Generating knowledge and avoiding plagiarism: Smart information use by secondary students 2006 – 2007
Chief Investigators:
- Dr K. Williamson, Charles Sturt University
- Dr J. McGregor, Charles Sturt University
- Dr. J. Weckert, Charles Sturt University
- Dr Y. Al-Saggaf, Charles Sturt University
- Ms S Boyd, Scotch College.
Funder: Australian Research Council (Linkage grant). Total funding of $136,372 over two years, 2006-2007, including $110,372 from ARC and $26,500 from collaborating organisations.
Collaborating Organisations: Scotch College, Wesley College, Mater Christi College (all in Victoria), Kooringal High School, Wagga Wagga, NSW.
Aims of the Project
• To investigate students’ initial definitions and understandings of plagiarism;
• To explore the link between these understandings and the extent of plagiarism in their assignments;
• To examine students’ attitudes to finding and using information, to learning and process in relation to their understanding, recognition and use of plagiarism;
• To investigate the teachers’ and teacher librarians’ definitions and understandings of plagiarism, in order to develop a consensus about the meaning of the term from a staff viewpoint; and
• To begin the definition of plagiarism based on an ethico-philosophical analysis.
Research Plan
A constructivist philosophical framework is the basis for this research, together with ethnographic method. There are three major components to the approach. The first phase relates to the exploration of initial definitions and understandings. This bench-marking phase is based on the pilot project undertaken by Joy McGregor and Kirsty Williamson in 2004 and reported in a Library and Information Science Research article (McGregor & Williamson 2005) - see full details below. A range of complementary techniques will be used to understand the view points of students and staff regarding information use and plagiarism, in different school settings, and to facilitate the development of a consensus about these issues. They will include observation, interview, written questions and document examination. T he findings from these techniques will be triangulated. The sample will be approximately 20 students from each school, and all of the teaching staff and teacher librarians who will be involved at any time in the project.
The second phase will develop models of teaching, in various subject areas, to encourage students to generate new knowledge and avoid plagiarism. The approach in phase 2 will be based on a cycle of planning, implementing change, observing the results of changes, reflecting on outcomes, and considering further modifications. The schools will collaborate to incorporate what was learned in phase 1 into their teaching practice and will develop a variety of teaching strategies to address the needs identified. The situations will be context specific, dependent on the individual students, the teaching subjects chosen, and the curriculum in place (i.e. Victoria or New South Wales). Thus the way in which each school and teacher approaches and implements innovations in teaching could vary, resulting in many rich components to be include in the phase 3 toolkit. The collaboration with the academic researchers will help the individual schools place their activities within the broader context of the project and will provide triangulation of the observations, enriching the findings.
The sample for phase 2 will involve five classes of approximately 20 students from each of the two larger schools (Scotch College and Wesley) and two each from Kooringal High School and Mater Christi, making a total of 14 classes and teachers, 280 students, and all the teacher librarians who would be working with those classes as part of their normal role. After the teaching strategies have been trialled they will be reviewed, changes will be made, and then the revised strategies will be trialled with new student cohorts in each school.
Phase 2 will be a thoroughly evaluated with teachers, teacher-librarians and students before phase 3 begins.
In the third phase a toolkit will be developed which will include the findings from the project which might be useful to other schools and the wider community, e.g., consensus definitions of plagiarism, as well as the various models that have been found to be helpful in teaching innovative information use. This phase will begin with the analysis of the results of phases 1 and 2 in order to establish the content of the toolkit. After the toolkit is developed it will be tested and evaluated with staff, with adjustments being made according to feedback.
Current Status
This project was piloted in 2003, with the pilot results underpinning the ARC application in 2005. Phase 1 of the project is just beginning, with fieldwork to start in school from May 2006. Two papers have been written on the pilot project:
(1) A journal article was published in Library and Information Science Research.
McGregor, J. & Williamson, K. (2005). ‘Appropriate use of information at the secondary school level: Understanding and avoiding plagiarism’. Library and Information Science Research, Vol. 27, No.4, pp. 496-512.
(2) A working paper has been accepted for the July 2006 Information Seeking in Context Conference. It is titled: "Information Use and Secondary School Students: A Model for Understanding Plagiarism", by K. Williamson & J. McGregor.
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