PlagiarismI read the plagiarism assignments and watched the plagiarism video this week from the perspective of both a student and teacher.
From the perspective of a student, I thought back to all of the assignments I have turned in the past year to remember if I have properly cited and put quotation marks around all references. Typically I follow the general rule of always putting quotation marks if I use four or more words when citing a source, and I would never intentionally plagiarize. But the articles and video definitely made me think deeply about what defines plagiarism so I can make sure I never plagiarize.
From the teachers perspective I reflected about why students would intentionally plagiarize and what I can do as a teacher/librarian to educate students about plagiarism. Jason Stephens, the guest speaker in the "Why Students Plagiarize" video, discussed reasons for intentional plagiarism like being under pressure. Several of Dr. Strange's past students have probably plagiarized unintentionally because when he gave them scenarios, discussed in the article "Is It Plagiarism Yet?", many students surveyed did not know when plagiarism had occurred. So as a teacher it is very important to not only "promote integrity" like Jason Stephen suggested, but also teach students what defines plagiarism.
Why do you think that my students in EDM310 did not know about plagiarism?
ReplyDeleteThoughtful. Addressed the issue. You can leave your response to my question in a comment here.
First of all, by the time students reach the college level, they do know in general what plagiarism is. But some students may have had high school and college teachers that required them to cite sources and put quotes; and then had other teachers that only required the source to be cited. So by the time some of your EDM310 students came to your class, and were asked the scenarios on your survey, they responded "I am unsure", because they truly were unsure.
ReplyDeleteLovely post, Anastasia. I think students being unsure about exactly what constitutes plagiarism is a big part of the problem. We, as educators, have a duty to teach students what plagiarism is as well as how and why to avoid it. We've got to do more than simply yelling, "Don't do it!"
ReplyDeleteAnastasia,
ReplyDeleteI agree that we as future teachers must educate our students about plagiarism. However, I don’t think at that students never intentionally try to plagiarize. In order to do better, one must learn better. I grew up knowing some rules of plagiarism but however, I never knew all the rules. I finally learned the rules of plagiarism when I entered into college. The sad thing about it is when I entered college I learned the rules of plagiarism only for papers. I was not aware of anything that dealt with the entertainment wise until I enrolled into graduate school. I realize that in college they do teach you about plagiarism however, professors only teach you plagiarism that you needs from that class.