Prince Andrew High School
Students enrolled in the IB Diploma Program or IB Certificate courses are subject to the same standards of behaviour and academic honesty as all students enrolled in schools in the Halifax Regional School Board.
The IB Learner Profile forms the foundation of Prince Andrew High School’s Academic Honesty Policy. In keeping with the IB Learner Profile, Prince Andrew faculty acknowledges the importance of encouraging our candidates to be:
Candidates are encouraged to demonstrate these attributes to maintain best practices in relation to class work, internal and external assessments (including those related to the Diploma core) and examinations. Prince Andrew High School provides candidates with opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills in relation to documentation and communicates the academic honesty policy with candidates and their families.
Prince Andrew High School recognizes that collaborative learning encourages candidates to participate as responsible members of an intellectual community; however, it is essential that teachers and candidates are aware of the distinction between collaboration and collusion. On internal assessments where the guidelines allow for collaboration, candidates need to work together to complete tasks such as data collection for the Group 4 project; however, all students must produce independent work for assessment. Work must be written in the candidate’s own words and cannot be identical in whole or in part to the work of another candidate. Teachers will refer to Section 2.5 of the IBO Academic Honesty Policy (2011) when reviewing this distinction with candidates.
According to the IB Academic Honesty Policy, “the candidate is ultimately responsible for ensuring that all work submitted for assessment is authentic, with the work or ideas of others fully and correctly acknowledged” (2011).
Upon entry to Prince Andrew’s IB Diploma Programme, candidates and their parents/guardians are required to sign a Declaration of Academic Honesty stating that all work submitted for assessment will be their own authentic work. (See Appendix B)
All candidates and their parents/guardians receive a copy of Prince Andrew’s Academic Honesty policy. In order to facilitate candidates’ growth as principled inquirers, Prince Andrew High School faculty provides all candidates with instruction in:
· what constitutes ethical practice in the IB Diploma Programme
· the research process
· authentic authorship
· best practices for ensuring assessments meet standards of academic honesty
· the rules for acknowledging source material based on standard practice and provide examples and conventions for citing and acknowledging original authorship
· data-gathering techniques
· rules and regulations regarding malpractice and related consequences
Prince Andrew encourages candidates to employ accepted methods of research, data gathering, citation and documentation (APA, MLA, etc.) in order to ensure that candidates maintain a high level of academic honesty in all forms of assessment. In the case where malpractice is suspected, the teacher informs the candidate and the IB Coordinator and takes appropriate steps to resolve the issue including: looking through previous course work or drafts, reviewing the candidate’s source material, using an online database, and interviewing the candidate.
Teachers ensure that the principles and practices of academic honesty are reviewed at the commencement of every major assessment event. Teachers only sign declarations on cover sheets of work if the assessment reflects a high level of academic honesty.
While enrolled in the Diploma Programme at Prince Andrew High School, candidates are responsible for:
The IB Coordinator provides IB faculty with appropriate professional development with regard to principles and practices of academic honesty as defined by the IB programme.
Teachers provide subject or assessment-specific instruction in all areas related to academic honesty including: research methods, citation styles, documentation, proper data collection techniques, and ethical practices.
Academic style guides are made available to candidates. Candidates have access to online style guides and writing laboratories.
Candidates and their parents/guardians are provided with copies of Prince Andrew’s Academic Honesty Policy.
Prince Andrew High School recognizes MLA and APA citation styles for IB coursework. Candidates receive direction from subject area teachers as to which style to use and the conventions of each.
Incidents of Malpractice
Prince Andrew High School divides incidents of malpractice into two categories of severity. These categories are defined by the nature of the assignment. Assessments that are given by the school and are ultimately designed to be formative will be defined as minor misconduct. All violations related to official IB assessments - including internal, external, those related to the Diploma core and examinations - will be treated as major misconduct. If there is clear evidence of plagiarism with no acknowledgement of the source(s), then the candidate will be found guilty of malpractice without regard for any alleged lack of intent to plagiarise (IBO Academic Honesty Policy, 2011).
Minor Misconduct
Incidents of suspected malpractice are dealt with by the teacher and are reported to the IB Coordinator and the student’s parent/guardian. Candidates caught cheating or plagiarizing will receive a mark of 0% on the assignment or internal exam in keeping with Prince Andrew High School’s Plagiarism and Academic Honesty Policy (Appendix A). In the case where a candidate has committed academic infringement as part of a formative assessment, faculty follows the guidelines outlined in Section 11.5 of the IBO Academic Honesty Policy (2011).
Habitual instances of minor misconduct may be interpreted as major misconduct and dealt with accordingly by the school. In the case of a candidate’s second instance of minor misconduct, the candidate and his or her parent/guardian are required to meet with the teacher, IB Coordinator, and a school administrator to review the relevant academic honesty policies.
Major Misconduct
Prince Andrew High School defines instances of major misconduct in three ways.
Habitual instances of minor misconduct are addressed in the following ways:
Suspected malpractice on an IB assessment prior to the declaration on cover sheets being signed is addressed in the following ways:
If the result of the investigation indicates an incident of malpractice, the incident is addressed in the following ways:
Malpractice on an IB assessment once the declaration on the cover sheet has been signed is addressed in the following ways:
In the following circumstances, diploma or course candidates will be removed from all aspects of the IB Diploma program at Prince Andrew High School without exception:
In the creation of this document, the authors wish to acknowledge the following sources: