Welcome to This Course!
Teaching Academic Integrity for International Students explores factors that contribute to academic integrity challenges amongst international learners. This course is designed to help educators better understand why plagiarism occurs in this population, adopt new perspectives, and learn effective strategies for overcoming academic integrity problems with an emphasis on honesty and empathy.
Chapter 1 will explore barriers to academic integrity for international students. Cultural, educational, linguistic, economic, and admission influences are outlined and explored. This chapter encourages educators to reflect meaningfully on how and why academic dishonesty occurs so that the root causes can be addressed with effective, informed teaching practices.
Chapter 2 outlines strategies for educators and institutions to improve academic integrity education for international learners. These research-informed approaches yield positive outcomes for both international and domestic students as they strive to grasp the concepts and expectations associated with academic integrity.
This course is extremely helpful for teaching, program and policy development, and challenging deficit thinking. The attitudes of teachers and post-secondary decision makers towards academic integrity can change the course of life for some students. We are glad you have chosen to take this opportunity to learn more about the problem at hand, and how you can make a difference. Good luck!
Welcome to This Course!
Teaching Academic Integrity for International Students explores factors that contribute to academic integrity challenges amongst international learners. This course is designed to help educators better understand why plagiarism occurs in this population, adopt new perspectives, and learn effective strategies for overcoming academic integrity problems with an emphasis on honesty and empathy.
Chapter 1 will explore barriers to academic integrity for international students. Cultural, educational, linguistic, economic, and admission influences are outlined and explored. This chapter encourages educators to reflect meaningfully on how and why academic dishonesty occurs so that the root causes can be addressed with effective, informed teaching practices.
Chapter 2 outlines strategies for educators and institutions to improve academic integrity education for international learners. These research-informed approaches yield positive outcomes for both international and domestic students as they strive to grasp the concepts and expectations associated with academic integrity.
This course is extremely helpful for teaching, program and policy development, and challenging deficit thinking. The attitudes of teachers and post-secondary decision makers towards academic integrity can change the course of life for some students. We are glad you have chosen to take this opportunity to learn more about the problem at hand, and how you can make a difference. Good luck!
Writing Instruction Across the Globe
Educational practices differ between countries. Therefore, international students may be familiar with a different set of expectations than those in the country they are studying in. International students may possess limited knowledge of assessment practices that were not a part of their academic experiences before arriving in a new country. For example, schools in some countries implement testing as the main form of assessment, and rarely require students to write essays (Amsberry, 2009). When studying abroad, these students may have little to no prior instruction in writing or citation to support their success in meeting expectations. Furthermore, due to language and cultural differences, students may not voluntarily access learning support services at their university while studying abroad (Marom, 2022). To support students in understanding educational expectations in a new context, it may be helpful to implement requirements or incentives for students to access helpful resources.
Technology plays an important role in how educational materials are accessed, produced, and cited in the Western world. Educational technologies have not penetrated education systems in many countries (Marom, 2022). This has consequences for students’ media literacy, and understanding of how to appropriately use the internet and other tools while maintaining academic integrity.
Different Attitudes Towards Copying- Deep Learning or Rote Regurgitation?
In different educational contexts, repeating another person’s work may be viewed as valuable for learning, or as a mindless activity that avoids deep learning. Western pedagogies view copying as less meaningful than original thinking. In these settings, a students’ ability to memorize and reproduce information is not accepted as proof that a student understands the material on a deep level. To the contrary, rote memorization is rewarded in some East Asian educational customs. Repetition may be appreciated as a demonstration of a deep understanding of a text (Amsberry, 2009). While Western institutions may focus on inquiry and research, educational systems in countries such as India emphasize memorization (Marom, 2022). Students informed by different educational traditions may be confused by Western policies which punish practices that were rewarded in their prior academic experiences. Balancing original thought with referential practices may also be a confusing expectation for some students (Amsberry, 2009).
