Academic and Professional Development - Assignment Example

? ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Academic and Professional Development Summary The paper tackles the issue plagiarism and how it has raised a great concern in the education system of the United Kingdom in the past decade. The paper also states that one of the major reasons why student plagiarism has increased is the availability of online sources. The paper manages to set up questionnaires that were used to capture accounting students’ attitude towards plagiarism. The questionnaires were administered to accounting students in both undergraduate and post graduate levels. The final results were then analyzed and comparisons were made (Yeo, 2007, p.12). Previous empirical studies have discovered a number of factors that relate to student plagiarism such as environmental factors, demographic variables and moral capability. However, none of the research has ever considered comprehensive factors of plagiarism (Barrett and Cox, 2005, p. 14). Most of the previous studies have often tested linear relationships between constructs instead of constructing the validity of hypothesized models. Considering the collection of data, all the previous studies sampled only undergraduate students and not post graduate students (Bornstein, 2007. p.17). This paper introduces a number of factors that have been left out in the previous empirical studies into a hypothesized model, for instance, accounting education (Bretag and Carapiet, 2007, p.19). The objectives of the paper is to identify factors that influence the plagiaristic behaviors of students, to develop and empirically test a model of factors that influence students plagiaristic behaviors and to make recommendations for accounting educators prevent student plagiarism. The paper has empirically tested and developed a model of factors that influence student plagiarism within the context of accounting education. 2. Analysis The internet is no doubt the major cause of plagiarism amongst students as the paper suggests. There internet has a lot of information that students can access without having to read a lot of books from the library. The internet has been expanding rapidly with information from a number of sources and this has facilitated plagiarism. There has also been the development of a number of online software that is used to detect plagiarism ((Sierles, Hendrickx, and Circle, 1980, p.29). Some of these online software include Turnitin and grammarly.com that are used to detect work that has been plagiarized. Approximately sixty percent of UK institutions use Turnitin to detect work that has been plagiarized. When lectures discover that students have plagiarized their work, they often penalize students. These penalizations are what make students fear plagiarizing their work. Students who intend to gain academic qualifications are expected to reveal appropriate levels of attainment and ability through examinations and coursework. This requires students to produce submissions that meet a certain assignment specification that is marked by a tutor to confirm that the work reaches the required standard. In most institutions, students are required to confirm that the submission is the result of their own work. Plagiarism may also occur when students self-plagiarize their work. Self plagiarism is usually a delicate and complex issue. Some academics argue that self plagiarism may not occur because plagiarism is theft and one cannot steal from himself. The major types of self plagiarism include duplicate and redundant publications, partitioning a larger sturdy into smaller published studies. The paper mentions plagiarism but fails to mention self plagiarism, which is one of the major concerns in academics. Students often plagiarize their previous works because of their laziness or to complete their work faster. The paper reviews nine factors that concern student plagiarism and these factors include demographic variables, cultural influences, institutional support, and new technology, accounting education, pressures, academic integration, awareness and moral capability (Brown, 2007, p.21). The federal regulations on plagiarism do not allow for free pass for just a touch of plagiary. However, they do require a significant departure from accepted practices of the research community. Academic integrity is much more important than simply guaranteeing that students adhere to rules of plagiarism avoidance and test taking. It is linked inextricably to transmitting general ethical values to students. The ethical standards that plague American business, politics and other institutions reflect the disastrous impact of the attrition of integrity in American society. Educators are also concern that students should not plagiarize their work. While most institutions may have the capability of detecting if students have plagiarized their work, some of these institutions have failed to take the issue as a serious concern. This may have been caused by the reluctance of such institutions to take the necessary procedures to detect plagiarized work because such procedures may take time (Pontiac, 2007, p.18). A number of accounting departments in the UK universities have introduced modules that are related to ethics. Some institutions also lack guidance that compromises the student’s academic integrity. It is crucial for academic staff to inform students of expectations of their academic performance. Students’ ambiguous knowledge of plagiarism often makes them accused of plagiarizing even if they had no intent of plagiarizing. With the lack of an understanding of plagiarism, most students often ignore it and are reluctant to pursue its real meaning (Smydra, 2007, p. 24). A number of commentators have suggested that most university students fail to understand what constitutes plagiarism and the penalties that can result from its recognition and how it can be avoided through proper referencing (Wrobbel, 2007, p.19). Another factor that may contribute