Academic Honesty Policy

Mission Statement:

“To develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring learners who contribute positively to their communities”

Motto

Inquiring minds that grow, authentic hearts that care.

Rationale

The purpose of this academic honesty policy is to emphasize positive practices wherever possible, stressing the importance of respecting the work and the ideas of others while still recognizing the shared benefits of creative and collaborative inquiry.

As students move through the three IB programmes they may face increasing personal, family and peer pressure to achieve and perform. Guiding students to behave with integrity and in a principled manner in the context of academic honesty is in line with the IB learner profile and will hopefully lead to the development of lifelong values and good citizenship.

EL Genesis develops approaches to learning (ATL) skills to guide students on how to collaborate, research, take notes, acknowledge the work and ideas of others and communicate their own original ideas.

Definitions: Academic Honesty and Malpractice

Academic honesty is seen by the IB “as a set of values and skills that promote personal integrity and good practice in teaching, learning, and assessment.” (IB, 2011. pg. 2).

Academic honesty is part of being “principled”, a learner profile attribute where learners strive to “act with integrity and honesty” as we question, inquire and act (IB learner profile in review: Report and recommendation (April 2013), page 21).

There are three concepts that are related to academic honesty:

●  Authenticity – refers to work that is based on the student’s own ideas and which properly acknowledges others’ authorship and ideas. Therefore, in all work (whether written, verbal, visual, or audio-visual) that is submitted by a student, his/her original language and expression must be used. When other sources are used or reference to the work of others is made, whether directly or by paraphrasing, sources must be documented appropriately (IB, 2011. P.2).

Examples of acceptable conventions are: MLA, APA and Harvard

●  Intellectual property – the World Intellectual Property Organization considers intellectual property as the “legal rights which result from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary and artistic fields” (WIPO, 2004). Students must understand that both creative and intellectual forms of expression must be respected and are normally protected by national and international law.

●  Malpractice is considered as the “behaviour that results in, or may result in, the [student] or any other [student] gaining unfair advantage in one or more assessment component.” (IB, 2011. P. 3).

It includes: ：

● Plagiarism – presenting others’ ideas or work as his/her own.

● Collusion* – defined by the IB as occurring when a “student uses fellow learners as an unattributed source” (FPIP, 2014, P. 76), which includes allowing individual work to be copied by another student or any form of promoting malpractice by another student.

● Duplication of work – when the same piece of work is submitted for different      assessment purposes within the program.

● Any behaviour that gives an unfair advantage to the student or that affects the results of another student.

*Collusion should be distinguished from collaboration - that implies “working together on a common aim with shared information, which is an open and cooperative behaviour that does not result in allowing one’s work to be copied or submitted for assessment by another” (FPIP, 2014, P. 76).

Preventing Malpractice by Promoting Best Practice

Academic honesty in the IB is closely connected with the development of teaching and learning skills, especially those that enable students to avoid malpractice. It is essential to consider that prevention of malpractice is primarily done through promoting good practice, which goes beyond just establishing the consequences for this behaviour.

Teachers must practise different research and study skills with students, motivate students to develop their own ideas through problem resolution, comparison, hypothesising, and analysing, as well as, providing opportunities for discussion, inquiry, and creativity.

Expectations:

Students will:

●  take responsibility for their own work  and ensure that their work meets the grade-level expectations for principled learning and academic integrity.

●  communicate information they have gathered in their own words

●  reference sources according to agreed-upon (age-appropriate) bibliographic formats for each grade.

●  use information technology and library resources responsibly.

Teachers will :

●  Implement the school’s academic honesty policy, and support students in identifying good practice   

●  Be role models in academic honesty for students, including citing sources on materials used in class.

●  Confirm that, as far as they know, every accepted piece of work from a student is authentic, including all assessment tasks.

●  With support from the library, help students obtain reliable information from various sources.   

●  Set assignments that do not lend themselves to academic malpractice.

●  Teach ATL skills that encourage principled learning and academic integrity

●  Clearly explain when and how students may collaborate and when they must work alone.   

●  Treat any incident of academic dishonesty fairly and in line with the policy - giving the opportunity to make mistakes and to learn from them.

●  Authenticate student work completed for the Exhibition, Personal Project, Extended Essay, and any externally assessed work.

Parents will :

●  Support students in being principled, through understanding and collaboration.

●  Support the academic honesty policy and promote good practice in students.

●  encourage their child to share project time-lines and to schedule and manage multiple tasks for different classes.

●  allow their child to do their own work, but support them to research and plan their work.

●  maintain good communication with the school to understand what is expected of students.

●  encourage their child to ask a teacher for advice if they are having difficulty with their work.

EL Genesis will :

●  create the academic honesty policy with teachers, promoting good practice and fostering a school environment that motivates the school community to act honestly.

●  guarantee that the school community understands what academic honesty means, communicate clearly what malpractice is, and make students aware of the consequences.

●  develop school wide approaches to learning (ATL) skills that encourage principled learning and academic integrity.   

●  provide professional development for staff on principled learning and academic integrity.   

●  raise parental awareness of school expectations around principled learning and academic integrity.

●  provide a safe environment where students are given the opportunity to make mistakes and to learn from their mistakes.

●  ensure that incidents of academic misconduct are addressed in a fair and consistent manner

●  meet IB requirements with respect to academic honesty.

Consequences + Remediation

Consequences for academic honesty can be found in the parent & student handbook. Likewise, the same can be found in the staff handbook.

Monitoring Academic Honesty

Details of any incidents involving academic honesty will be entered into a student’s record as a reference for deciding further consequences and for providing further education and support.

As students’ progress towards primary, the details of these incidents may increasingly become a matter of public record if/when students transfer to other schools or when students make requests for references applying to post-secondary institutions.

Review Process 

Policies are to be reviewed at the commencement of each academic year involving a team of returning and new teachers under the supervision of respective Principals. And Approved by the Board of Directors.

Created August 2021 by editing our sister school’s policy (SCIS) to better fit our campus.

Edited and approved by the Board of Directors in April 2022.