Academic Integrity Series: Why do students engage in academic misconduct, and how can they avoid it?
This is the final part of a five-part series on Academic Integrity and Honor Committees. See the first four posts in the Supporting Academic Integrity board of Turnitin Educators Network!
High school students often hear from chagrined teachers, “When you go to college, _____________ won’t fly!”. What fits in that blank? All manner of executive functions (e.g., showing up on time, turning in work in a timely manner, attention to detail, self-sufficiency) fit the bill, as do other academic activities, such as “open note tests”, “extra credit”, and plagiarism.
The last one example is potentially the most serious and far-reaching in terms of consequences for your scholars. In this series of posts, I am going to explore the role and purpose of honor committees in higher education from the perspective of a former K12 teacher and university professor who has served on these committees. You can provide these articles to your scholars for important background information about potential consequences of academic misconduct in higher education.
Part 5 – Why do students engage in academic misconduct, and how can they avoid it?
In this series on Honor Committees we have explored topics ranging from how they evaluate, adjudicate, and rule on cases to what kinds of behaviors constitute academic misconduct. Missing – importantly – from this conversation has been an exploration of why students engage in academic misconduct in the first place, and what can be done to prevent it from happening. In this final post of this series we will discuss the top reasons students engage in academic misconduct, and what instructors can do to remedy this issue. The goal of these recommendations is to reduce the number of cases that make it to an Honor Committee for adjudication, and to empower students to write in their most original, authentic voice.
Students engage in academic misconduct intentionally and accidentally for a variety of reasons. However, the most frequently cited reasons that students engage in plagiarism or other forms of academic misconduct can be summarized in the following themes:
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A lack of knowledge about writing and research
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Poor time management and executive skills
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Avoidance of consequences for either of the above
Students with a lack of knowledge about writing and research can commit academic dishonesty intentionally and unintentionally. They might make assumptions about what and how often something ought to be cited. Some believe that academic writing means citing every idea that is not their own (which results in a final document filled with strings of disconnected quotes), while others believe that if an idea is shared by enough people it does not need to be cited. What these examples highlight is that students need to be taught that writing places them in a community of scholarship, and part of the culture of this community is giving credit to each other for their contributions to the overall discourse. Citations and references are how credit is given in this community.
Students with poor time management and executive skills need practice with the ancillary skills of scholarship. Namely, organizing their thoughts, managing their time and resources, and making contingency plans for how they intend to complete their work. When students run out of time they tend to panic, and that is when academic misconduct becomes a possible solution to their problem. This naturally ignores the fact that academic misconduct is not a viable solution in the long term, but that is part of the cycle that poor executive functioning engenders.
In general, students are aware that there are consequences for academic misconduct. But, punishment is not a sufficient deterrent for most students, who perceive the benefit (avoiding a poor grade, or avoiding feeling bad for not doing a good job on an assignment) as outweighing the risk. The solution, however, is not to make stronger deterrents for students. The solution is to double down on creating a meaningful and authentic culture for learning, and for treating students as emerging scholars in a broader community.
Creating an authentic academic culture for learning means addressing research and writing as content head-on in the curriculum. It also means allowing students to learn from their mistakes. Longer form writing should be broken down into reasonable chunks, with learning scaffolded to help them draft and revise. Skills should be isolated and practiced before being used in context of a writing task; for example, students should practice identifying and creating citations before inserting citation practices in their writing. When students see draft and revision as part of the broader, formative writing and thinking process, and not as a “caught ya” moment where they are evaluated harshly they are less likely to turn to behaviors that constitute academic misconduct. Creating a culture of writing invites students to keep making an effort and growing their skills. This means that instructors ought to be open to offering more and varied kinds of feedback on student writing. This can be time consuming and challenging! However, there are a number of solutions available from Turnitin to help increase instructors’ efficiency and effectiveness in giving feedback!
Thank you for reading! As always, please share your experiences, questions, and wonderments in the comments below!
Works Consulted