Fostering Academic Integrity

A Faculty Development Workshop for

The Greater Kansas City Area Collegiate Nurse Educators

Michele Eodice, Ph.D.

Academic Integrity: The nature of the problem

• Let’s articulate our concerns and goals• Let’s discuss the current climate

regarding “integrity” in our culture

Public perception or popular practice?

• The Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University reports that 75 percent of students on most college campuses admit some cheating. A recent nationwide survey of 8,600 high school students by the Josephson Institute of Ethics found 71 percent admitted cheating on exams.Oakton Professor Battles Notion that Cheating is Just Study Tool

By J. Linn Allen Tribune Higher Education Writer

December 3, 2000

"The results of 10,000 crucial internships-admission tests given graduates of foreign medical schools have been thrown out because an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 test-takers, many of them Americans, bought or saw the answers, Medical officials called it the largest such cheating scandal in recent history."  

"Foreign Medical Grads Face Retest in Cheating Scandal"

October 8, 1983 Washington Post, (p.A10).

A crisis in medical education?

“One study demonstrates that cheating is extremely frequent (87.6 percent) among premedical students. Although the frequency of medical school cheating (58.2 percent) is significantly lower... the majority of students continue to cheat in medical school. The most disturbing finding was the positive correlation between cheating in school and cheating in patient care. There was a continuum from cheating in college, to cheating in medical school didactic areas, to cheating in clerkships in patient care."   Sierles, Hendrickx and Circle, "Cheating in Medical School" Journal of Medical Education, v.55 February 1980, pp. 124-125.

A voice from within

“Cheating in an English exam is one thing; it is still wrong, but no one's health will suffer as a result. Cheating in medicine means gambling with people's lives. We have a responsibility to our patients to have a good and thorough understanding of medicine. To achieve this we must pass the exams through studying the knowledge, not copying or learning the answers beforehand. It is not only the medical schools that need to clamp down on cheating but the students themselves. If cheating were frowned on by peers it would have a much greater impact. From my experience, however, students prefer to turn a blind eye rather than confront the issue.”

Gillian Mackay, final year medical studentRoyal Free and University College London Medical School

Let’s vent

The problem impacts us

• Faculty attitudes• Lawsuits• Time commitment• Privacy policy• Collaboration

Steps & approaches

• Develop an informed position• Develop appeals that work in context• Invite student involvement

Steps & approaches: Your position

• Move toward a pedagogical position, rather than a punitive position

Steps & approaches: Appeals

“A midshipman does not lie, cheat, or steal, nor tolerate those who do."

A student will not cheat (including plagiarism) nor tolerate those who do. A student will not steal nor tolerate those who do. A student will not lie nor tolerate those who do. A student will report immediately all violations of the Honor Code, which come under his or her observation; failure to do so shall be a violation of the Honor Code. A student found to have violated the Honor Code should be subject to disciplinary action including dismissal from the University.

Steps & approaches: Student involvement

Your PROFITS Initiative

Each student will sign the following honor pledge during new student orientation. Failure to sign the pledge does not release a student from accountability. The pledge will appear in each nursing course syllabus as a reminder.

"I pledge that I will not give, receive, or tolerate unauthorized aid, nor will I abuse academic resources while I am a member of this academic community." 

Conceptions of Plagiarism

•Write your brief definition of plagiarism on the index card

•Let’s hear your definitions

Plagiarism, as defined by the Little, Brown Essential Handbook for Writers, 3rd edition, is "the presentation of someone else's ideas or words as your own.

A confusing concept

• Challenges our cultural work ethic• Challenges our view of the rugged

individual • Provides no grey area for exploration• How can begin to think of plagiarism as

range of activities?

Lack of experience or knowledge

Accidental plagiarism is "forgetting to place quotation marks around other writer’s words, omitting a source citation because you're not aware of the need for it, or carelessly copying a source when you mean to paraphrase."

(Aaron 133)

Fraud

Deliberate plagiarism is "copying a sentence from a source and passing it off as your own and, summarizing someone else's ideas without acknowledging your debt, or buying a term paper and handing it in as your own." (Aaron 133)

Web Resources

• NCTE Solutions Site• KU Writing Center• Turnitin.com• A PowerPoint for students designed by Te

xas Woman’s University