EFL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION ON PLAGIARISM IN HIGHER EDUCATION: TRIGGERING FACTORS AND AVOIDING STRATEGIES

Safrul Muluk; Habiburrahim Habiburrahim; Muhammad Safwan Safrul

doi:10.22373/jid.v22i1.8944

EFL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION ON PLAGIARISM IN HIGHER EDUCATION: TRIGGERING FACTORS AND AVOIDING STRATEGIES

Safrul Muluk, Habiburrahim Habiburrahim, Muhammad Safwan Safrul

Abstract

This study was aimed to examining EFL students’ perception towards plagiarism, factors triggering students to plagiarize in completing their undergraduate theses and their strategies in avoiding plagiarism. The study, conducted at English Language Education Department, in one of the universities in Indonesia, employed a qualitative method approach aiming at getting more information and a detailed description of social or human issues. Ten alumni who were randomly selected agreed to participate in this study. Selected participants were interviewed to collect required information needed to address research questions of this study. Besides interviewing the students, the researchers also analyzed their theses in order to examine the level of plagiarism by using Turnitin software, the result of which showed that the range of similarities index in students’ theses varied from 16 to 36 %. The findings of the study revealed that there were three strategies that students implemented to avoid plagiarism; paraphrasing and quoting others' ideas, understanding the meaning of plagiarism, and using the lectures' particular method and online plagiarism detection software. Furthermore, the study found that the factors influencing students to plagiarize were related to time limitation on an assignment and poor time management, ease of using online sources, lack of understanding to plagiarism, and poor understanding of plagiarism acts.

Keywords

Plagiarism, Academic Dishonesty, Cheating Behaviour, Academic Crime.

Full Text:

PDF

References

Anderman, E. M., & Midgley, C. “Changes in self-reported academic cheating across the transition from middle school to high school”, Contemporary Educational Psychology, 29, 499-517, 2004.

Bethany, R. D. “The plagiarism polyconundrum”, Journal of International Students, 6 (4), 1045-1052, 2016.

Breen, L., & Maassen, M. “Reducing the incidence of plagiarism in an undergraduate course: the role of education”, Issues in Educational Research, 15(1), 1–16, 2005.

Chang, C.M., Chen, Y.L., Huang, Y., & Chou, C. “Why do they become potential cyber-plagiarizers? Exploring the alternative thinking of copy-and-paste youth in Taiwan”, Computers and Education, 87, 357-367, 2015.

Chen, Y., & Chou, C. “Are we on the same page? College students’ and faculty’s perception of student plagiarism in Taiwan”, Ethics and Behavior, 27(1), 53-73, 2016.

Creswell, J. W., Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (3rd ed.). California: Sage, 2009.

Pecorari, D., & Petric, B. “Plagiarism in second-language writing”, Language Teaching, 47, 269-302, 2014. doi:10.1017/S0261444814000056

Franklin, S. A., & Newstead, S. “Undergraduate cheating: who does what and why?”, Studies in Higher Education, 20(2), 159-172, 1995.

Gerdeman, R. D. “Academic dishonesty and the community college”, ERIC Digest, ED447840, 2001. Available from: https://www.ericdigests.org/2001-3/college.htm

Griffee, D. T., An Introduction to Second Language Research Methods: Design and Data, California, USA: TESL-EJ Publications, 2012.

Habiburrahim, H. “The internet and ict: opportunities or threats to the education world”, Englisia: Journal of Language, Education and Humanities, 3(1), 1-8, 2018.

Heckler, N. C., & Forde, D. R. “The role of cultural values in plagiarism in higher education”, Journal of Academic Ethics, 13(1), 61-75, 2015.

Husain, F. M., Al-Shaibani, G. K. S., & Mahfoodh, O. H. A. “Perceptions of and Attitudes toward Plagiarism and Factors Contributing to Plagiarism: a Review of Studies”, Journal of Academic Ethics, 15(2), 167-195, 2017.

Ison, D. C. “Plagiarism among dissertations: Prevalence at online institutions”, Journal of Academic Ethics 10(3), 227-236, 2012.

Jereb, E., Urh M, Jerebic, J., & Sprajc, P. ”Gender differences and the awareness of plagiarism in higher education”, Social Psychology of Education, 21, 409-426, 2017.

Jiang, H., Emmerton, L., & McKange, L. “Academ¬ic integrity and plagiarism: a review of the influences and risk situations for health students”, Higher Edu¬cation Research and Development, 32(3), 369-380, 2013.

Li, Y. Y. “I have no time to find out where the sentences came from; I just rebuild them”: a biochemistry professor eliminating novices' textual borrowing”, Journal of Second Language Writing, 21(1), 59-70, 2012.

Louch, M. O-B. “Teaching case single sourcing, boilerplates, and re-purposing: plagiarism and technical writing. Information Systems Education Journal, 14 (2), 27-33, 2016.

Maguire, M., & Delahunt, B. “Doing a thematic analysis: a practical, step-by-step guide for learning and teaching scholars. AISHE-J, 3, 3351-356, 2017.

McCabe, D. L., Trevino, L. K., & Butterfield, K.D. “Cheating in academic institutions: a decade of research”, Ethics & Behavior, 1(3), 219-232, 2001.

Newstead, S.E., Franklyn, S. A., & Armestead, P. “Individual differences in student cheating”, Journal of Educational Psychology, 8(2), 229-241, 1996.

