Monday, July 29, 2013
Plagiarism/Copying in Math and Science
I realize that this may be more of a vent than a complete blog, but I have in my last teaching position, suspected that a student had come across the solution/answer key. Although some questions were mathematical and if calculated correctly, you would have the same steps, but the layout, and wording of therefore statements, and questions that were comprehension were word for word from the answer key. I emailed the student and said that this looks very familiar, and asked if they had found this online. They admitted to googling and finding the answer key. I gave a zero on this assignment, but I feel that a zero, although is a warning, isn't enough in regards to this. I really have a hard time with Math and Science with this, as students work in partners and hand in the exact same work, which is fine, but it's difficult to allot any marks for students who spend their time googling hoping to find an answer key instead of trying to do the work. Have any of you had situations like this? How did you go about confronting the situation?
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Hey Meagan,
ReplyDeleteThat is a very diffcult situation to be in. I would do a similar thing in this situation. however, I am curious if you gave the student another chance to just show their work and their understanding of the topic. I feel it is very hard in math to understand if someone has cheated. I think the only way you can figure this out is if the students make the same mistakes as well.
From our research videos that we watched for discussion 15 (Research that challenges our beliefs) I remember that Damion Cooper said that the only time he gives a zero is when something is plagiarized. He also said that it is coupled with another opportunity to do a different assessment of the same expectation. Although this seems to be more work and almost disciplining us as the teacher due to this more work, I think it is fair. I worked with colleagues who have given students a chance to redo the same work, (depending on how big the assignment was) in the presence of the teacher so that the teacher can watch them do the work. Again another time consuming solution. Hope this helps!
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