Academic Integrity

ICS is a community of learners. One of our highest ideals is ethical practice in learning, or Academic Integrity. With this in mind, it is critical that both faculty and students protect and maintain our integrity in academic work. Understanding of Academic Integrity, including Academic Misconduct, is a skill that develops over time and from grade level to grade level.  The teaching of academic integrity  in each grade level and is overseen by the ICS library and supported by all faculty members in their different subject teams.   HERE is a link to the full ICS Academic Integrity Policy.

 “Academic Integrity” refers to the practice and concept of assuring that all academic work is the product of one’s own thinking, research, creativity, and inquiry and, where it is not, that all sources of information that is not common knowledge are acknowledged according to standard acceptable practices.

 Clearly, the line between acceptable assistance and unfair reliance on the work or ideas of others is not always easy to draw. If you are in doubt, consult with the teacher before submitting your work.

●     Plagiarism is defined as presenting someone else’s work, including the work of other students, as one’s own. Any ideas or materials taken from another source for either written or oral use must be fully acknowledged, unless the information is common knowledge. What is considered “common knowledge” may differ from course to course. Ask your teacher if you have a question, before you use the information in a report or presentation.

●     Cheating is considered to be an attempt to use or provide unauthorized assistance, materials, information or study aids in any form and in any academic exercise or environment. This could include copying from a classmate, having a tutor do your homework, bringing notes into the test, sharing a “programmed” calculator with another student, using language translation software to translate writing from one language to another, or other similar unauthorized help. It also includes sharing work with other students.  If in doubt, ask a teacher. Helping someone else to cheat is academic malpractise.

 The consequences of breaking these ethical guidelines for a student may include:

• 1st step- a discussion with the subject teacher about the reasons why the behaviour occurred.

• Resubmission for tasks that were dishonestly completed,

• A possible meeting with their parents and a school representative, and

• Repeated offences will require a conversation with the administration with the consequence for repeated academic malpractice determined by the Principal. 

Academic Integrity and the IB

The following paragraphs are taken from the IB Publication Academic Honesty in the IB educational context (2014).

International Baccalaureate (IB) programmes encourage students to inquire and to think critically and creatively; students are then asked to give shape to their thinking through oral discussion or presentations, through visual representations and displays, and in multiple forms of writing. However, we live in an age in which we are all flooded by information and opinions. How can we help students navigate these waters so that they are able to confidently talk or write about what they are learning, making visible and explicit how they have constructed their ideas and what views they have followed or rejected? This is essentially what academic honesty is: making knowledge, understanding and thinking transparent. 

Such transparency needs to be taught and supported throughout a child’s education. In order to fully master the technical aspects of academic honesty, such as accurately citing and referencing, students need to understand how knowledge is constructed and, consequently, their own role in furthering knowledge construction and building understanding. 

The IB uses extremely strict expectations for academic honesty and we implement these expectations consistently throughout the school. Teachers spend time in classes to explore terminology we use in relation to academic dishonesty including practices like collusion, plagiarism, cheating, falsifying.

Academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to:

·   Copying homework or class assignments from another student

·   Allowing another student to copy from one’s own test or assignment

·   Copying during a test, using cheat sheets or electronic devices

·   Fabricating, inventing, or falsifying research or other findings

·   Handing in assignments or coursework which has been downloaded in full or in part from the Internet, or used for another current or   previous class

·   Borrowing/copying passages from books, magazines and other print sources or the Internet without indicating that it is borrowed       information from someone else

·   Paraphrasing pages, sentences, paragraphs or phrases from another source without citation

Students unable to meet these expectations face academic and disciplinary consequences. Students are expected to use any resources necessary to ensure academic work is their own, including anti-plagiarism software e.g. Turnitin. If academic misconduct is suspected, a committee will review the case to determine documentation, reporting and consequences.

IB Regulations Regarding Academic Integrity 

1.. The DP coordinator must inform the IB if he/she suspects any malpractice in relation to a candidate’s work after the work or an internal assessment mark has been submitted to the IB. In such cases, or when an examiner suspects malpractice, the school will be required to conduct an investigation and provide the IB with relevant documentation concerning the case.

2.  Candidates suspected of malpractice will be invited, through the coordinator, to present a written explanation or defense.

3. Cases of suspected malpractice will be presented to the final award committee. After reviewing all evidence collected during the investigation, the committee will decide whether to dismiss the allegation, uphold it, or ask for further investigation to be made.

4.  If the final award committee deems evidence of malpractice insufficient, the allegation will be dismissed and a grade will be awarded in the normal way.

5.  If the final award committee decides that a case of malpractice has been established, no grade will be awarded in the subject(s) concerned. No diploma will be awarded to the candidate, but a certificate will be awarded for other subject(s) in which no malpractice has occurred. The candidate will be permitted to register for future examinations at least one year after the session in which malpractice was established.

6. If a case of malpractice is very serious either because of its nature or because the candidate has already been found guilty of malpractice in a previous session the final award committee is entitled to decide that the candidate will not be permitted to register for examinations in any future sessions.

7. An IB diploma, or a certificate, may be withdrawn from a candidate at any time if malpractice is subsequently established.

ICS HS Academic Integrity Procedure