Discuss the factors that influence
plagiarism in assessment
Denise Ennis
Section I
In assessment there are many unforeseen
consequences that
occur in Higher Education, one of the major factors being plagiarism.
There have been many
debates on plagiarism and various research methods carried out to
investigate the
reasons why students plagiarise and the factors that influence these
reasons. There are many
unintended consequences of assessment despite the best planning, for
example the more
work you give students, the more likely shortcuts will be taken.
Plagiarism in Higher
Education institutions has increased rapidly in the last decade. The
growing use of the internet
with prepared essays online has provided students with the resources to
cheat on their
assignments; copying and pasting quotes from the internet and using
sources as their own
work. Firstly, to understand plagiarism itself we have to consider the
various
definitions of this term, Sheard, Markham & Dick carried out a
study investigating differences in
cheating and define the behaviour saying “if it violates the rules that
have been set for an
assessment task or it violates the accepted standard of student
behaviour at the
institution" (Sheard, J .2003). Whilst on the other
hand, a
University student cited in Ashworth, P. (2003) defines plagiarism as
being "copying significant amounts from a published source;
not referencing it, and passing it off as one’s own"(Ashworth 2003). lt
seems interesting that
plagiarism can also be copying another student’s work in Sheard,
Markham & Dicks definition
yet, in the previous term of the word plagiarism made by the student,
it is not mentioned. This
shows a lack of understanding of the term plagiarism and this will be
discussed later in this
essay.
It seems difficult to define plagiarism as it
is difficult
to define cheating from one institution to another as course assessment
regimes will differ from one
course to another. Maline 1993 relates to this viewpoint by saying,
“The difficulty of
clearly defining cheating is exacerbated by differences across
institutions and across disciplines of
study" (Maline cited in Sheard, PQ Markham & Martin 2003:92).
From looking at different
definitions of the term
"plagiarism" the meaning of this word seems to be a grey area and the
term does not have just one
definition alone. Universities appear to be very focused on the rules
and regulations of plagiarism
but do not look beyond the factors that influence these behaviours in
assessment. With the
growing use of sources from the internet it is very tempting for a
student to cheat, for
example, a good student could prepare their essay months in advance
whilst another could produce
an essay within a matter of hours off the internet. lf both pieces of
work were handed in and
received the same mark it would seem unfair and demoralising for the
student that spent
months on their own original work. To understand the growing
realisation of plagiarism I would
suggest that one would have to understand the reasons why students are
cheating rather than
focusing all the attention on the regulations of plagiarism.
ln this essay l will be analysing
other theorist’s points of
view and research that look at reasons why students cheat in
assessment. l will be giving a
detailed account of the varied research results that have identified
the reasons why
students cheat in Higher Education, relating this to my own experiences
in section two.
After all, are the students even
aware of what plagiarism
means in Higher Education? Arguably a student could be cheating in work
without prior
knowledge; a student could genuinely not reference other sources of
work through the
lack of knowledge of plagiarism and experience of essay writing.
Ashworth, Freewood, &
Macdonald carried out a study on the lifeworld
of a
student and the meanings of plagiarism and strongly believe that it is
through a student’s lack of knowledge that plagiarism
occurs. The study investigates three students’ perceptions of what
plagiarism means and concluded
in the research that there are very different explanations. lt blames
the University for
features of the assessment regime saying that there has been inadequate
guidance on the
regulations concerning cheating and plagiarism. According to Ashworth,
Freewood & Macdonald "Ensuring students understand plagiarism must
be
regarded therefore as an enculturation task. For students to fully
appreciate what plagiarism is and why
it will be punished they need to possess not just a clear understanding
of what constitutes
plagiarism, or the skills needed to avoid it, but also to understand
why it is imbued with its
particular status.” (Ashworth, Freewood & Macdonald 2003:261)
It is clear from
the research carried out that there is a
lack of knowledge about the term plagiarism and this can only be
addressed through educating
students at the beginning of the the course they are undertaking. I
would suggest that the
expectations of a student in assessment cannot be taken for granted if
they have not been taught the
expectations, i.e. what academics would refer to as cheating. Ashworth,
Freewood &
Macdonald study shows that one of the student’s main concerns was that
student’s use of the
internet was increasing the likelihood of plagiarism due to the
possibility that students are unskilled
in referencing. (Ashworth Freewood & Macdonald 2003:270). This
simply shows that
there are underlying reasons behind plagiarism, the student suggests
that there is a lack
of knowledge on how to reference.
Another study carried out by
Norton, L. S & Tilley, J,
(2001) looked at the pressures of assessment in undergraduate courses
and their effect on
student behaviours. They suggest that students are driven by assessment
and not learning in Higher
Education by using "rules of the game". The study found that students
would use a
widespread of essay tactics and cheating regimes and showed that these
two types of behaviour linked
together, (Norton & Tilley 2001: 269) The study
suggested that students may be picking up hidden
messages that operate in higher education and use these to be strategic
in
their approach to essays and exams. The researchfound
that students would use the "rules of the
game" and cheating behaviours to receive abetter grade in their essays.
