All entries for Friday 10 September 2004

September 10, 2004

Plagiarism prevention, research based teaching, reading lists and Oxford

Follow-up to The positive reason to care about plagiarism (and why Warwick is great) from Transversality - Robert O'Toole

And we are, of course, not the only institution that cares about this. Yesterday I went to Oxford for a one day conference on reading lists. The division between institutions with a transmissive/instructional approach and those, like Warwick, with a research based approach, was stark. The transmissive/instructional approach sees reading lists as the sole property of the academic and the library. At the start of a course they transmit a list of readings to the students, who consume each book in turn. Within research-based teaching, the reading list is seen as a set of suggestions that must be analysed, extended, critiqued and synthesised by the student. The aim is for them to develop their own reading list, their own bibliography, in the same way as any academic would.

Howard Noble, of the Oxford University Learning Technology Group did a presentation of a project that he is working on to create a generic resource list building tool, to be used by both staff and students. The rationale behind this seems to research based teaching. Interestingly, the LTG have also taken an interest in plagiarism . I have realised that we have much more in common with them, and much less in common with the majority of the UK HE community. I shall develop these links (I have several contacts in the group already).

Also, more on Howard's project when i can find the url!


Robert O'Toole : 10 Sep 2004 08:29 |  Tags:   |  Comments (1) |  Report a problem

The positive reason to care about plagiarism (and why Warwick is great)

Follow-up to Plagiarism, and i'm suddenly worried about my chaotic study skills from Transversality - Robert O'Toole

Have a look at the learning object. It makes it clear that it is OK to quote and rephrase the words and thoughts of others, so long as there is some "added spice" – a critical or analytical addition by the student, just something that they can contribute beyond the original. After all, without that process of addition, critique, analysis, synthesis, and summarization academic work is pointless and goes nowhere.

I suppose the anti-plagiarism movement is driven by the need to ensure that the academic process is worthwhile and does move onwards. What would we prefer, lectures that are simply repetitions, or lectures that are exciting and move things onwards somehow? The movement is particularly strong at Warwick because we value the academic process highly. And this is a key point. We value it more highly than many other institutions.

In trying to define what Warwick is about, we usually focus on something called 'research based teaching'. We oppose this to the approach taken in other institutions that is essentially a 'transmissive/instructional' approach in which students are seen as mere consumers of content. Research based teaching is, roughly, the idea that the academic process of being an undergraduate, a postgraduate and an academic is the same. They all follow the same research process, and as such are expected to analyse, critique, synthesise and extend current knowledge in some way. For everyone, whatever level, to adopt this research process, they must also embrace an anti-plagiarist stance.

Anti-plagiarism is, as such, not a reactionary right wing policy. It an ethic at the heart of a progressive stance.

Returning to our problem, and why we see it as important that we address it, we are starting to recognise that our academic process is not universally understood. We cannot expect students to arrive at Warwick fresh from A-levels or from all points of the globe, with an understanding and acceptance of anti-plagiarism, and the subtle skills that are required for it. So we consider it to be a key skill that we might need to teach and reinforce in a positive way.


Robert O'Toole : 10 Sep 2004 08:12 |  Tags:   |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem