Warsaw Montessori High School

Purpose of the Academic Honesty Policy

The goal of education at the Warsaw Montessori High School is to create an environment of learning. As such, it is expected that assignments and oral examinations are illustrations of the learning that occurs for each student. As such, students are committed to working independently and citing all sources which are used in the process of creating these works. Student who meet these tasks help develop themselves to achieve the attributes in the IB Learner profile such as being Inquirers, Knowledgeable, and Thinkers. Furthermore, it is impossible to be Principled without the ability to adhere to the academic honesty policy. The policy helps assure that assignments and examinations are honest representations of the learning that has occurred at Warsaw Montessori High School and in accordance with the IB Diploma Programme.

Definition of Misconduct

Misconduct are any actions by a student which may result in them having an unfair advantage on any assessed component of their work. Misconduct may be (but is not limited to):

• Plagiarism – representing the ideas of another person as one’s own
• Collusion – involvement in the misconduct of another student such as allowing copying of one’s own work for submission by another
• Duplication – submitting the same work for multiple assignments
• Misconduct during examinations – wandering eyes, use of electronic resources, bringing notes to examinations, communication with other students, etc.
• Fabricating research data – creating data which was not the result of the work it represents

Student commitments

Students are responsible for:

• researching, 

• planning their work,

• executing the writing of this work independently. 

Anyone interfering in this creates a situation which fails the academic honesty policy for both the individual who is creating the work and the one who assists them in any way contrary to this policy. A student has the right to receive assistance from a teacher or supervisor with:

• providing assistance by guiding the process of searching for source material, 

• making suggestions upon reviewing the outlines of such work, 

• making general comments on the first draft which is written by the student

Students must indicate all sources which are used in the preparation of their work through specific referencing styles (such as the APA formatting style). Such citation should be appropriate for the style of work which is completed. Each piece of written work (IA) must cite all sources except for short writings which are completed by hand during lessons. All students:

• will attend workshops during the first semester of classes regarding plagiarism

• are responsible for signing their agreement to these policies based on their instruction during these workshops. 

Teacher commitments

It is the duty of all teachers to understand and uphold the academic integrity of the IB program and Warsaw Montessori High School through following the academic honesty policy. Teachers are expected to instruct students about the rules of integrity within their fields of work. Teachers must assess the authenticity of all work performed by students (written and oral).

Teachers are responsible for:

• educating students on the appropriate use of others’ work as a resource for their own work

• determining any sources of plagiarism, 

• determining any duplication of work from student or external sources,

• determining collusion in the completion of assessed work. 

Teacher’s may use online resources to determine plagiarism, and in the event they believe that there are instances of plagiarism or other academic dishonesty which are not supported by any such tools they will investigate the validity of such beliefs through a viva-voce interview. Teachers have access to the antyplagiat.pl platform for identifying plagiarism as well as other free online search tools. A teacher should sign the cover sheet of any portion of a final examination (internal or external) only after they have taken such steps to assess the integrity of the work therein.

School commitments

The school plans and holds workshops on the concept of intellectual property for both students and teachers. They are taught how to create proper habits for working with source material which maintains academic integrity and to work independently. A Montessori education aims to develop creativity and independent work from a young age, and we continue to support these as two of the most important aspects of a successful student. 

Warsaw Montessori High School ensures that this policy is readily available.  The school’s policy is available on the school website or printed at request on the school premises. The Academic Honesty Policy must be respected and acknowledged through reminders of the rules at each stage of instruction and supporting students in abiding by the policies therein.

Scenarios

It is easy to find oneself in instances where adherence to academic honesty is not taken place. A student who has completed an assignment and lost it might consider borrowing their colleague’s work to help recreate what they had lost. This student would be submitting the work of another as one’s own, an example of plagiarism. 

In frustration, a student looks around the room nervously and notes the diagram a fellow student has drawn on their examination paper. This manifests itself with the idea for a similar diagram and results in the student synthesizing an answer to the task. Such an example is misconduct during examinations.

A student has similar assignments from two classes, where they are asked to look at a historical individual who was both an artist and a writer. They submit their essay regarding this individual for both their art class as well as their literature class. Such a student has created duplication of their work.

Although many scenarios of misconduct may seem to be minor at first glance, they provide an advantage to this student which hurts the integrity of the work done by others in and outside of the school.

Procedures

In learning to produce honest and credible work, students have the opportunity to practice adhering to the concept of academic honesty. During the preparatory years at Warsaw Montessori High School, students will be asked to follow the WMHS Academic Honesty Policy as if they were in the IB Diploma Programme. 

Upon suspecting misconduct, a teacher may deal with each situation on a case-by-case basis depending on the severity of the incident. In any case, the teacher is obliged to report the situation to the school administration and a record of the situation is placed into the student’s file and a notice sent to the student’s parents or guardians. A student has the right to the attendance of a parent or guardian to any meetings regarding misconduct.

Upon beginning the IB Diploma Programme in the case of a first offense of violating the policy of academic honesty, a student is obliged to submit in writing a declaration admitting to the offense, their intention to abide by the academic policy henceforth, and their awareness that further violations may result in expulsion from the school. The student must submit this declaration and sign it in the presence of the school director, the teacher or staff member who detected the violation, and the parents or legal guardians of the student.

Further misconduct may result in the removal of a student from the school and the student register.

Review of the Academic Honesty Policy

The policy undergoes a review by a committee of members from the Teacher’s Council prior to each school year and is approved during the first meeting of the Teacher’s Council.

References

Carroll, Jude 2012. Academic honesty in the IB http://blogs.ibo.org/positionpapers/files/2013/02/Academic-honesty-in-the-IB.pdf

IB. 2014. Academic honesty in the IB educational context. Cardiff, UK. International Baccalaureate.

Warsaw Montessori High School Academic Honesty is derived from the document cademic Honesty in the IB educational context published by the IBO