The main tactics used in the
"rules of the game" were; choosingthe
easiest title to get a higher mark, including
information not covered in lectures/obscure references and using up to
date contradictory references.
(Norton & Tilley 2001: 269) Norton and Tilley’s study showed that
the students are
driven by assessment instead of the experience of learning. The "rules
of the game" in
the study linked with the concern of failure for the student. I
suppose it could be said that students
are making desperate attempts to impress the lecturers using a variety
of tactics such as
cheating because they lack confidence in their ability to produce
sufficient work. I think there must be a
lack of knowledge for the student to look
for
other answers elsewhere. The worry of failure could influence
anyone to plagiarise in their work in this case. It strongly
suggests
that there are underlying reasons why students have a fear of failing,
their confidence in
achieving could be low due to the quality of learning in Higher
Education.
Brown (1997) relates to this
conclusion of poor quality of
learning in education in reviewing the literature on the effects
of assessment on student
learning, concluding that much of the traditional type of assessment
carried out in Higher
Education promotes poor quality learning and a surface approach (Brown
cited in Norton & Tilley).
Yet in the Higher Education institutions the assessment criteria are of
a deep approach
when preparing for essays and exams. So how come academic teaching is
based on a surface approach
such as reading from lectures notes, giving key facts and figures? lt
would seem
more practical to encourage a deep approach in lectures giving students
the opportunity to
discuss research methods and analyse different viewpoints. Boud (1990)
in commenting on
traditional assessment in Higher Education, has argued that lecturers
often assess students
on easily assessable matters such as memorisation of large bodies or
factual material (a surface
approach) rather than on how students use, interpret or criticise that
material to do
something further with it (a deep approach). Boud (1990) cited in
Norton & Tilley (2001). From reflecting upon the approaches used in
Higher Education
teaching in comparison with ~ the assessment criteria it would seem
contradictory to
assess students on deep learning styles when they are taught the
surface approach through
university. I feel this could influence a student to have cheating
behaviours as they are not taught
the skills of deep leaning in university.
A further study looked at the
behaviours of undergraduate
students in comparison to graduate students. Sheard, Markham & Dick
carried out a study
based within a school of computer science and Engineering in Monash
University, The main aim
of this study was to find out if graduate students had different
attitudes to cheating in
comparison with undergraduates. It looked at the relationship between
maturity motivation. The
results identified that the three main reasons given by undergraduate
students for cheating
was not enough time, too great a orkload at university and feeling that
they would fail
otherwise. lt appeared that there were lower levels of cheating in the
graduate courses and
generally mature students had more motivation to learn. Richardson
(1994) supports this in his
own study as he found that mature students typically show higher levels
of intrinsic motivation
for taking a course. Richardson cited in Sheard, J. Markham, S
& Dick, M (2001:105). It
would seem that mature students have developed a stage in their life
where they are more
experienced in terms of responsibilities and would take more time on
their work to
achieve a better grade rather than cheating.
In contrast to the previous
studies that have been
discussed, a study by Hard Conway & Moran argues that the student’s
beliefs in the behaviour of
their peers can influence misconduct such as plagiarism and cheating,
whilst the
academic beliefs about students misconduct can influence efforts to
prevent and challenge
misconduct. (Hard, Conway & Moran 2006). Throughout the research
the top results
indicated that student peers influenced them to copy from each other’s
paper or they received
unauthorised aid from another person in exams, prepared work for
another student to submit for
academic evaluation and worked with another student on material that
had not been
authorised by the instructor to work together. According to Whitley
(1998) 16 studies were
reviewed and concluded that there was a strong association between
beliefs about the frequency
of peer academic misconductand a
student’s own misconduct. This finding is consistent
with the beliefs about alcohol usewith
the idea that overestimating peers misconduct can
increase a student’s own misconduct. (Cited
in Hard, Conway& Moran 2006.
The study made by Hard, Conway
& Moran also shows that
the accuracy of this belief has received less attention with the
results not being
consistent. I think it is hard to pin point this belief that student’s
peers influence them to cheat. Again
as mentioned earlier in the essay, there needs to be more focus
on the reasons why the students
would want to receive help from their peers.
