Evaluation of intervention on Chinese graduate students’ understanding of textual plagiarism and skills at source referencing

Abstract

Textual plagiarism is a serious violation of established academic protocols, but it requires considerable writing experience and care to avoid as well. Although student understanding of textual plagiarism and their plagiaristic behaviour in English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts have been quite well researched, few studies have sought to evaluate instructional interventions specifically designed to reduce plagiarism by empowering student writers with a better knowledge of plagiarism and skills at source referencing. To the best of our knowledge, no study to date has ever systematically assessed students’ understanding of plagiarism and their source referencing performance in response to intervention. This classroom-based research, at a university in Beijing, aimed to discover whether a 6-hour block of instruction could facilitate better understanding of plagiarism and appropriate source referencing skills. The results showed that the intervention did generally give students a better appreciation of how textual plagiarism looks and significantly reduced blatant and subtle plagiarism in their writing. However, students’ heavy reliance on original source language did frequently reoccur in student writing if in less clear-cut ways. Some helpful lessons were drawn from this study.     

In Other (People's) Words: Plagiarism by university students--literature and lessons

This paper reviews the literature on plagiarism by students, much of it based on North American experience, to discover what lessons it holds for institutional policy and practice within institutions of higher education in the UK. It explores seven themes: the meaning and context of plagiarism, the nature of plagiarism by students, how do students perceive plagiarism, how big a problem is student plagiarism, why do students cheat, what challenges are posed by digital plagiarism and is there a need to promote academic integrity? It is concluded that plagiarism is doubtless common and getting more so (particularly with increased access to digital sources, including the Internet), that there are multiple reasons why students plagiarise and that students often rationalise their cheating behaviour and downplay the importance of plagiarism by themselves and their peers. It is also concluded that there is a growing need for UK institutions to develop cohesive frameworks for dealing with student plagiarism that are based on prevention supported by robust detection and penalty systems that are transparent and applied consistently.     

Evaluation of an intervention to help students avoid unintentional plagiarism by improving their authorial identity

Students with poorly developed authorial identity may be at risk of unintentional plagiarism. An instructional intervention designed specifically to improve authorial identity was delivered to 364 psychology students at three post‐1992 universities in London, UK, and evaluated with before‐and‐after measures of beliefs and attitudes about academic authorship, using the Student Authorship Questionnaire. Changes in questionnaire scores showed that the intervention led to significantly increased confidence in writing, understanding of authorship, knowledge to avoid plagiarism, and top‐down approaches to writing, and significantly decreased bottom‐up and pragmatic approaches to writing. For understanding of authorship, knowledge to avoid plagiarism and pragmatic approaches to writing, significant intervention by year of study interaction effects showed that the greatest improvements were among year one undergraduates. Direct evaluative feedback showed that 86% of students believed the intervention helped them avoid plagiarism and 66% believed it helped them write better assignments. Post‐intervention focus groups revealed changed student understandings about authorial identity and academic writing. The results show that interventions can help students avoid unintentional plagiarism by adopting more authorial roles in their academic writing. Further research could explore other influences on authorial identity, and examine the impact of authorial identity interventions on other outcome indicators.     

A model for exploring student understandings of plagiarism

A clear understanding of how students view plagiarism is needed if the extensive efforts devoted to helping them engage in high-quality scholarship are to be worthwhile. There are a variety of views on this topic, but theoretical models to integrate the literature, take account of international differences and guide practitioners are limited. Using a large, international student sample, this paper presents just such a model. More than 2500 university students in the UK and Australia completed a questionnaire rating the perceived ‘seriousness' of various plagiarism-related actions in an individual assignment. Factor analysis identified three underlying themes: dishonest acts, poor referencing, and group work. Group comparisons indicated statistically significant differences in student understanding dependent on previous region of study, current faculty/school and level of study, with the former two emerging as more influential than the latter. This three-factor model provides practitioners with a methodology for integrating the many different studies in the area and gaining a broader overview of student understanding of plagiarism. In particular, it highlights how students consider plagiarism related to group work to be far less serious than other types. Given the increasing emphasis on group work in higher education, the implications of this for policy and practice are discussed. Importantly, the study also notes that effect sizes were small, suggesting that findings in this study, as in other studies, may not represent substantive differences in student perceptions. A single, universal approach to educating students about plagiarism may be as effective as approaches tailored to the individual's background.     

