Student Research Projects, Critical Thinking,

& the Prevention of Copying

Presented by: David Eisenberg

Overview

• This presentation will discuss research on critical thinking, research projects, and the prevention of student copying in schools.

• It will demonstrate the application to today’s school systems and how her theories interact with modern Internet technology.

• Implications of her research for guided inquiry and student research projects will then be discussed.

Student Research: Productive or Counterproductive?• Dr. McGregor led two studies with high school students to answer the

following questions (McGregor, 1996).

– Are student research assignments as productive as we hope?

– Are there elements of the assignment that might be counterproductive, achieving results that we never intended?

• Students show Product Orientation when their goals in research are to produce the end product and obtain a grade. A product orientation is, therefore, a very extrinsic goal in performing research and in learning.

• A Process Orientation, on the other hand, occurs when a student wishes to learn material and gains intrinsic satisfaction simply from that learning process.

Dr. McGregor developed the term “unintentional plagiarism” during the analysis of these studies, to describe when her students would copy from sources but without any intention of cheating.

Treasure Hunt or Torture

• In January 1999, researchers conducted a study of 26 third grade students in Washington State, which sought answers to the following questions (Streitenberger & McGregor, 1999):

– What do young children learn from a research assignment?

– What thinking skills do students use during each phase of a research project?

– Does plagiarism occur when students are process-oriented, or only when they are product-oriented?

– Will young students be process-oriented or product-oriented?

Plagarism• Do children who plagarize actually learn from

their copied assignments?• What is the difference between product-

orientation and process-orientation when students work on research projects?

• How can we prevent plagarism?

Smart Information Use: The Link between Good Practice & the Avoidance of Plagarism

• A multiple-school study of students’ understandings of plagarism demonstrated the consequences of plagiarism to critical thinking, and teaching methods to avoid plagiarism (Williamson et al., 2007)

Qualitative Results

• As students in Smart Information Use project were interviewed, their responses were consistently eye-opening and enlightening. Their understandings of the research process and of plagarism gives insight into the development of critical thinking and information literacy.

• Students’ information seeking preferences were examined alongside their abilities and likelihood to plagiarize.

• Students who plagiarized generally stated that they either did not believe citation was necessary or did not understand how to properly paraphrase or cite (McGregor & Williamson, 2005)

“Model Paper“ Websites

Sample "Model" Paper Sites (McGregor, 1999)  School Sucks http://schoolsucks.com

The Paper Store http://www.termpapers-on-file.com

A-1 Term Paper Academic and Business Research Source

http://www.a1-termpaper.com

Absolutely Free Online Essays http://www.ee.calpoly.edu/ercarlso/papers.htm

The Evil House of Cheat http://www.CheatHouse.com

The Internet: Its effect on Critical Thinking (McGregor, 1997)• While Internet media has the potential for

providing suspect information to young student researchers, Internet research also provides a great opportunity for students to learn critical thinking skills.

• The very act of evaluating websites effectively for reliability and credibility requires and teaches critical thinking skills.

Websites to help improve critical thinking:

Critical Thinking Websites

Just Think Foundation http://justthink.org

From Now On http://fromnowon.org/

New Tools Workshophttp://newtoolsworkshop.wikispaces.com/

Media Literacy Clearinghouse

http://www.frankwbaker.com

Conclusions

• Research has demonstrated an inverse relationship between critical thinking and plagiarism.

• Critical thinking has become even more important in light of new Internet technologies that require evaluation and new media literacies.

• Plagiarism has become faster and easier for students to find online. Research shows that when students plagiarize, they are less likely to learn the material they have copied.

ReferencesA-1 Term Paper Academic and Business Research Source (2009). Retrieved 11/10, 2009, from http://www.a1-termpaper.com

Baker, F. Media Literacy Clearinghouse. (2009). Retrieved 11/10, 2009, from http://www.frankwbaker.com

Hopkins, D. M., & Zweizig, D. L. (1999). The united states national library power school program: Research evaluation and implications for professional development and library education. 10.

Just Think Foundation. (2009). Retrieved 11/10, 2009, from http://justthink.org

McGregor, J. (1999). Can we prevent copying? Transforming scribes into thinkers. ISIS’99 Virtual Conference, Charles Sturt University, July, 1999. 

McGregor, J. (2006) Flexible Scheduling: Implementing an Innovation. School Library Media Research 9. [Available at http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslpubsandjournals/slmrb/slmrcontents/volume9/flexible.htm]

McGregor, J. (2007). Joy McGregor. Retrieved 11/03, 2009, from http://athene.csu.edu.au/~jmcgrego/index.htm.

McGregor, J. (1996). Student research: Productive or counter-productive? ERIC, ED414906.

McGregor, J. (1997). The Internet: Boon or bane to critical thinking. ITEC Virtual Conference, Australian School Library Association, April, 1997. Available at, http://csusap.csu.edu.au/~jmcgrego/InternetBaneorBoon.pdf

McGregor, J. & Hay, L. (2006). Research in teacher librarianship: Proceedings from the Centre for Studies in Teacher Librarianship Research Conference, Canberra, Australia 9-10 April 2005. Available at http://www.csu.edu.au/faculty/educat/sis/CIS/epubs/CSTL.htm. McGregor, J. (1999). Teaching the research process: Helping students become lifelong learners. NASSP Bulletin, 83(605), 27-34.

McGregor, J. H., & Williamson, K. (2005). Appropriate use of information at the secondary school level: Understanding and avoiding plagiarism. Library & Information Science Research (07408188), 27(4), 496-512.

McKenzie, J. From Now On. (2009). Retrieved 11/10, 2009, from http://fromnowon.org/

Streitenberger, D., & McGregor, J. (1999). Treasure hunt or torture: Student's perspectives on research projects. 11.

School Sucks. (2009). Retrieved 11/10, 2009, from http://schoolsucks.com

The Evil House of Cheat (2009). Retrieved 11/10, 2009, from http://www.CheatHouse.com

The Paper Store. (2009). Retrieved 11/10, 2009, from http://www.termpapers-on-file.com

Valencia, J. New Tools Workshop. (2009). Retrieved 11/10, 2009, from http://newtoolsworkshop.wikispaces.com

Williamson, K., & McGregor, J. (2006). Information seeking in context (ISIC) conference, university of technology sydney, 19-21 july 2006 Australian Library & Information Association.

Williamson, K., & McGregor, J. (2006). Reviews. Library & Information Science Research (07408188), 28(3), 467-468.

Williamson, K., McGregor, J., Archibald, A., & Sullivan, J. (2007). Information seeking and use by secondary students: The link between good practice and the avoidance of plagiarism. School Library Media Research, 10, 26.