Obeid, R, .& Hill, D. B., “An intervention designed to reduce plagiarism in a research methods classroom”, Teaching of Psychology, 44(2), 155-159, 2017.

Olivia-Dumitrina, N., Casanovas, M., & Capdevila, Y. “Academic writing and internet: cyber-plagiarism amongst university students”, Journal of New Approaches in Educational Research, 8(2), 112-125, 2019.

Owunwanne, D., Rustagi, N., & Dada, R. “Students' perceptions of cheating and plagiarism in higher institutions”, Journal of College Teaching & Learning, 11(7), 59-68, 2010.

Park, C. “In other (people's) words: plagiarism by university student’ literature and lessons”, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 28(5), 471-488, 2003.

Power, L. G. “University students' perceptions of plagiarism”, Journal of Higher Education, 80(6), 643-662, 2009.

Rahmayani, S. O., Students' difficulties in paraphrasing English text. (Bachelor's thesis). Ar-Raniry State Islamic University, Banda Aceh, 2018.

Ramzan, M., Munir, M.A., Siddique, N., & Asif, M. “Awareness about plagiarism amongst university students in Pakistan”, Higher Education, 73-84, 2012.

Rombe, M., L., M. “ Effective time and self management, environment and productivity in an organization”, Science Journal of Business and Management. 4(6), 204-211, 2016.

Silfiani, Aziz, Z. A., & Daud, B. “Plagiarism in english academic writing: students’ perceptions”, English Education Journal (EEJ), 9(1), 102-123, 2018.

Sprajc, P., Urh, M., Jerebic, J., Trivan, D., & Jereb, E. “Reasons for plagiarism in higher education”, Organizacija, 50(1), 33-46, 2017.

Yeo, S. (2007). First-year university science and engineering students’ understanding of plagiarism. Higher Education Research and Development, 26(2), 199–216.

Creswell, J. W., Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (3rd ed.). California: Sage, 2009.

Franklin, S. A., & Newstead, S. “Undergraduate cheating: who does what and why?”, Studies in Higher Education, 20(2), 159-172, 1995.

Gerdeman, R. D. “Academic dishonesty and the community college”, ERIC Digest, ED447840, 2001. Available from: https://www.ericdigests.org/2001-3/college.htm

Griffee, D. T., An Introduction to Second Language Research Methods: Design and Data, California, USA: TESL-EJ Publications, 2012.

Habiburrahim, H. “The internet and ict: opportunities or threats to the education world”, Englisia: Journal of Language, Education and Humanities, 3(1), 1-8, 2018.

Heckler, N. C., & Forde, D. R. “The role of cultural values in plagiarism in higher education”, Journal of Academic Ethics, 13(1), 61–75, 2015.

Jereb, E., Urh M, Jerebic, J., & Sprajc, P. ”Gender differences and the awareness of plagiarism in higher education”, Social Psychology of Education, 21, 409-426, 2017.

Louch, M. O-B. “Teaching case single sourcing, boilerplates, and re-purposing: plagiarism and technical writing. Information Systems Education Journal, 14 (2), 27-33, 2016.

Maguire, M., & Delahunt, B. “Doing a thematic analysis: a practical, step-by-step guide for learning and teaching scholars. AISHE-J, 3, 3351-356, 2017.

Mahmud, S., Bretag, T., & Foltýnek, T. “Students’ Perceptions of Plagiarism Policy in Higher Education: a Comparison of the United Kingdom, Czechia, Poland and Romania”, Journal of Academic Ethics, 17(3), 2019, p. 271–289; Ramzan, M., Munir, M.A., Siddique, N., & Asif, M. “Awareness about plagiarism amongst university students in Pakistan”, Higher Education, 271–289, 2012.

McCabe, D. L., Trevino, L. K., & Butterfield, K.D. “Cheating in academic institutions: a decade of research”, Ethics & Behavior, 1(3), 219-232, 2001.

Newstead, S.E., Franklyn, S. A., & Armestead, P. “Individual differences in student cheating”, Journal of Educational Psychology, 8(2), 229-241, 1996.

Obeid, R, .& Hill, D. B., “An intervention designed to reduce plagiarism in a research methods classroom”, Teaching of Psychology, 44(2), 155-159, 2017.

Owunwanne, D., Rustagi, N., & Dada, R. “Students' perceptions of cheating and plagiarism in higher institutions”, Journal of College Teaching & Learning, 11(7), 59-68, 2010.

Park, C. “In other (people's) words: plagiarism by university student’ literature and lessons”, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 28(5), 471-488, 2003.

Power, L. G. “University students' perceptions of plagiarism”, Journal of Higher Education, 80(6), 643-662, 2009.

Rahmayani, S. O., Students' difficulties in paraphrasing english text. (Bachelor's thesis). Ar-Raniry State Islamic University, Banda Aceh, 2018.

Ramzan, M., Munir, M.A., Siddique, N., & Asif, M. “Awareness about plagiarism amongst university students in Pakistan”, Higher Education, 73-84, 2012.

Rombe, M., L., M. “ Effective time and self management, environment and productivity in an organization”, Science Journal of Business and Management. 4(6), 204-211, 2016.

Silfiani, Aziz, Z. A., & Daud, B. “Plagiarism in english academic writing: students’ perceptions”, English Education Journal (EEJ), 9(1), 102-123, 2018.

Sprajc, P., Urh, M., Jerebic, J., Trivan, D., & Jereb, E. “Reasons for plagiarism in higher education”, Organizacija, 50(1), 33-46, 2017.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22373/jid.v22i1.8944