Are we educating educators about academic integrity? A study of UK higher education textbooks

A substantial proportion of university students report committing plagiarism and related forms of misconduct. An academic integrity-focused approach to addressing plagiarism emphasises the promotion of positive values alongside education of staff and students about good, and bad, practice in writing, studying and assessment design. The concept was developed many years ago and is seen as desirable, yet it is not clear whether academic integrity features prominently in the education of academics themselves. We analysed source texts for postgraduate certificates in higher education (or equivalent) at UK universities. Overall, academic integrity was poorly addressed in these texts, and the language used (‘cheating’, ‘plagiarism’) was not reflective of an academic integrity-based approach. Newer issues, such as the purchasing of custom written assignments (contract cheating), were barely addressed. We conclude that the concept of academic integrity needs to be integrated into mainstream discourse around teaching in UK higher education.     

‘At least they’re learning something’: the hazy line between collaboration and collusion

This paper reports the results of a study which investigated whether there is a common understanding of the terms plagiarism and collusion between students and staff. Participants made judgements on scenarios describing student behaviour in assessments. The results suggest that although plagiarism is well understood, the same can not be said of collusion. Both staff and students feel that collusion is much more acceptable than plagiarism because some learning is taking place. It appears that there is no consensus on the boundary between collaborative behaviour and collusion.     

Reducing unintentional plagiarism amongst international students in the biological sciences: An embedded academic writing development programme

There is general agreement in the literature that international students are more likely to plagiarise compared to their native speaker peers and, in many instances, plagiarism is unintentional. In this article we describe the effectiveness of an academic writing development programme embedded into a Biological Sciences Taught Masters course designed to reduce unintentional plagiarism amongst international students in the cohort. We compared plagiarism rates in the years before and after the implementation of the writing intervention. In addition, we analysed data from a high response rate questionnaire (87.8%: class of 90 students) designed to evaluate students’ perceptions of the usefulness of the writing development programme and to elicit information about their prior educational experiences which might relate to plagiarism. Our combined quantitative and qualitative data show that an early pedagogical response reduced plagiarism levels amongst international students. However, the UK and international students in the same cohort reported markedly different responses to the writing programme. We therefore suggest that, if international students are provided with an initial opportunity to practise academic writing and receive feedback, they are more likely to be successful when writing coursework assignments later on. However, any initial writing development programme should be adapted to accommodate the differing needs of the UK and international students within the cohort.     

‘Not necessarily a bad thing …’: a study of online plagiarism amongst undergraduate students

Whilst the copying, falsification and plagiarism of essays and assignments has long been a prevalent form of academic misconduct amongst undergraduate students, the increasing use of the internet in higher education has raised concern over enhanced levels of online plagiarism and new types of ‘cyber‐cheating’. Based on a self‐report study of 1222 undergraduate students, this paper explores the nature and patterning of online plagiarism amongst students in UK higher educational institutions. The data find around three‐fifths of students self‐reporting at least a moderate level of internet‐based plagiarism during the past 12 months, with significant differences in terms of gender, educational background and—most notably—subject discipline. Students’ online plagiarism was also found to correlate strongly with their self‐reported levels of offline plagiarism. The data therefore highlight the need to contextualize online plagiarism in relation to the wider ‘life‐world’ of the contemporary university student and, in particular, the role of the internet in their everyday non‐academic lives. The paper concludes by discussing how university authorities may go about addressing internet‐based plagiarism in the contemporary university setting.     

Student and faculty perceptions of plagiarism in health sciences education

Academic misconduct is a problem encountered by many academic programmes, including programmes in the health sciences. The primary purpose of the present study was to assess doctoral student and graduate faculty perceptions of academic misconduct, specifically plagiarism. We used a cross-sectional survey design, and separate surveys were developed for students and faculty. The student survey measured student perceptions of the prevalence of plagiarism among students in general and assessed the occurrence of each student’s plagiaristic behaviours. The faculty survey measured faculty perceptions of the prevalence of plagiarism among students in general and among students in their courses specifically. Two hundred and thirty-eight students and 92 faculty completed the surveys. Students were doctoral health sciences students enrolled in a campus-based, online or hybrid programme. Compared with the self-reported behaviour of students, faculty believed more students were involved with plagiarism. Self-rated knowledge about plagiarism was significantly higher among online students and faculty than among campus-based students and faculty (p<0.001). Both students and faculty believed the most common plagiaristic activity was citing and referencing a full-text source when only the abstract was read, but only a few students reported personally doing this. Additionally, more campus-based students than online students reported working closely with another classmate on an assignment when they were not authorised to do so (p<0.001). In the present study, surveyed students and faculty believed plagiarism was prevalent among the general student population; however, few students self-reported this behaviour.     

