't have too
many quotes" are the messages being received by the students. When I
try to tackle the issues with my own daughters I get the standard "oh
mum shut up - that's not what Mr X wants us to do".
As for the age at which to start,.. hmmm, I would say teaching students
that knowledge comes from sources, not thin air or their own heads, is
probably a good thing from a very early age - particularly if you can
build in the idea that people have arguments all of the time about some
of the knowledge (although a project on France might not be the best
starting point for that one!) interesting that the teacher wanted a
"Bibliography" for a project where the instructions were only to use
the Internet! I hope s/he explained how to reference URLs properly :-)
Diane
On 3 Mar 2006, at 15:15, Raeburn, Scott wrote:
> Diane
>
> Your comments about high school are interesting - the approach in
> schools to coursework is a problem. However, there may be help on the
> way, at least for some of us.
>
> 1) In the last couple of months I've seen guidelines for Scottish high
> schools from the SQA (sort of exam board) which discuss plagiarism,
> etc. in coursework for 4th+ year pupils (including advice to
> parents!).
>
> 2) This week my granddaughter (age 9 ) in Primary 5 in Falkirk was
> given a 'project' on France. The instructions included "use a computer
> and the Internet, don't copy, use your own words and include a
> bibliography". The teacher will, of course, explain all these ideas.
>
> The 1st seems sensible but is 2) a bit of overkill? When is a good age
> to start all this? Is there anything like this going on in other parts
> of the country?
>
> I suppose it might mean that we'll be alright in about 10 years time!
>
> Scott
>
>
> Scott Raeburn
> Academic Conduct Officer
> School of Computing
> Napier University
> Merchiston Campus
> Edinburgh EH10 5DT
>
> Tel: +44 (0)131 455 2716
> Fax: +44 (0)131 455 2727
> Email: [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
> From: Plagiarism [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Diane
> Brewster
> Sent: 03 March 2006 14:34
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Coaching - strong opinion warning.
>
>
>
> On 3 Mar 2006, at 09:36, Mike Reddy wrote:
> <snip>
>>
>> Students are only potential cheats, looking for the loop hole, if you
>> choose to see them that way.
>>
>> The attitude to plagiarism, copying and making of learning into an
>> issue of offence is one that I am hoping will be the subject of a
>> workshop at the next Plagiarism Conference. It needs an open and
>> frank, possibly bloody debate. I could be completely wrong. I'd love
>> to know what others think and whether they see this as an
>> interesting/important part of the problem to discuss.
>> >>
> count me in on that workshop. I think this is absolutely central, the
> more I read about the issue the more my blood boils at times, and the
> more I begin to think Peter Levin has it right about the witch hunt
> being waged against students in some quarters.
>
> Students find the rules about referencing complicated and confusing,
> in the past they only had to worry about these once they reached
> postgraduate level as there was no such thing as coursework - we all
> sat a bunch of 3 hr exams at the end of 3 yrs, swapping each others
> essays for revision purposes was positively encouraged. Now,
> practically every bit of work they produce is formally assessed, not
> only do they have to handle getting to grips with their subject but
> also the rules of the referencing game - and very few of them have
> been adequately taught to do this in high school.
>
> I think the driving analogy is a good one too, and one I have used
> with overseas students in particular - i.e. when you come into a new
> country you can't expect that the rules of the road will be the same
> as in your home country- the academic "rules of the road" in the UK
> with respect to plagiarism and referencing might be different from the
> ones you are used to. Do we extend the analogy and have the tutor as
> driving instructor? if so then we have a responsibility to ensure that
> the students *know* there is a highway code which will be examined as
> well as their ability to drive the car.... a lot of academics seem to
> be seeing themselves in the role of traffic police...
>
> Diane
>
> Diane Brewster
>
> Research Fellow
> IDEAS Lab
> Dept Informatics
> University of Sussex
> Falmer
> Brighton BN19QH
>
> http://ideas.fcs.sussex.ac.uk/~D.M.Brewster/
>
> [log in to unmask]
> 01273 678767
> This message is intended for the addressee(s) only and should not be
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Diane Brewster
Research Fellow
IDEAS Lab
Dept Informatics
University of Sussex
Falmer
Brighton BN19QH
http://ideas.fcs.sussex.ac.uk/~D.M.Brewster/
[log in to unmask]
01273 678767
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