2nd Asia-Pacific Educational Integrity Conference
Abstract
Homework—is this a project for plagiarism?
Ingrid Kennedy - Central Queensland University
This paper will examine why some students feel they need to plagiarise or to cheat to accomplish homework tasks, or how they inexorably get involved in the plagiarism process. It will be shown that this is due parental influences, to the student’s inability to appreciate the value of referencing and not understanding the value of academic integrity The significance of homework and the reasons why it is necessary must be re-evaluated. The pressures placed on the modern family, the scholar of this century and the types of resources available are in constant flux, continually fuelling the plagiarism and cheating debate. Furthermore, the art of cut or copy and paste is an old one, and not confined to the Internet or computer based projects. This paper will show that if students are allowed to complete tasks in the classroom, they will be taught how to turn cut or copy and paste in to cut or copy, read, paraphrase, paste and cite. This paper in no way intends to undermine the value of homework, but rather emphasises that when projects that are supposed to teach research skills are given as homework, the risk of plagiarism is great. Sound research practices are imperative to instil academic integrity from an early age, thus overcoming plagiarism and cheating to a large extent. This paper primarily examines on the situation in the primary school, where the student experiences researching for projects for the first time.Keywords: homework, project, plagiarism, parents, cut and paste
