UPCC: A model of plagiarism-free inquiry project-based learning

Plagiarism is a common problem among students, and if unaddressed, it may lead to severe consequences for students' academic integrity and education, and even for their career advancement. It is therefore essential to incorporate comprehensive anti-plagiarism intervention at an early stage of education. This study introduces UPCC (Understanding, Paraphrasing, Citations, and Checks), a pedagogical model of plagiarism-free project-based learning (PjBL), to provide a basis for plagiarism prevention for secondary school students aged 11–13. The UPCC model incorporates (U)nderstanding plagiarism, learning about (P)araphrasing and related skills, generating proper (C)itations with an online citation tool and conducting originality (C)hecks with an online tool. Evaluation of the model shows that this pedagogy effectively enables students to avoid plagiarism in behavioural, cognitive and affective aspects. The positive and negative factors affecting plagiarism are also outlined. This study may provide practical guidance for secondary teachers to implement the UPCC model in their teaching of avoiding plagiarism; it may also contribute to future research committed to students' changes in behaviour, cognition and emotion.