It’s the word “training” I was objecting to!

 

Andy

 

From: learning development in higher education network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kim Shahabudin
Sent: 24 March 2017 15:44
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Integrity & Critical friendships advice

 

What's wrong with talking about academic integrity training?

Building student understanding of the principles that underpin writing and research at university level is a positive undertaking which crucially treats them as adult independent learners. In my experience of talking to other learning developers, it's gained popularity as a more positive response to the failure of negative 'avoid plagiarism or fail' scare strategies which led to student writing demonstrating an over-reliance on direct quotes and unquestioning acceptance of authority. It is *about* developing students' ability to work with other people's ideas, in an appropriate manner for academic study.

Stephen: I haven't used either of these, but two possible ideas:

[1] Get students to work in small groups, in class but without intervention from the tutor, taking it in turns to present topic paragraphs written before the seminar and discuss their different approaches before presenting a summary to the whole class. Each group could be focusing on a different aspect of the topic.

[2] Suggest academics give an account of their own working practices, indicating when and how they shared work in progress and the kinds of things they gained from discussion with colleagues.

Best wishes, and happy weekends,

Kim

 

Dr Kim Shahabudin, SFHEA, Study Adviser, Study Advice & Maths Support 

1st Floor, University of Reading Library, Whiteknights, PO Box 223, Reading, RG6 6AE 

( 0118 378 4242/4614 : www.reading.ac.uk/library/study-advice twitter: @unirdg_study

Please note that I now work part-time and am not usually on campus on Mondays.

From: learning development in higher education network [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Andy Gillett [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 24 March 2017 15:22
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Integrity & Critical friendships advice

My first reaction is to get rid of thoughts that involve language such as “academic integrity training” and start think of developing the students’ ability to work with other people’s ideas!

 

Andy

Andy Gillett

 

From: learning development in higher education network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stephen Gow
Sent: 24 March 2017 15:01
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Integrity & Critical friendships advice

 

Dear Learning Developers,

 

I have had an interesting query from a member of our Philosophy department and before I got back to him, I wondered if I could pick your brains on the matter.

 

We try our best with the academic integrity training at the University, however I still find that rather than being excited by the research and writing process that students are afraid of plagiarism and collusion, which can have a distinct impact on them. I must say, that I do try my best to educate staff and students about this but you still get the odd staff member using the fire and brimstone approach to plagiarism which doesn't help. When combined with the increasingly competitive and instrumental atmosphere, and the transitional stresses of adapting to University pedagogy and life, students may not form the 'critical friendships' (my Philosophy colleague's term) with their peers in which they are involved in deep discussions about the concepts they are studying. 

 

In my sessions with philosophy students and also highlighted by the staff member, the students express their concerns about plagiarism and also collusion. In philosophy in particular, the line of authorship and originality are even more blurred than in other subjects. Therefore students are afraid to discuss the ideas in the course, particularly when related to assignments, with each other. I find that while writing may be the form of assessment, that speaking is just as important to develop ideas. I think this is well addressed in theory, particularly in the discourse on academic integrity however, in practice getting the balance between awareness of misconduct and awareness of what to do, as Bretag et al have pointed out, is increasingly difficult.

 

Questions:

 

What strategies do you use at your institution or in your department to help find a balance between students understanding plagiarism and feeling free to discuss ideas and course knowledge with other students?

 

Can you recommend any good resources/exercises to help with this?

 

Kind regards,

 

Stephen 

 

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