Evaluation of a four-prong anti-plagiarism program and the incidence of plagiarism: a five-year retrospective study

Maintaining academic integrity and preventing students from cheating and plagiarising academic work are challenges faced by higher education institutions. These areas have become even more problematic with the growth of the Internet and readily available information, which increase the temptation for students to copy and paste information directly into academic work. Institutions have turned to various strategies to mitigate these aspects. This retrospective research study examined a four-prong anti-plagiarism programme and its impact on the incidence of plagiarism in a Post-Professional Doctor of Physical Therapy programme. The results showed that, using a combination of a structured education module related to plagiarism, Turnitin plagiarism detection software, implementation of policies and procedures, and support from the institution’s writing centre resulted in significant differences in the rate of plagiarism (P < .001) over the five-year period. The rate of plagiarism in year 1 (0.96%) was 2.7 (95% CI, 1.4–5.3) times the rate in year 5 (0.35%, P = .004). The rates of plagiarism in years 2, 3, and 4 were 0.74, 0.35, and 0.30%, respectively. Using a combination of these strategies may help higher education institutions address episodes of plagiarism and improve academic integrity.     

The influence of student experience with word processors on the quality of essays written for a direct writing assessment

Although prior research has identified general procedural and qualitative differences between word-processed and pen and paper writing, little attention has been directed toward identifying how these differences relate to the prior word processing experiences of individual students. Additionally, few researchers have addressed the issue of fairness when discussing the use of word processors in writing assessment. This study investigates this relationship by comparing essays composed with pen and paper for a direct writing assessment to those composed with a word processor by students having different levels of experience with using word processors for writing.We observed differences between the two composition media similar to differences observed in previous studies of word-processed writing. That is, our results show that, overall, word-processed essays are neater and longer than were pen and paper essays. Word-processed essays also have a more formal tone and a weaker voice than their pen and paper counterparts. No composition medium differences were observed for the number of mechanical errors.In terms of how word processor experience interacts with writing quality, we found that word processors use neither improved nor worsen the quality of essays produced by students who have medium to high levels of experience using computers for writing. On the other hand, the word processor essays produced by students with a low level of experience writing with computers were scored, on a six-point scale, almost an entire point lower than those produced with pen and paper by these same students. Groups with high and medium levels of experience with word processors wrote slightly more words with a word processor than with pen and paper. On the other hand, the group with a low level of experience with using computers for writing wrote over 100 words fewer on word processors than with pen and paper. As for the number of simple sentences, groups with high and medium levels of comfort and experience with computers for writing wrote fewer simple sentences with a word processor than with pen and paper, while the group with a low level of comfort and experience with computers for writing wrote more simple sentences with word processors than with pen and paper. There were no group by media interactions for the number of mechanical errors.     

Fertility or sterility? Darwin,Naudin and the problem of experimental hybridity

Darwin came to realize that he could never devise an experiment that would demonstrate the development of new species by crossing hybrids. Instead, he turned to the problem of sterility within a species. The difference between Darwin's experimental and theoretical approach and that of French scientists working in the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris can be shown most vividly by tracking Darwin's experiments in botany and his interest in those of Charles Naudin on hybrid plants. In his discussion of Mendel, Robert Olby has provided an interesting analysis of Naudin's hereditary concepts. I have approached some of the same work here with an emphasis on the question of sterility raised by Darwin, not simply between hybrids but within members of the same species and the light that he thought this could throw on both heredity and the origin of species.     

Interior Design in Architectural Education

The domain of interiors constitutes a point of tension between practicing architects and interior designers. Design of interior spaces is a significant part of architectural profession. Yet, to what extent does architectural education keep pace with changing demands in rendering topics that are identified as pertinent to the design of interiors? This study explores interior designrelated coursework taught in accredited architectural programmes in the United States. Two methods of collecting data are used: self report from architectural programme chairs and content analysis of web‐site posted programme catalogues describing course content. The findings show that many interior design concepts are not well addressed in the architectural curricula [1]. On average, only 0.44% of program content is dedicated to curricula focusing on knowledge and skills in shaping interiors. These findings offer a parameter to educators who are involved in assessing and reforming architectural education by expanding issues of design in general. The authors contend that the pedagogical approach in architectural programmes would benefit from the inclusion of more interior design concepts and through such education efforts the stature of interior design is likely to be improved.     

Smart girls traversing assemblages of gender and class in Australian secondary mathematics classrooms

I examine experiences of former Australian schoolgirls in relation to mathematics during secondary school. This research scrutinises misunderstandings about success and impact on subject choice that can result in post-schooling trajectories that limit what girls can do in their lives beyond school. I examine ways affective relationality, as a sense of embodied belonging, may influence participation in subjects. I frame the discussion using the Baradian concept of intra-action, a co-production that engages an ethic of non-coincidence. For these participants, a reductive high-stakes testing environment and aspirations to become a master subject evoke a powerful not good enough assemblage. The responsibility to achieve enough success incites a soliciting of a particular self in affective regulation. The dread of not excelling in mathematics was often too much to endure thus participants chose to discontinue studying mathematics. They understood this as a sensible solution to prevent vulnerability, as not good enough.     

Effects of group size and advance organizers on learning parameters when using microcomputer tutorials in kinematics

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the use of CAI tutorial programs, incorporating advance organizers and involving various sizes of groups of subjects, would affect students' achievement scores, retention scores, and rates of learning. Used as subjects were 100 suburban high school physics students running interactive tutorial physics programs focusing on strobe simulation and displacement-time and velocity-time graphs. For fifty students (experimental group) an advance organizer program preceded each tutorial. The remaining fifty students (control group) had an advance non-organizer program preceding each tutorial. While pursuing the tutorials the students worked individually or together in groups of two, three, or four. Five days were allocated for the students to repeat the four tutorials until 90% competency level was attained. Achievement and retention were measured by individually administered paper-pencil teacher-made tests sampling the content of all four tutorials. Rate of learning was determined for groups by the number of times the first three tutorial programs were executed in order to attain 90% competency. In the two-way analysis of variance the only significant result at the 0.05 level pertained to group size. Results of the Tukey Test revealed that students working in groups of three and four on CAI tutorials had significantly better rates of learning than students working alone. No significant differences in achievement or retention were observed for the various groups. The implications for using CAI tutorials in physics point to grouping students in fours as a time saving and economic method of presenting material without significant loss of achievement or retention.