FRENCH IB SL/HL

Academic honesty—Diploma Programme As young adults preparing for university studies or entry into the workforce, Diploma Programme students both enjoy the freedom and bear the responsibility of studying a course that emphasizes independence and self-reliance. DP students are, appropriately, less dependent than their PYP and MYP counterparts on the steady intervention of teachers and parents checking to make sure that lessons are understood and assignments are completed on time. On the other hand, DP students experience a set of emotional pressures—the pressure to perform on summative assessments, the stress of the university admission process and time pressures—exerted by a system that can be seen to reward the individual’s end result over the work (individual or collective) required to get there. For academic honesty, this can mean that the idea of shared responsibility in the PYP and MYP for ensuring a piece of work is the student’s own risks becoming the sole responsibility of the DP student, should a case of academic misconduct arise (Carroll 2012). Thus, teaching and learning in the DP must develop the positive behaviours that students will need to demonstrate clearly that they complete their work carefully, honestly and authentically. In their academic work, DP students develop research skills and study habits that are needed to demonstrate academic honesty in more formal ways than would be appropriate to expect of younger learners. DP students investigate and evaluate the usefulness of a greater variety of resources, and incorporate and reference them within oral and written presentations of increasingly complex formats. This level of rigour can present a challenge to students who certainly know right from wrong, but who may not possess the organizational and self-management skills to demonstrate clearly that their work meets a formal standard of academic honesty. All IB students understand the importance of acknowledging others because it is a central feature of the constructivist, inquiry-based approach promoted in all IB programmes; yet, in the DP, this requires the explicit teaching and learning of specific conventions accepted in a community of learners for being transparent about the use of ideas and work of others—note making, in-text citation and the preparation of a bibliography, to name but a few examples (Carroll 2012: 5–6).

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