Dear John
Coincidentally, I read your email just after running a morning workshop with a group of academic staff from Kazakhstan on exactly this kind of thing. Here at Newcastle, as part of the Academic Practice course, I offer some sessions on "Information for Learning", which are about challenging teachers to think about how to develop information literate students and how to embed information literacy into the curriculum and the ways in which they teach. The sessions are available to all new teaching staff, but we also run sessions for specific groups of visiting academics, as I did today.
One of the most successful parts of the session from my perspective relates to plagiarism and to discussing how, if we as teachers aren't aligned and understand it properly, it's very difficult for our students to get it right. I use a version of Jude Carroll's exercise to stimulate debate and we also talk about whether any of us have ever, intentionally or unintentionally, plagiarised. It's very rare that all participants agree and this doesn't just occur in groups of staff from other countries, it also happens with "western" staff, with differences relating to discipline, context (eg do the same rules apply in exams as essays) and just general awareness of the issues and the importance placed on them.
I find that setting these issues within a broader context of information for learning is one way of introducing them without them coming across as belittling the knowledge of experienced staff and Jude's exercise never fails to provoke a heated debate!
Best wishes
Moira
Moira Bent
Faculty Liaison Librarian &
National Teaching Fellow
Robinson Library
Newcastle University
NE2 4HQ
www.moirabent.blogspot.com
www.twitter.com/nulibsage
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Plagiarism [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John
>Royce
>Sent: 05 December 2012 12:50
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Professors’ plagiarism reported - Central Florida Future
>
>Several aspects of the story reported in this student newspaper
><http://www.centralfloridafuture.com/news/professors-plagiarism-reported-
>1.2799446> are, I believe, worth thinking about.
>
>The professor's integrity was called into question when it was discovered that
>several passages in his literature survey had been taken word for word from the
>literature. Professor Li had used parenthetical citation to indicate the source of
>his quotations, but he hadn't used quotation marks, indents, or any other
>acceptable method to indicate that the words were not his own.
>
>It's a common fault/ problem with those not raised in the western academic
>tradition. And Professor Li is reported as stating, when it was pointed out that
>high school students are taught documentation techniques, that he was not
>raised in the American high school system, he was schooled in China.
>
>Jude Carroll's dictum, "New game, new rules!" comes to mind, and her advice
>that it matters not where you come from or what you are used to in your home
>system, when you come "here" you play the game by THESE rules. Fair enough -
>as long as you are told what the rules are. We spend a lot of time telling students
>the rules (and hopefully giving them practice and time to learn those rules -
>depending on the level of education and previous experience), but what about
>the teaching faculty? Do they get the same induction and training and
>opportunity to practice? Or is it assumed that they come knowing the rules?
>
>A sub-set of those thoughts and questions, if those teaching don't know the rules
>and requirements, their students may get mixed messages, may get confused?
>
>And another question - how extensive is the "western" academic tradition of
>quotation marks to denote quotations? or is this an English-speaking-world
>academic requirement? What is the tradition in Spain, France, Italy, Poland...?
>
>I well recall the light coming on for a Turkish student, when I gently pointed out
>the problem with a piece of writing in his first draft: he had indicated the source
>of all his copy-and-paste material (as had Professor Li), but not a single quotation
>mark. "This is a quotation," I pointed out, "and you signal quotations with
>quotation marks."
>
>"Oh!" he exclaimed, "so that is what those quotation-thingeys are all about!"
>
>He had been told, he had been taught, but he had never learned. Until then - and
>he never went wrong after that. The light had dawned.
>
>I recall a survey at the University of Leeds, a few years ago, an exercise similar to
>Jude Carroll's "Where do you draw the line?" scenarios - and a third of the
>students drew the line too low. Worryingly, almost a third of the lecturers
>surveyed drew it too low as well.
>
>My apologies for the length of this; just a few issues on my mind, all coming
>together in this one newspaper report.
>
>John Royce
>now retired (but still working!)
>
>
>
>
>
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