Classroom choice-making for Chinese master’s students: choice,motivation and learning contexts

ABSTRACT

Under the framework of self-determination theory, choice is a supporting factor for autonomy in the classroom. The provision of choice in the classroom is a distinct feature of higher education, through which students experience a shift from mandatory tasks to those are more learner-controlled. This study explores Chinese master’s students’ perspectives on choice and the relationship between choice and motivation, also, compares the choice-making opportunities in different learning contexts (China vs. UK). 60 Chinese master’s students, studying in China and the UK, participated in this study. The findings of this study indicate that most master’s students hold a positive attitude towards classroom choice, considering choice contributes to increased learning motivation in the classroom in most cases. Then, limited choices may not automatically decrease students’ motivation and students studying in China possess fewer opportunities for choice-making than students in the UK, which is influenced by the social and academic culture.     

Academic integrity: a quantitative study of confidence and understanding in students at the start of their higher education

Establishing a positive, proactive approach to issues such as plagiarism requires that students are equipped with the skills and experience to act with integrity, and that educators are fully aware of the attitudes and ability of students, particularly when they start university. This project used a questionnaire-based methodology to probe the attitudes, ability and confidence of undergraduates newly enrolled at a university in the UK, with a focus on concepts relating to written assignments. New undergraduates were confident in their understanding of plagiarism, yet performed poorly on simple tests of referencing. Students were generally of the opinion that academic misconduct should be modestly penalised compared to the standard penalties imposed by the UK higher education sector. Positive correlations were found between confidence, performance and recommended penalties, suggesting that confident students did better on tests of simple tests of referencing, and recommended more severe penalties for transgressions of academic integrity. These correlations were supported by findings that new postgraduates were more confident than new undergraduates, recommended more severe penalties and performed better in the simple tests of referencing. Findings are discussed in the context of educational needs identified for students, educators and institutions.     

International student migration: a comparison of UK and Indian students’ motivations for studying abroad

ABSTRACT

This paper breaks new ground in its comparative analysis of two international student migration (ISM) streams, one from the Global South to the Global North (India to developed Anglophone countries), and the other within the Global North (UK to North America, Europe and Australia). These two ISM movements reflect different positionalities within the global system of international student movements, and hence necessitate a critical perspective on the assumptions behind such a comparison, which questions the dominance of ‘knowledge’ about ISM that derives from ‘the West’ as a theoretical template. Two methods are employed to collect data: an online questionnaire survey of UK and Indian students who are, or have recently been, studying abroad; and in-depth interviews to UK and Indian international students. Motivations for studying abroad are remarkably similar in the questionnaire results; more subtle differences emerge from the interviews.     

Is plagiarism changing over time? A 10-year time-lag study with three points of measurement

Are more students cheating on assessment tasks in higher education? Despite ongoing media speculation concerning increased ‘copying and pasting’ and ghostwritten assignments produced by ‘paper mills’, few studies have charted historical trends in rates and types of plagiarism. Additionally, there has been little comment from researchers as to the best way to assess changes in plagiarism over time. In this paper, we discuss the relative strengths and weaknesses of research designs for assessing changes in plagiarism over time, namely cross-sectional, longitudinal, and time-lag. We also report the results of our own time-lag study of plagiarism. We assessed self-reported engagement in, awareness of, and attitudes towards plagiarism in three comparable groups of students at the same university on three occasions, each separated by five years (2004, 2009, and 2014). The data from our study paint an encouraging picture of increased understanding and reduced occurrence of several forms of plagiarism, with no upward trend in verbatim copying or ghostwriting. We suggest that technological and educational initiatives are counteracting the potential for increased plagiarism from online sources.     

‘Thou shalt not plagiarise’: from self-reported views to recognition and avoidance of plagiarism

Throughout much of the literature on plagiarism in higher education, there is an implicit assumption that students who understand plagiarism, who have high ethical views and declare not to engage in plagiaristic behaviour are able to recognise it and avoid it in practice. Challenging this supposition, this paper contrasts students’ self-reported data with their ability to recognise and avoid plagiarism in a proposed case scenario. A questionnaire was adapted from previous literature and administered to a sample of undergraduate first- and second-year students in an Irish university. Results show that self-reported measures are not a powerful predictor of the students’ ability to recognise the practical case as an academic breach, nor to avoid the breach through referencing. This suggests that students’ understanding and awareness of academic breaches would benefit from experiential learning and that higher education institutions should not merely rely on providing statements and definitions of academic misconduct. Also, the results highlight the potential unsuitability of using self-reported measures to study plagiarism, despite their widespread use.     

The motivations and outcomes of studying for part-time mature students in higher education

This paper examines the motivations and outcomes for mature students who study part-time in higher education (HE) in the UK. Although many students in HE are mature part-time learners, they have not been the specific focus of much research or policy interest. In-depth narrative interviews were carried out with 18 graduates who had studied part-time at a university college specialising in part-time provision. The sample was drawn from a quantitative survey of 1539 graduates concerning their motivations for studying and the benefits derived. Researchers could therefore choose respondents on the basis of previously reported outcomes of study and on other life course information, which was included in the survey. The paper reports a wide range of motivations and outcomes, which are regarded as forms of capital, and illustrates how studying part-time as a mature student can have a profound effect on people’s lives.     

Teaching students about plagiarism using a web-based module

The following research delivered a web-based module about plagiarism and paraphrasing to avoid plagiarism in both a blended method, with live instruction paired with web presentation for 105 students, and a separate web-only method for 22 other students. Participants were graduates and undergraduates preparing to become teachers, the majority of whom were pursuing certification in elementary education. After the module, students practised paraphrasing with their own written example, then took a Likert-scale survey about their perceptions of the module and provided demographic information. The majority of students expressed a high level of satisfaction with not only the module itself but also their own increased knowledge about paraphrasing and plagiarism. Graduate students and students in the live group felt that pairing an instructor with the module furthered their understanding of paraphrasing. Students who identified themselves as having cheated felt that they had better learned how to paraphrase from the module compared with students who reported themselves as never having cheated. Responses from the web group were low considering the amount of students invited to participate. Students in the live group who had instructor-led discussion felt it contributed to their understanding of paraphrasing, while students in the web group wished for more instructor-led interaction. Outcomes on the student-written paraphrase were weaker than anticipated, with only half of the group producing good or excellent paraphrases.     

Awareness about plagiarism amongst university students in Pakistan

Research is an original and systematic investigation undertaken to discover new facts and information about a phenomenon. However a variety of empirical and ethical issues are on the rise in academia, especially plagiarism is quickly becoming part of global educational and research culture. More and more students and researchers are turning to the Internet for cooked solutions and shortcuts for writing assignments, research papers and thesis. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the seriousness of plagiarism amongst graduate and post graduate students of Pakistan. It also explores the university students’ level of awareness of plagiarism. A total of 365 graduate and post graduate students of randomly selected public and private sector universities participated in this exploratory empirical study. A self-reported questionnaire survey was used for collection of primary data. Findings revealed that there was a low level of awareness about plagiarism and university plagiarism policies and processes amongst the students. Findings also revealed that many respondents did not understand what plagiarism is? A significant number of students have fairly admitted that they have intentionally plagiarized written materials. Based on the findings of the study this paper puts forward recommendations to create awareness amongst the students regarding plagiarism, plagiarism policies and provides statistical evidences for formulation of policies and guidelines to combat plagiarism in institutions of higher learning in Pakistan. Furthermore, the paper submits recommendations to minimize the plagiarism based on the authors’ experiences.     

In their own words: a qualitative study of the reasons Australian university students plagiarize

The ways in which universities and individual academics attempt to deter and respond to student plagiarism may be based on untested assumptions about particular or primary reasons for this behaviour. Using a series of group interviews, this qualitative study gathered the views of 56 Australian university students on the possible reasons for plagiarism within their institution. The results indicate a wide and disparate range of possible contributing reasons for plagiarism, including: institutional admission criteria; student understanding of plagiarism; poor academic skills; a range of teaching and learning factors; personality factors; and external pressures. These findings are compared with other findings about reasons for student plagiarism in Australasia. The implications of these findings are considered for universities and individual academics seeking to better engage with their students to minimize or marginalize plagiarism.     

“一带一路”倡议对来华留学的影响效应评估——兼论来华留学生教育高质量发展

定量评估“一带一路”倡议对国际学生来华留学的影响,对推动我国来华留学生教育高质量发展具有重要意义。基于2008—2018年183个国家的面板数据,本研究利用双重差分法实证检验了“一带一路”倡议对来华留学的影响效应。结果显示,“一带一路”倡议对来华留学具有显著的促进效应,来华留学生总体增长幅度在5.7%~7.7%;内在机制是通过民心相通效应和人才需求效应发挥促进作用;对不同类型国家或地区来华留学的影响效应具有差异性,且教育质量发挥着重要作用。为更好地推动来华留学生教育高质量发展,我国应理性看待“一带一路”倡议对来华留学的促进作用,树立正确的价值导向;加强来华留学生教育差异化发展战略规划的制定和优化,建立多元主体协同机制;提高资源整合利用能力,依靠优势特色学科引领,打造“留学中国”品牌。