Academic Honesty Policy

ISA International Education Group Policy Statements

Scope

At ISA we believe that honesty is a virtue and that all members have an obligation to treat the work and ideas of others with integrity. Towards this end, ISA commits itself to educating its community on what academic honesty is, how to be academically honest and how to take responsibility for the representation of their own, and others’, ideas. This policy is to be understood, implemented, and practiced by ISA school leaders, curriculum coordinators, teachers, students, and parents.

The spirit of this policy is wholly aligned with ISA’s commitment to positive relationships. As such, teachers should use their discretion when implementing this policy and reserve its use for significant infringements. Minor instances should be regarded as 'teachable moments' and teachers should feel free to exercise their professional judgment in dealing with minor and/or unintentional instances of academic honesty infringements.

Philosophy

ISA is committed to academic honesty and will continually strive to ensure that students, their families, and staff understand what responsibilities this commitment embraces. The purpose of this policy is to outline what academic honesty means and the procedural responses to instances of academic dishonesty.

Implementation Expectations

Implementation of this policy expresses responsibility for the teaching and preparation of work that is submitted for assessment, both internally for in-school assessment tasks and externally for all work submitted to the IB for assessment. This includes administration of examinations.

The expectations of academic integrity (honesty) are clearly communicated and modelled at age-appropriate levels by school leaders and teachers so that all students understand what is expected of them when completing academic work submitted for assessment.

ISA Wuhan International School Policy Statements

Academic honesty refers to a set of values and skills which promote correct conduct in relation to examinations, give full acknowledgement of the original authorship of creative materials, lead to the production of authentic pieces of work and protect all forms of intellectual property.

Academic dishonesty is defined as behaviour, whether deliberate or inadvertent, that results in or may result in the student or any other student gaining an unfair advantage in their work. The IB defines malpractice within four broad categories.

• Plagiarism: this is defined as the representation, intentionally or unwittingly, of the ideas, words, or work of another person without proper, clear, and explicit acknowledgment.
• Collusion: defined as supporting malpractice by another candidate, as in allowing one’s work to be copied or submitted for assessment by another
• Duplication of work: defined as the presentation of the same work for different assessment components and/or IB requirements. (Source: Academic Honesty, (2009,2011), IBO Geneva, Switzerland)
• Misconduct during an examination: Malpractice includes any other behaviour that gains an unfair advantage for a student or that affects the results of another student.

Examples

Plagiarism

• Copying from a source without proper proper citation.
• Using someone else’s ideas or work (e.g. images, diagrams etc.) without giving credit.

Collusion

• Letting someone copy your work or using someone else’s work as your own.

Duplication of work

• Submitting the same work same work to satisfy different IB programme requirements.

Misconduct during exam

• Using unauthorized materials during exam.

In addition to these, any other practice considered to lead to an unfair advantage for a student may be considered as academic dishonesty.

Students are expected to produce original work and properly acknowledge sources to avoid plagiarism, which respects the intellectual property rights of others. By upholding academic honesty, students demonstrate a commitment to authentic authorship, ensuring that their contributions are genuine and properly attributed.

Responsibility of the school

• Make it clear what constitutes academic honesty and communicate to the school community.
• The foundation for Academic Honesty will be laid in the Early Years.
• All Primary and Secondary School students will be introduced to the Academic Honesty Policy and guided in its application.
• Clearly inform students how academic dishonesty will be investigated, and what the consequences are if found guilty.

Responsibilities of each student

• Early Years students will work independently on certain projects and will actively reflect on their own work by comparing it to other children’s work. Students will treat library materials with respect.
• Ensure all work submitted for assessment is authentic and follows academic honesty guidelines.
• Submit work through turnitin.com as requested.
• Secondary School students are to sign the appropriate area of their subject coversheet to indicate that assessed work is authentic.
• If malpractice is suspected, to prove that all pieces of work are his/her own and have not been plagiarized.

Students should recognize that they are ultimately responsible for their own work and that the consequences of any breaches of the standard of academic honesty will be theirs alone. They should speak to teachers regularly about their work and show drafts of it at various stages in the production process.

They should ask teachers for advice if they are at any time unsure of what they have done in relation to referencing sources.

Responsibility of each teacher

• Teachers in the Early Years will teach students about the difference between fiction and non-fiction, that books have authors and that authors have an intention with their work.
• Teachers must actively use correct citing conventions when providing materials to students.
• Set clear expectations for assessments and provide guidance on correct use of sources.
• Use turnitin.com for all assessed written work in Grades 6 to 12
• If academic dishonesty is suspected teachers must discuss with student and give one opportunity for resubmission for assessment.

Responsibility of parents

• Encourage your child to plan each assessment so they can meet deadlines.
• Let your child complete their own work but show them how to research and plan their work.
• Establish good communication with the school to understand programme requirements.

Conventions for citing and acknowledging original ownership.

Students must acknowledge any materials or ideas that come from other people, and which have been used. The term ‘materials can mean written, oral or electronic products including: text, visual, artistic, letters, lectures, broadcasts, audio, interviews, maps, graphic and conversations. Basic and common knowledge within a subject does not need to be acknowledged. When students cite, they must make clear what they are citing to clearly distinguish between the words/work of their own and the words/work of others.

ISA Wuhan adheres to the MLA referencing style across all subject areas, courses, and grade levels. For examples of correct citation please refer to ISAWHIS MLA guide.

