Comments on: Cut, Copy, Paste http://www.teacherplus.org/cover-story/cut-copy-paste Just another WordPress weblog Mon, 06 Sep 2010 00:56:58 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Sojo http://www.teacherplus.org/cover-story/cut-copy-paste/comment-page-1#comment-7887 Sojo Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:21:24 +0000 http://www.teacherplus.org/?p=96#comment-7887 I think, in India, children plagiarize unintentionally often. They don't know they are doing something wrong. Its very common among children [even graduate students] to go straight to the library, pick a book and copy anything related to the topic and submit if they have to do an assignment or project. Teachers know this but they ignore it. It happens usually because of teacher's own lack of understanding about what it means to do an assignment or a project. And they don't tell children what they are expected to do. Projects are done for namesake. Usually teachers give the students a topic and ask them to write on it. And only how many pages are written is counted. And instructions are given on how 'neatly ' the child should write it. So you end up seeing a beautifully decorated assignment that has nothing in it except stuff randomly picked from here are there to fill the pages. I think more than giving teachers an idea about how to spot plagiarism, we must help them teach the children how to do their research, analyse and come up with conclusions and how they should write it rationally. I think, in India, children plagiarize unintentionally often. They don’t know they are doing something wrong. Its very common among children [even graduate students] to go straight to the library, pick a book and copy anything related to the topic and submit if they have to do an assignment or project. Teachers know this but they ignore it. It happens usually because of teacher’s own lack of understanding about what it means to do an assignment or a project. And they don’t tell children what they are expected to do. Projects are done for namesake. Usually teachers give the students a topic and ask them to write on it. And only how many pages are written is counted. And instructions are given on how ‘neatly ‘ the child should write it. So you end up seeing a beautifully decorated assignment that has nothing in it except stuff randomly picked from here are there to fill the pages.

I think more than giving teachers an idea about how to spot plagiarism, we must help them teach the children how to do their research, analyse and come up with conclusions and how they should write it rationally.

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