Nancy's Reading Notes #6

I truly believe many instructors often strive to create a comfortable learning environment where students can succeed. In an ideal world, this atmosphere is respected by staff, faculty, and students. This week’s readings in Lang and Davis discuss the concepts of testing and grading, and designate a substantial amount of material to academic honesty. Due to these readings, and the importance of consistency and authority in the classroom, I believe our class should discuss self-plagiarism, study groups, and grading on a curve.

As an incoming undergraduate student, I was unaware of self-plagiarism. I assumed that if I completed original work for an assignment, I could reuse the assignment any way I chose to. Halfway into my freshman year I learned that “self-plagiarism,” was a form of cheating. Since this concept seems so foreign to incoming students, I believe we should discuss this in class. Lang mentions how plagiarism and cheating are often the results of “lazy” students (p. 201). Laziness and convenience seem to result in self-plagiarism since many students feel no need to reinvent the wheel if the work has already been completed. What students do not realize is that that when they reuse material without changing anything, they are not building or learning anything new. Davis and Lang both mention having a clear definition of what plagiarism means in your course, and to address this concept from the very start (Davis, p. 350; Lang, p. 207). Ultimately, should the penalty for self-plagiarism be as harsh as “traditional” plagiarism since students are using their original ideas?

If students are borrowing ideas from themselves incorrectly, this brings me to the second concept which I believe should be discussed in class – “encouraging students to study in groups” (Davis, p. 375). Davis mentions how studying in groups can be a positive experience because “according to researchers, students who study in groups learn more than students who work alone” (Davis, p. 375). While I believe that group work should be incorporated into the classroom, I am not quite sure how I feel about encouraging group studying. I believe studying in groups can help bring different perspectives to the surface, and help students to expand their knowledge with their peers. On the other end, I believe that there is always a student or two that are unprepared during group study sessions and absorb the ideas that others supply. How do we keep these “answer seekers” from potentially “stealing” from a successful study group?

It is very obvious that some students put in more work than others. Some students are prepared, while others hope to just “get by.” These segments of students brought my attention to the third concept I believe we should discuss in class. This concept is the approach to “grading on a curve” (Davis, p. 422). I always struggle with the concept of grading on a curve. As a student, if I was awarded additional points on activities, I was ecstatic! As an instructor, I wonder, is grading on a curve encouraging instructors to hand out points which have not been earned? Or, is grading on a curve helping instructors judge where they need to reevaluate their lesson plans and spend more time teaching certain topics?