{"id":477,"date":"2016-05-27T17:59:54","date_gmt":"2016-05-28T03:59:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/eli\/?page_id=477"},"modified":"2022-07-05T15:47:54","modified_gmt":"2022-07-06T01:47:54","slug":"tips-for-instructors","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/eli\/tips-for-instructors\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips for Instructors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recommendations for instructors<\/strong><\/h1>\n

NOTE: We also encourage instructors and administrators to read the Tips for Students section of this site, to be familiar with the strategies and suggestions we are recommending to students.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cLearning a skill requires, in addition to input, opportunities to practice, feedback on performance, and fresh opportunities to practice in the light of the feedback\u201d (Pecorari, 2013, p. 77)<\/p>\n

This section follows a philosophy that assumes teachers want to take an active role in helping students develop as academic writers and scholars, that taking a pedagogical approach to dealing with plagiarism and incorporation of sources can be liberating for both teachers and students, and that taking a pedagogical approach will provide teachers with a deeper understanding of students as apprentice scholars and how to more effectively support their academic development.<\/p>\n

It also emphasizes that students\u2019 development as academic scholars is an ongoing evolution, and thus, no single course can turn students into expert writers. However, each course where it is pedagogically addressed can add to students\u2019 awareness and development as apprenticing scholars.<\/p>\n

A pedagogical approach recognizes that every course has a packed syllabus with a lot of content to cover, and it can be tempting (and easy) merely to tell students we expect them to incorporate and cite their sources correctly. While this forewarns the students that we take plagiarism seriously, it doesn’t provide them with guidance and help in their development as scholars and academic writers. Deeper learning of what it means to be a scholar can best be supported when projects are broken down into steps that provide students with a window into the processes involved in scholarly writing, as well as feedback and support as students tackle each of these steps. (See https:\/\/www.miamioh.edu\/hcwe\/hwac\/teaching-support\/resources-for-teaching-writing\/assignment-design\/scaffolding-assignments\/index.html<\/a> for an excellent overview of scaffolding assignments and projects.)<\/p>\n

Even if your course syllabus doesn\u2019t allow much class time to take a detailed process approach to helping students work on their academic writing, it still may be possible to incorporate some of the tips into your project design and the kinds of feedback you provide to students. And perhaps even more importantly, the tips on how to take a pedagogical approach to addressing instances of plagiarism can be helpful if and when they occur.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how the tips for teachers are organized:<\/p>\n

A. Tips for designing projects that reduce the likelihood of plagiarism and raise students\u2019 awareness of scholarly writing<\/p>\n

B & C are Tips for supporting students\u2019 growth as academic writers<\/p>\n

B. Tips for helping students to read source texts, understand what they are reading, and take notes in ways that support citation (i.e., avoiding plagiarism)<\/p>\n

C. Tips for raising students\u2019 awareness about incorporating sources into their academic writing and about plagiarism, and providing contextualized practice with incorporating source materials into their own writing<\/p>\n

D. Tips for taking (and maintaining) a pedagogical approach\/focus when addressing instances of plagiarism (both patchwriting and other forms of plagiarized work)<\/p>\n

E. Tips for how to do all this and still protect your own time<\/p>\n

A. Tips for Designing Projects that Reduce the Likelihood of Plagiarism and Raise Students\u2019 Awareness of Scholarly Writing<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

A1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Allow (or even require) students to find artifacts or ideas that were originated by someone else, but require tweaking and\/or combining ideas from sources to fit specific purposes or situations that are relevant in the field (Freedman, 2004). For example, Freedman mentions an assignment where his students (future public school teachers in an Education program) find an existing lesson plan, and then revise it to an inquiry-based approach, or change a teacher-centered plan to one that is more student-centered, add an assessment component, etc.<\/p>\n

A2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Divide a project into steps that are part of the scholarly writing process, which can include brainstorming topics of interest; developing and revising research questions; creating annotated bibliographies with a written project in mind (not just a summary of each source, but also student responses and notes about what ideas from the source might be relevant for writing their paper); and providing peer feedback guided by prompts from the teacher (Ortega, personal communication; Carrick, 2006). (Note that this can work very well when combined with sharing your own experiences and processes as an experienced scholar.)<\/p>\n

A3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Assign collaborative projects (Angelil-Carter, 2000) that encourage students to take an informed approach to negotiating understanding of source materials, double-checking that their note-taking practices don\u2019t involve accidental plagiarism (and thus, promote good citation practices), discussing how to incorporate ideas from sources into their paper, working together to paraphrase, summarize, or quote sources, and working together to do their own \u201cplagiarism check\u201d before turning in the final paper.<\/p>\n

A4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Design projects where students personalize the topic, and take ownership of the research they are doing. When students personalize their topic, they typically have far less difficulty in expressing themselves clearly and with fluency. In contrast, when the assignment is stringently dictated, allowing little or no student control over content, and is distant from what the student may find meaningful, there is little ownership and it is much more likely that students will feel that the only way they can complete the assignment is to copy and regurgitate back what they think the teacher wants to see.<\/p>\n

A5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Johnson (2004) lists qualities of \u201cLow Probability of Plagiarism\u201d (LPP) projects (some of which blend into the tips mentioned above):<\/p>\n