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Academic Integrity in the Indian education sector: the challenges and the way forward

Academic Integrity has been integral to the Indian education landscape from very early ages. However, with the access of higher education across a huge population, along with the pressure of the system in which the academicians have to operate, the concepts of Academic Integrity have been blurred in the pursuit of instant success and gratification.

While the journey of Academic Integrity really starts at home as we start learning the concepts of personal integrity in our family and social interactions, let’s look at how we can overcome the challenges and move through this journey of Academic integrity across the various education sectors.

Secondary Education

The culture of Academic Integrity needs to be promoted at every level of education; however, to be successful in this endeavor, students need to be educated and made aware right from the school days. As a child enters the arena of formal education in school, the teacher plays a very important role in creating awareness about academic integrity. The standard curriculum followed by most schools emphasizes on rote learning which can be an assessment of memory but not original thinking or application. Any kind of negative reinforcement (punishments) can also deter a young student from having a positive approach to learning. So what can we do differently:

  1. The school curriculums need to be designed in such a way that it encourages young children to think original and be able to apply that learning in their own context. E.g. when a child learns about Newton’s laws, they can be asked to state an application of the law that has a social impact in today’s world.

  2. Children should be made aware of the techniques of original writing and how they can excel in the same. Instead of providing students with a topic to write on, schools can encourage students to go deeper into a topic of their interest. This can help them to think critically and write originally. Refer here for some guidelines on Source Credibility: https://www.turnitin.com/resources/source-credibility

  3. Children also need to learn how to work effectively in groups; in essence they need to have an understanding that collaboration does not necessarily imply collusion and it's important to acknowledge the contribution of each group member. They can leverage this awareness when they work as part of a team in their higher academic initiatives.

  4. It is important to create a formative environment that reinforces the value of original thinking and writing, instead of a punitive environment.Instead of using negative words like “cheating”, schools can focus on counseling students to encourage them in the path of integrity.

  5. Both the school and parents need to encourage “innovation” and not focus on being ahead of the competition.

  6. Counseling parents and students can go a long way in developing the character of students so they are better prepared to walk in the path of integrity, even when faced with adversity. Punitive actions may create a temporary impact but are unlikely to have a permanent impact on the character building of students. Ethics is not a compulsion but a practice.

  7. With the widespread adoption of technology and the internet, students have access to a huge pool of information and they can be taught on how to harness and present this information correctly in their research pursuits.

Higher Education

The challenges that started at the secondary level with the practice of rote learning taking precedence over creative thinking, continues to thrive in the higher education space as well as these same set of students are suddenly expected to excel in academic writing. These institutions are also part of a system whose norms may pressurize students to excel at any cost. And students, who lack this awareness and skills, often resort to academic misconduct in an attempt to meet these expectations. How can we help them:

  1. It is important to understand the issue in the context of the system that the educators and students have to operate in. Educators need to be the role models, practicing integrity at all times and also guiding students towards the same as Mahatma Gandhi said “Be the change you want to see in the world”.

  2. Of the different kinds of academic misconduct noted, a large section is inadvertent plagiarism which creeps in due to lack of awareness and skills for original writing. The higher education institutions (irrespective of the major subjects) can mandate a formal course on Academic Integrity which can raise awareness about the issue and also train the students on different skills and techniques (e.g. citations) to ensure they are able to write with integrity.

  3. It is highly possible that one has to use some existing content to validate an idea; however it is critical to acknowledge the source/provide reference to ensure that the principles of Academic Integrity are upheld. The idea of acknowledging a source is not new when it comes to the Indian education system; it starts with the concept of a student giving “gurudakshina” to acknowledge the guidance of the “guru” (teacher). Students need to be made aware of the importance of acknowledging the source of the knowledge (using citation, reference, etc) they are leveraging in the course of their academic pursuits.

    There is some content or “expected similarity” that is highly likely to present in     most writings e.g. quotes, references, etc. There is no threshold value for this and     is very subjective; it is the role of the educator/reviewer/mentor to guide students     on how much of the similarity is acceptable/expected and how much is plagiarism.

Here is some guidance on effective paraphrasing which is much required in some cases: https://www.turnitin.com/videos/turnitin-guide-to-paraphrasing

    4. Higher education institutions can make the required technology available to     students so they can self-correct their work even before they submit the same to     the instructors for review. This enables instructors to spend their review time on     providing for qualitative feedback.

    5. Educators play an important role in orienting students to be more accepting     towards failures. Winning is great but not at any cost. Individuals need to     understand that while winning leads to building confidence, losing adds valuable     experience in the journey of life.

 

Educators at every level play a very important role in imbibing the culture of Academic Integrity in students. Failure of the student is a failure of the educator. A country’s GDP has been correlated with per million researchers and for India to generate good research work, it is imperative to start the process of original thinking and writing from a very early age. The number of research papers retracted speaks volumes of the revisions required in the process itself. We need to build a prospective system(as opposed to retrospective) at every institution but to be successful students need to be educated and made aware right from the school days. Media also has a huge role in promoting the general concepts of integrity to our young population. It is critical for the heads of Academia to be appreciative of the value that technology can bring in enhancing the learning process.

The pandemic had both positive and negative impacts in this respect as well. Both students and teachers have been made more aware of the use of technology in education. Educators can design assessments in more creative ways to leverage technology in reaching out and educating masses. While the socio cultural environment plays an important role in shaping our course of action, individual enterprise can help keep the ball rolling even if the system does not provide the required support at the onset. 

2 replies

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    • Sales- Customer Growth
    • Hunny_Agarwal
    • 1 yr ago
    • Reported - view

    Excellent points covered !

    • Chaitali_Sharma
    • 1 yr ago
    • Reported - view

    Fantastic and very relatable. The sooner executed by concerned entities the faster the growth shall be.

Content aside

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