Section 2
After discussing other
theoretical views and debates on
the factors that influence plagiarism I am now going to reflect upon
some of the main incidents in
Higher Education that have arisen from my own learning experience . Of
course there are
numerous factors that could cause an individual to plagiarise, however,
as student
myself who has had the experience in plagiarism, I feel the following
factors are important; lack
of knowledge on writing essays, teaching styles in Higher Education and
social factors. As a
student leaving college to enter my first year of university in
Business Studies, I
encountered many difficulties, these were firstly writing essays. At
school and college the assessment
was very much exams, presentations and essays. As a result, I had never
been
taught the skill of relating my theory to another theorist, quoting
another person’s viewpoint that
relates to the discussion in an essay. This had a major influence on my
perception of the
assessment criteria of Higher Education. This had not been taught all
throughout my
leaming experience and yet I was expected to know how to reference when
entering university.
This caused an enormous of amount of pressure on my work, my first two
essays
received a fail for lack of "deep learning and under-referencing” There
was no advice given from the
lecturers but to retake the assignments the following summer. According
to Laurillard,
teachers in university do not recognise this reoccurring problem; that
students do not
transfer their knowledge across different settings such as school
and college. She also
questions whether learning at university is different from learning at
school, or learning
outside formal education. . Laurillard supports my viewpoint that there
is not enough
guidance on applying theory to practice saying; "Students often find it
difficult to
relate theory to practice, that knowledge does not seem to be
context-dependent" (Laurillard
2005:13). At University I found that I was not alone in having
difficulties with applying theory to
practice, but a number of my peers were experiencing the same problem
on other courses.
Others were copying and pasting from internet websites and talking
about this to
other students. As the word spread across the campus I felt that
the only way forward
to pass these essays was to do the same. You could say that my
peers played an important
factor in my decision to consider plagiarism, although the lack of
understanding in the
expectations and method of writing essays also brought me to that
point of copying from the
internet like my peers at University. I strongly believe that other
students also found writing
essays difficult, which lead them to look for an answer elsewhere; the
internet, When receiving
my plagiarised essay back from the teacher I had been given a mark of
55%, I was amazed by
this, the teacher had no idea or clue that I had quite literally copied
and pasted an essay
from the internet on the same topic. I was
happy to receive
a pass grade for the first time in the course I was undertaking.
Another factor which has proved a
problem in Higher
Education was the lack of support received from teaching styles. They
were very much the
opposite from school and college. No extra help was given as the
students were expected to
work independently with lecturers just facilitating the course
subject. The question is why does the
teaching style suddenly change in Higher Education? Surely there should
be a gradual
process throughout schooling where students are prepared for this
independent style of
learning in University? The style of teaching and learning in Higher
Education is a complete
contrast to school and college in my experience. Lectures and seminars
were held in huge theatre
style rooms with a seating capacity of 500, the lecturer would stand
with a small
microphone at the front reading power point slides, students would be
endlessly writing lecture
notes. There was no engagement or interaction with the task itself The
learning, for me at
least, was minimal. Ramsden, (1992) talks about the importance of
learning saying “The aim of
teaching is simple: It is to make student learning possible" (Cited in
Laurillard
2005:11). As a student learning styles are very different, Entwhistle
and Ramsdon (1983) carried out
research on students and made observations on how they approached their
assignments, they
produced questionnaires and inventories (e. g. Assist) to carry out
their investigation.
They found that students had different approaches to learning,
these were deep, surface
and strategic learning styles. This is an example that shows from their
research that that there
are very different ways in which people learn, yet in my first lecture
in Business Studies
the teaching style did not vary to fit the needs of the students
learning. Laurillard talks about the teaching given by university
academics saying;
“There
is no professional
training requirement for university academics in terms of their
teaching competence, as
there is for school teaching. Possibly for this reason,there is
comparatively little
research on student learning at university level. If you believe that
teaching is about
imparting knowledge, then the main requirement of the lecturer would be
the possession
of that knowledge. For some time, this has been the prevailing view of
university
teaching, and therefore academics are appointed on thebasis of their
qualifications in
subject matter knowledge”’.
(Laurillard 2005:12)
This would probably suggest that
this is the reason why the
schooling system differs to Higher Education, as
there is no emphasise or requirement to have professional teacher
training at university as there is in school and college.
Therefore this would have an impacton the style of teaching at
university.
Lastly, the other factor that I
feel influenced plagiarism
in my work was the age I commenced Higher Education, 18. At this age I
was very irresponsible
with little determination to succeed in the course I was taking. My
main concerns were the social
and emotional factors such as going out every weekend, relationships
and interacting with
my peers. This had an influence on the way I perceived my essays and
exams, and with little
enthusiasm for learning, I took risks
copying from
the internet to meet last minute deadlines to hand my essays in. Due to
the social aspects of my life taking a high importance, I spent
little time working on essays and produced them hours before they had
to be handed in. This
links well with the previous factor I have discussed as I feel that had
I been engaged in the
lectures, and had knowledge about writing essays, then I may have been
more confident in
producing work regardless of the social factor. I suppose you could
argue that throughout
school and college there were always social influences that affected
me, however I was still
engaged in school and college and did well in assessment. As a result I
am not convinced that
social factors had a detrimental effect on my studies.