Why cite

• To show respect for the work of others.
• To give the reader the opportunity to follow up references.
• To help a reader to distinguish between the work of the creator and the work of others.
• To give the reader the opportunity to check the validity of creator’s interpretation.
• To receive proper credit for the research process.
• To establish credibility and authority of own knowledge and ideas

What to cite

Creators are expected to acknowledge any source materials or ideas which are not their own and have been used in any way such as a quotation, paraphrase, or summary. Written or electronic source materials may include:

• Visual
• Audio
• Graphic
• Lectures
• Interviews
• Broadcasts
• Maps

When to cite

• Citation is expected in the body of the creator’s work where the external source has been used
• The reader must be able to clearly distinguish between the words/work of the creator and the words/work of others.
• Including the reference ONLY in the bibliography is not enough.

The distinction between legitimate collaboration and unacceptable collusion

For most assessments students are expected to work independently, however there are occasions when collaboration with other students is permitted or encouraged. Final work produced by students must be produced independently despite the fact that it may be based on similar data as other students in the group. Unacceptable collusion would be considered to take place if students submitted the same written work based upon collaborative tasks, for example if the introduction, content, or conclusion were the same as another student.

Monitoring and sanctions

If a student is suspected of academic dishonesty the teacher will investigate and determine the authenticity of work. If in doubt, the case will be referred to the relevant Curriculum Coordinator. Internal sanctions may be imposed by the school for malpractice. These will include:

• 1st Offence: Student will resubmit the work and parents are notified by the teacher. The misconduct is noted, as appropriate in school records.
• 2nd and subsequent offence(s): Student is given zero for the work, receives disciplinary consequences and parents are notified by the Curriculum Coordinator. Second and subsequent misconduct offence(s) are noted in school records.
• Should a student persist in academic dishonesty, the Educational Leadership Team will review to determine sanctions and/or the continuation of student status at ISA Wuhan
• Any individual incident recorded on a student’s school file may be declared to prospective transfer school, colleges, universities, or prospective employers who request a recommendation from the school.
• External sanctions which are imposed by the IB, relate specifically to the IBDP. The procedures for investigating malpractice and possible outcomes are identified in the IB publication Academic Honesty (2009, 2011).

Investigation

ISAWHIS In line with IBO recommendations and practice, runs random or selected pieces of work in the plagiarism software Turnitin for verification and evaluation of sources (if the work is not uploaded to ManageBac).

If a teacher, or another member of staff, suspects that a student may have breached the school’s standards of academic honesty, he or she will inform the IB coordinator. Together they will investigate the matter and will inform the student of the concerns of the teacher, giving the student the chance to reply to the accusations. If it cannot be shown that there is work which is clearly inappropriate the student will be found not guilty of dishonesty and no record will be kept of the matter. If, on the other hand, it can be shown that inappropriate work has been submitted, the Coordinator will make a recommendation to the Principal/Dean as to whether or not the case is one of academic dishonesty, or of an academic infringement Every teacher has access to the turnitin and generates timely reports to ascertain the percentage of plagiarism if any and also the content which is acknowledged through footnotes, citations and bibliography.

The consequences for misconduct as outlined by the IB are listed below (IBDP):

• If the malpractice is deemed minimal, zero marks will be awarded for the component, but a grade will still be awarded for the subject. This is referred to as ‘Academic Infringement’
• If a candidate plagiarises all or part of any assignment then no grade is awarded for the subject
• Misconduct during examinations will result in no grade awarded for the subject.
• If a candidate falsifies a CAS record, no Diploma will be issued until 12 months after the examination session. The CAS record will need to be correctly completed.
• If the case is serious, the candidate may not be allowed to re-register for examinations.
• An IB Diploma may be withdrawn at any time if malpractice is subsequently established.
• An appeal may be made to the IB final award committee in the light of new factual evidence, within three months of the original decision.

Note: Please refer to the supplementary resource from the IBO, entitled ‘Academic Integrity’.

Consequences of Academic malpractice in MYP:

MYP coordinator:

• Incident is recorded on student’s managebac.
• The incident is reported to the secondary academic dean.
• Parents are contacted and a meeting occurs with parents.

If the assessment is internal the level of achievement will not be awarded for that piece of work. An alternative assessment may be awarded depending on the situation.

For external assessment – Personal Project. It is expected that the personal project mentor is regularly monitoring the students work to avoid any form of malpractice.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) TOOLS

ISAWHIS is in line with IBO recommendations and practice.

"The IB will not ban the use of AI software. The simplest reason is that it is the wrong way to deal with innovation. Over the next few years, the use of this kind of software will become as routine as calculators and translation programs". (Academic integrity policy, p53)

"AI tools do not threaten the underlying principles of what the IB values". ( Academic integrity policy, p53)

"It is not realistic to prevent the use of these tools as they will rapidly become commonplace, but the IB believes that schools should explain ethical behaviour when using these tools, and why they often are not the most useful piece of software." (Academic Integrity policy, p54)

Therefore, ISAWHIS will not prevent the use of Al software. Transparency is the key, and we expect students to give full credit to any source/material that they have used when writing and creating their own work.

CORRECT REFERENCE OF AI TOOLS

In any type of work where an external source has been used, a citation must be included at the point of use. The inclusion of a reference at the end of the paper is not enough.

The citation in a text should link to a full reference in the bibliography. Students should be clear that if they use the text (or any other product) produced by an AI tool- by copying or paraphrasing that text or modifying an image they must clearly reference it in the body of their work and add the reference in the bibliography.

The in-text citation should contain quotation marks using the referencing style already in use by the school, for example: "the development of the tools and variables required for........" (text taken/paraphrased from ChatGPT, 2023). The reference in the bibliography should also contain the prompt given to the AI tool and the date it generated the text, for example: OpenAI. (23 February 2023).

ChatGPT response to example prompt about example topic (Academic Integrity policy. Key points to explain the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, IB 2023)

Review of the Academic Honesty Policy

This policy will be reviewed again In May 2024 and every May of each academic year, if needed, after the recommendation of the IB coordinators.