Addressing plagiarism in online programmes at a health sciences university: a case study

Plagiarism continues to be a concern for all educational institutions. To build a solid foundation for high academic standards and best practices at a graduate university, aspects of plagiarism were reviewed to develop better management processes for reducing plagiarism. Specifically, the prevalence of plagiarism and software programmes for detecting plagiarism was investigated. From that information, best practices for responding to plagiarism were developed and a process to enhance academic integrity was instituted. The results were impressive, the incidence of plagiarism offences reduced by half in three years, and by 75% among the English as a second-language student population.     

Associations of epistemic beliefs in science and scientific reasoning in university students from Taiwan and India

The purpose of this study was to compare the associations of epistemic beliefs in science, performance of scientific reasoning in university students from Taiwan and India, and the relations with their science learning experiences. A total of 126 university students including 67 from Taiwan and 59 from India who had science and mathematics backgrounds were involved in the study. Students’ epistemic beliefs in science were assessed by the SEV questionnaire, while their reasoning performance and learning experiences were prompted by open-ended questions and survey items. Content analysis was performed to analyze their scientific reasoning, and correlation analysis, t tests and ANOVA were applied to reveal the associations between variables. The results showed that students from both countries differed in epistemic beliefs in the dimensions of certainty, development and justification. While few students from either country performed successfully in identifying genuine evidence and giving full rebuttals, Taiwanese participants seemed to demonstrate slightly better scientific reasoning. It was found that the Indian students were more balanced in receiving structured and engaged learning experiences. Varying associations for the students from the different countries were found between epistemic beliefs and scientific reasoning performance, and between epistemic beliefs and science learning experiences.     

Learning to compose digitally: the effect of prior computer use and keyboard activity on NAEP writing

Writing is critical for college and career readiness, yet secondary students in America are not good writers (National Center for Education Statistics, 2012). Unfortunately, researchers know relatively little about secondary students’ writing skills, and even less about their digital writing. In this study, we explored prior computer use, keyboard activity during writing, and their relations to writing achievement using the 8th grade 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress writing assessment, the first national computer-based writing assessment for U.S. secondary students. We found that prior computer use predicted students’ writing skills directly (0.08) and indirectly (e.g., keypresses, 0.14) via keyboard activity during the test. We found differential effects for certain groups including current English learners and disadvantaged students. We also found a small positive interaction effect of prior use and keypresses on writing. That is, the benefits of prior computer use for school writing and the value of students’ additional keypresses on writing achievement were amplified when both were present.

     

Mathematics in ancient India

Inadvertently, an earlier draft of this article got printed in the November 2003 issue and, since the new draft clarified some of the points, the section ‘Brahmagupta’s lemma and modern algebra’ of the final draft and a few small remarks are being reprinted for the reader’s convenience. The error is regretted.     

One size still does not fit all in specific learning disability assessment across ethnic groups

The use of IQ scores and discrepancy formulas for identifying specific learning disabilities (SLD) has been widely discredited by prominent researchers for more than a decade. Nevertheless, the overwhelming majority of state policies still specify the use of discrepancy formulas, including the simple difference method, which is psychometrically inferior to regression-based methods. This study compares the use of a minimum IQ cutoff score and a simple difference method versus a regression-based method for identifying SLD in a sample of African American and European American full-time college students (N = 117). Replicating the findings from previous studies using typically achieving children, typically achieving adults, and school-age children with SLD, this study adds to the chorus of voices criticizing the use of outdated assessment practices that can have deleterious effects for individuals with SLD. The implications for legislative policy are discussed in the context of the historical overrepresentation of African Americans in all special education categories except SLD and the increased access to higher education that students with SLD have gained during the past decade.     

Āryabhata and axial rotation of Earth

Āryabhata (born 476 CE) is regarded as a pioneer of mathematical astronomy in ancient India. In this three-part article, I shall discuss one important contribution of Āryabhata in astronomy involving the least technical background —the principle of axial rotation (Part 1) and computations on the sidereal day (Part 2). Portions of 4 verses, pertaining to Earth’s rotation, from his famous treatise Āryabhatīya will be quoted. In Part 3, I shall give a brief historical account on the concept of axial rotation of Earth.     

Mathematics in ancient India

In this series of articles, we intend to have a glimpse of some of the landmarks in ancient Indian mathematics with special emphasis on number theory. This issue features a brief overview of some of the high peaks of mathematics in ancient India. In the next part we shall describe Aryabhata’s general solution in integers of the equationax -by =c. In subsequent instalments we shall discuss in some detail two of the major contributions by Indians in number theory. The climax of the Indian achievements in algebra and number theory was their development of the ingeniouschakravala method for solving, in integers, the equation x² -Dy² = 1, erroneously known as the Pell equation. We shall later describe the partial solution of Brahmagupta and then the complete solution due to Jayadeva and Bhaskaracharya.