Academic Honesty Policy

Prince Andrew High School

Local Policies

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.

Background and Philosophy

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:

Inquirers: candidates will be encouraged to acquire the skills necessary to conduct inquiry and research with an awareness of the importance of source documentation
Knowledge: candidates will be encouraged to acquire an in-depth knowledge of best practices in relation to documentation (including references, citation and bibliography)
Thinkers: candidates will be encouraged to exercise initiative in applying critical thinking skills to make reasoned, ethical decisions
Principled: candidates will be encouraged to act with honesty and integrity and take responsibility for their own actions

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.

Definitions

Academic Honesty: a set of values and skills that promote personal integrity and good practices in teaching, learning and assessment
Authentic Authorship: work based on the candidate’s individual and original ideas with the ideas and work of others fully acknowledged
Intellectual Property: creations of the mind for which exclusive rights are recognized in law in industrial, scientific, literary and artistic fields
Malpractice: behaviours or actions that include but are not limited to: plagiarism, collusion, duplication of work and cheating. Prince Andrew High School acknowledges malpractice to include all of the practices listed in Section 2 of the IBO Academic Honesty Policy
Academic Negligence: carelessness when recording sources or displaying a cavalier disregard for the origin of material within a candidate’s work
Academic Infringement: some attempt by a candidate to acknowledge the source of information but acknowledgement may contravene standard academic practice
Plagiarism: the representation of the ideas or work of another person as a candidate’s own
Collusion: supporting malpractice by another candidate including allowing one’s work to be copied or submitted for assessment by another
Duplication of work: the presentation of the same work for different assessment components and/or diploma requirements
Cheating: a behaviour that gains an unfair advantage for a candidate or affects the results of another candidate, including but not limited to:
1. taking unauthorized material into an examination room
2. misconduct during an examination
3. falsifying a CAS record

Collaboration versus Collusion

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.

Declaration of Academic Honesty

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)

Responsibilities of the School

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.

Responsibilities of the Candidate

While enrolled in the Diploma Programme at Prince Andrew High School, candidates are responsible for:

reading Prince Andrew’s Academic Honesty policy and familiarizing themselves with the principles and practices of academic honesty
exercising academic honesty in all aspects of their work and acting as principled learners
conducting laboratory and field experiments, including CAS activities, in an ethical way
documenting source material in a formal and appropriate way
using direct quotations appropriately
paraphrasing and acknowledging the ideas of others appropriately
understanding malpractice and the related consequences
following all examination rules

Resources

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.

Conventions for Citing and Acknowledging Original Authorship

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:

the candidate attends a meeting with the teacher, IB Coordinator, school administrator and the candidate’s parent/guardian to review the relevant academic honesty policies
the candidate and his or her parent/guardian are required to sign a declaration that going forward, the highest standard of academic honesty must be maintained in order to remain a diploma or course candidate at Prince Andrew High School
the school reserves the right to refrain from considering the candidate for any awards, bursaries or scholarships in which citizenship, ethical behaviour or academic honesty are a consideration
the school reserves the right to remove the candidate’s name from the Honour Roll or Principal’s List
with regards to the assignments in question, the consequences as outlined in the minor misconduct section are applied

Suspected malpractice on an IB assessment prior to the declaration on cover sheets being signed is addressed in the following ways:

the IB Coordinator informs the Head of School that a candidate is suspected of malpractice
the IB Coordinator conducts an investigation including an interview with the candidate with a support person in attendance

If the result of the investigation indicates an incident of malpractice, the incident is addressed in the following ways:

the candidate attends a meeting with the teacher, IB Coordinator, school administrator, and the candidate’s parent/guardian to review the relevant academic honesty policies
the candidate and his or her parent/guardian are required to sign a declaration that going forward, the highest standard of academic honesty must be maintained in order to remain a diploma or course candidate at Prince Andrew High School
the candidate receives a mark of 0% for the assignment toward his or her anticipated grade in the subject area
the candidate is required to submit a new assessment based on entirely new research/course work in order to meet the minimum requirements of the course as set by IBO
the candidate’s other assessments are reviewed for any other instances of suspected malpractice
the school reserves the right to refrain from considering the candidate for any awards, bursaries or scholarships in which citizenship, ethical behaviour or academic honesty are a consideration
the school reserved the right to remove the candidate’s name from the Honour Roll or Principal’s List

Malpractice on an IB assessment once the declaration on the cover sheet has been signed is addressed in the following ways:

the IB Coordinator reports the incident to the IB Information Desk for investigation within 10 days
the IB Coordinator informs the Head of School that a candidate is suspected of malpractice
the IB Coordinator conducts an investigation, including an interview with the candidate with a support person in attendance
the IB Coordinator completes a report which includes: a statement from the teacher for the subject area concerned or the Extended Essay supervisor, a statement from the coordinator, a statement from the candidate, a summary of an interview with the candidate regarding the alleged malpractice
the candidate is subject to a penalty that will be determined by IB upon receipt of all relevant materials. If a candidate is found guilty of malpractice:
1. no grade will be awarded in the subject concerned
2. in the case of a DP candidate, no diploma will be awarded to the candidate

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:

theft of the official IB examinations from the school
altering grades on a computer database or transcript
more than one incident of major malpractice

In the creation of this document, the authors wish to acknowledge the following sources:

Prince Andrew High School Student Handbook
IBO Academic Honesty Policy 2011
Carson Graham School’s Academic Honesty Policy