to student plagiarism is the lack of awareness of plagiarism as a serious academic offence. This is a strong point because students who have not been informed of what plagiarism is may plagiarize their work. Moral capability is an individual’s ability to identify and respond in a moral situation. Kohberg’s (1981) theory of moral development suggests that student’s moral capability relates to their ethical behavior. Accounting students in the United Kingdom reported that one of the main reasons why they do not plagiarize their work is that “it is dishonest and immoral”. This point is not a strong one because while some students may be aware of plagiarism as an immoral or dishonest practice, they still plagiarize their work (DeLuca and Tomkeiwicz, 2007, p.16). Therefore, I do not concur with the author when he mentions this point. Academic integration is how well students fit to the academic environment (Fisher, 2007, p.26). I agree with the author when he says that students who perceive themselves as well integrated are often inclined to have good attitudes towards assessments and learning. Students who are disengaged may often feel bored about a certain program or module to the level where they get alienated from their institutions. One of the four different types of pressures that students undergo includes the pressure to succeed in studies and this may make them plagiarize their work. Students who experience pressures of financial constraints usually spend more of their time in the part part-time jobs and, therefore, may be tempted to plagiarize their work as a shorter means of completing their assignments. Another pressure is students who get financial support from their parents and families (Price, 2006, p.12). These students often get a lot of pressure from their parents to pass their exams and therefore, these students end up plagiarizing their work. There is also another pressure, that is, lack of adequate time to complete their assignments. Students may often have poor time management or peer pressure and these may make them complete their work during the last minute making them plagiarize their work. The UK has varying ways of learning and teaching compared to overseas countries. This cultural difference may explain the misconduct behavior that includes plagiarism amongst overseas students. Overseas students are often caught cheating in their assignments because they have little experience with written assignments (Smydra, 2007, p.7). This is a serious issue amongst Asian students. Overseas students also have ambiguous knowledge of authorship and this often makes them plagiarize their work. Most Asian students often view text as containing general information instead of the views of a certain author. A number of overseas students are also unfamiliar with English language and they have to struggle with its limited command. In this notion, the author implies that cultural differences in the UK and other overseas countries such Asia, is the cause of plagiarism amongst students in the UK (Wan, 2001, p.28). This is partly true and partly false because not all overseas students are unfamiliar with the English language. In fact some overseas students study English language as one of their main subjects in class. Perhaps the reason that the author may have put across was that overseas students plagiarize their work because they may not be familiar with online software that detect plagiarized work. References Barrett, R. and Cox, A. L. (2005). At least they’re learning something: the hazy line between collaboration and collusion,Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 30(2), pp. 107–122. Bennett, R. (2005). Factors associated with student plagiarism in a post-1992 university,Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 30(2), pp. 137–162. Bornstein, J. (2007). Fighting Plagiarism with Humor. Plagiary: Cross?Disciplinary Studies in Plagiarism, Fabrication, and Falsification, 104?109. Bretag, T. and Carapiet, S. (2007). A Preliminary Study to Identify the Extent of Self?Plagiarism in Australian Academic Research. Plagiary: Cross?Disciplinary Studies in Plagiarism, Fabrication, and Falsification, 92?103. Brown, T. (2007). Ward Churchill’s Twelve Excuses for Plagiarism.Plagiary:Cross?Disciplinary Studies in Plagiarism, Fabri?cation, and Falsification, 28?39. DeLuca, G., and Tomkeiwicz, M. (2007). Personalizing the Anti?Plagiarism Campaign. Plagiary: Cross?Disciplinary Studies in Plagiarism, Fabrication, and Falsification, 13?27. Fisher, Colin (2007). Researching and writing a dissertation: A guidebook for business students, FT Prentice Hall Ch 2: writing a critical literature review. Metcalfe, Mike (2006). Reading Critically at University, Sage Publications Ch 1; Using argument to critique. Smydra, R. (2007). Chick Lit’s Re?Packaging of Plagiarism: The Debate Over Chick Lit’s Influence on Authorship and Publishing. Plagiary: Cross?Disciplinary Studies in Plagiarism, Fabrication, and Falsification, 40?51. Pontiac, R. (2007). Paradise of Plagiarism: The Internet, Copyright, and the Mystery of Al?Sha’ar Al?Ghushash. Plagiary: Cross?Disciplinary Studies in Plagiarism, Fabrication, and Falsification, 6?12. Price, A. (2006). Cases of plagiarism handled by the United States Office of Research Integrity 1992?2005. Plagiary: Cross?Disciplnary Studies in Plagiarism, Fabrication, and Falsification, 46?56. Sierles, F., Hendrickx, I. and Circle, S. (1980). Cheating in medical school, Journal of Medical Education, 55(2),pp. 124–125. Wrobbel, E.D. (2007). Ripples in the Pond: The Wide?Spread Effects of a Plagiarism Disaster. Plagiary: Cross?Disciplinary Studies in Plagiarism, Fabrication, and Falsification, 52?56 Wan, G. (2001). The learning experiences of Chinese students in American universities: a cross cultural perspective, College Student Journal, 35(1), pp. 28–45 Yeo, S. (2007). First year science and engineering students’ understanding of plagiarism, Higher Education Research and Development, 26(2), pp. 199–216 Read More