I am now in my second year at the
age of 23, and have
reached the stage where I am comfortable and confident in writing
essays and preparing
for exams. This could be down to the fact that I am more mature now and
much more willing to
take responsibility for my own learning. After starting the
Business Studies course and
quitting after the first term and testing other courses, I am now at
stage where I am
enthusiastic about my work. This could be down to a nunber of reasons;
the fact that I have
received support from study skills in the university, and that
the teaching styles on this particular
course are more varied and the fact I have one to one learning with
smaller groups. After I have
finished lectures I walk away with new knowledge and a good idea of the
teacher’s expectations.
I suppose you could say thatthis is
because I am more mature, or because the teaching
styles differ from course to course or because I am simply interested
in the course and would be
less likely to cheat or plagiarise in my work.
From looking at different debates
on the reasons why
students plagiarise I have reached my own perspective on whether this
fits in with my own
experience or not. Ashworth, Freewood, & Macdonald study
demonstrates that there is a clear
lack of awareness of the term plagiarism in Higher Education. I
think this is an important
factor to consider when finding out the reasons for plagiarism. This
supports my view that
there is a lack of guidance on essay writing and the expectations of
deep learning that
academics expect. When entering University there was not a lecture or
seminar on Harvard
referencing, it seems difficult to understand why there are not strict
guidelines on this
matter from the start. After all if cheating in University has
increased so much in the last
decade and is a major growing problem in Universities, why has there
not been any action
to resolve these issues? According to Hard, Conway & Moran study it
states that faculty’s
believe that it is a student’s misconduct that influences plagiarism
and cheating. I think
it is easier to suggest that students’ misconduct influenced by their
peers can cause
consequences such as plagiarism. From looking at this study I disagree
with peers at
University having an influence on student’s
behaviours of cheating. I feel this study does not
address the other factors that are important when considering cheating
behaviour. Of course for
some individuals there may be an element of peer influence but I feel
this does not have a
widespread influence on studentsplagiarising.
I think the characteristic of a person
influenced by their peers would havealready
been influenced in education before university, I
suggest this would have an effect on their studies such as examinations
in school and if they
were influenced by their peers their results would not of been very
good. To be accepted
into University students have completed A levels or equivalent to score
enough points to
be entered upon a course.
Generally these students are
enthusiastic in their learning
to apply for university in the first place having done previous A
levels, so why would peers have
a detrimental effect on plagiarism. I think it’s the lack of
understanding in the
assessment that needs to be addressed not the misconduct of peers
that influence cheating.
Sheard, Markham & Dick’s
study found that the main
reasons for students cheating were time pressure, too much work and the
concern of failure.
Whilst these reasons fit well with my experience they do not grasp the
underlying reasons. Time
pressure and the worry of failure could relate to the fact that a
student has a lack
of understanding and confidence of what they are expected to do in
their work, which leads them
to leave it to the last minute and look for ways to cheat. I strongly
agree with the study that
suggests that mature students are less likely to plagiarise, being
older and wiser myself I
have taken more responsibility for my own learning. Brown (1997) also
supports my argument that
there is poor quality learning in Universities with most lecturers
using a surface approach in
teaching. The surface approach in lectures does not encourage students
to take a ‘deep
approach’ in their learning, this would suggest that the teaching
styles could be to blame when it
comes to students plagiarising.
Norton & Tilley (2001) study
shows that students are
using desperate attempts to receive higher marks by using "the rules of
the game",
again I feel these tactics are being used because students are
unconfident in producing work and use
these extreme measures to pass.
To conclude I think there needs
to be further research on
the reasons why students plagiarise, there needs to be more
attention drawn to the Higher
Education system and how it operates to give students a complete
learning experience rather than
blame the students for misconduct such as cheating. I would suggest
that there should be
research on the first essay a student hands in at the start of
university. I think that this would
show adequate evidence of the lack of knowledge and support a
student has when they enter
University which supports my view in the lack of knowledge students
have at the start of their
course. Further research could be done such as analysing the
first l00 essays and examining the
differences between them, or lack of them, This would show whether they
correlate with
each other, Being the first essay this will show whether students have
poor skills in writing
essays and relating theory to method. Another research method that
could be carried out
would be to educate students on the expectations of assessment and
guidance of plagiarism
and see Whether they receive higher marks as a result of their own work
and less
plagiarism is encountered
Reference List
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Laurillard, D. (2005) Rethinking University Teaching.
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Norton, L. S. Tilley, A.J.
Newstead, S.E. &
Franklyn-Stokes, A. (2001). The Pressures of Assessment in
Undergraduate Courses and their effect on
Student Behaviours. Assessment
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Ashworth, P, Freewood, M. &
Macdonald, R. (2003). The
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University. Journal
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Development. Vol. 22, No, 1.
Pg No. 92 -108.
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