by Jessica Plotner |
Academic Honesty Scenarios
Need to reduce the level of dishonesty in your classroom? The purpose of this activity is to generate discussion about academic honesty with the ultimate goal of reducing plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty. It’s well organized complete with scenarios your students can discuss and decide whether someone is honest or dishonest
Audience: University
Audience Language Proficiency: Beginner
Duration: 30-45 minutes
Materials And Technology:
1. “A Letter to My Students” (1 copy per student)
2. Your school’s Honor Code/Student Conduct Code (1 copy per student)
3. “Anticipation Guide for Academic Honesty Readings” (1 copy per student)
4. “Academic Honesty Scenarios” (1 copy per student or 1 copy cut into strips)
Objective:
- Skill areas: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. This activity can be modified to focus primarily on listening/speaking.
- Goal: To improve small group discussion skills, critical thinking skills, and reflective writing skills and to improve student comprehension of academic honesty principles.
Activity Description: This activity would ideally be introduced at the beginning of a semester to stimulate student discussion of and understanding of principles of academic honesty.
Day 1
Individual Work: Homework
Assign students the following readings for homework:
a. “A Letter to My Students”
b. Your school’s Honor Code/Student Conduct Code
c. “Anticipation Guide for Academic Honesty Readings”
Day 2
Pair Work (7-10 minutes)
a. Place students in pairs or small groups (2-3 students), and have them share their answers from “Anticipation Guide for Academic Honesty Readings.’” Questions the students can discuss are as follows:
i. What were their opinions on academic honesty before they read the letter/Honor Code? Have students explain their reasoning.
ii. What was the author’s opinion on the same topics? Have the students find “proof” in the text that substantiates their interpretation of the author’s attitude.
iii. Did any of their opinions change after reading the text? Why (not)?
iv. (additional question for alternative pre-reading activity): What questions do they still have for the authors?
Class Discussion (5-10 minutes)
a. Select groups and have them briefly share their thoughts/answers with the class.
Small Group Work (7-10 minutes)
a. Place students in small groups (3-5 students per group). Give each student group a copy of “Academic Honesty Scenarios.”
b. Assign each group 2-3 academic honesty scenarios.
i.Give students 5-10 (or more depending on the number of questions) to discuss their scenario(s). Tell students their job is to decide whether the behavior was academically honest or dishonest and to be able to explain why using information from your schools Honor Code/Student Code and from “A Letter to My Students.” You may want to assign the same scenario to more than one group to promote cross-discussion afterwards.
ii. If it was academically dishonest, explain what the student/professor could have done instead to make that behavior academically honest.
Individual Writing Follow-Up (in class or at home)
a. Have each student select one or more academic honesty scenarios that (s)he did not analyze in his/her group. Have the student analyze the scenario on his/her own and write down the answers to the same questions. Encourage students to include and discuss their own views on academic honesty. Ideally, this assignment should be an informal assignment (such as a journal entry) to encourage student reflection on academic honesty.
References:
Blum, S. (2009). Academic integrity and student plagiarism: a question of education, not ethics. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 55(24), Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/Academic-IntegrityStud/32323/
Davis, B.G. (1993). Tools for teaching: preventing academic dishonesty. Retrieved from http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/prevent.html
Plotner, J.R. (2009 November). Preventing plagiarism: A crash course in academic honesty. Presented at CATESOL LA Regional Conference, Los Angeles, California.
Taylor, B. Integrity: academic and political: a letter to my students. Des Plaines, IL: Oakton Community College.
Useful Link:
Your local/school librarian
Your Honor Code/Judicial Affairs Office
Supporting Files:
Academic Honesty Scenarios 1.pdf
Academic Honesty Scenarios 2.pdf
Academic Honesty Scenarios 3.pdf
Academic Honesty Scenarios 4.pdf
TESOL Interest Section: Higher Education