Deterring and Dealing with Plagiarism in Schools

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Deterring and Dealing with Plagiarism in Schools
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Effective Deterrence

• Pedagogic and administrative solutions
• Design out opportunities for plagiarism
• Design in anti-plagiarism checks, including
  detection
• Backed up by effective policies and practices
• No simple solutions
• Differences between subject disciplines
• May involve substantial re-thinking of assessment

3
Setting Appropriate Tasks

• Encourage originality
• Personalise tasks for pupils
• Self-reflection and individualised response
• Reduce scope for 'off the shelf' answers
• Unusual topics and formats e.g. web site,
  brochure, project, poster

4
Setting appropriate tasks

• Asking for applied knowledge
• Applying theory X to event Y
• e.g. To what extent has Tony Blair increased the
  powers of the Prime Minister? rather than What
  are the powers of the Prime Minister?
• Research at home, write up in class
• Writing up stage plagiarism-prone
• Varied assessment methods
• In-class essays, exams, discussions

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Assess process as well as outcomes

• Assessing use of sources
• Ensure pupils understand referencing practices,
  especially for online sources
• Ask pupils to comment on sources they have used
• Specify certain source requirements
• e.g. date, format

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Coursework Administration

• Teacher and pupil should authenticate work
• If teacher not convinced that work is pupil's
  own, should not sign it off
• "submission of work that you are not confident is
  the candidate's own could be considered
  professional misconduct" (QCA)
• If extra help has been given, this must be
  detailed
• 15 of teachers did this, mainly in art and
  design (QCA)
• QCA - Authenticating coursework a teacher's
  guide
• Have candidates been told the rules?
• Do you have a signed declaration?
• Have you taken action to minimise
  collusion/copying?
• Is the coursework of the expected standard,
  compared with usual work?
• Range of measures possible for awarding bodies
• No mark awarded
• Disqualify pupil from entire qualification
• Bar pupil from being examined by the board for a
  period of time

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Authentication Techniques

• Unusual, mixed or complex writing styles
• Obscure references and material
• Smoking guns!
• Tippex, URLs, plagiarising teacher
• Oral questioning
• Ask for a further piece of work
• If still a problem..
• Follow your centre's procedures, e.g. make a
  report to the awarding body

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Guidance for Pupils

• Just saying don't is not enough
• Nor is 'read the handbook'
• Discuss plagiarism with pupils
• Link into all teaching, not a separate issue
• Teach general study skills
• Good writing practice, information handling,
  time management, referencing skills
• Homework clubs

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Guidance for Parents

• You can encourage your child to do well and
  provide them with access to resource materials.
  You must not put pen to paper you must not
  write the coursework. You can discuss the project
  with them but you must not give direct advice on
  what they should or should not write
• Coursework a guide for parents. QCA

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Group Work and Collusion

• Confusion between collaboration and collusion
• Over half of QCA interviewees had worked on
  coursework with their friends
• QCA 1 case of plagiarism for every 3 cases of
  collusion
• Be clear how much collaboration is allowed
• How marks are allocated?
• Group mark and individual mark?
• Ask pupils to keep log of contributions and
  submit with assessment
• Peer assessment within group

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Summary

• There are many ways of designing out plagiarism
  opportunities from assessments
• Addressing plagiarism should bring many
  additional benefits to pupils learning
  techniques
• Policies and practices must be clearly
  understood by staff, pupils and parents

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