研究生英语读写

There is abundant literature on academic misconduct, most of which has been published during the last two decades. The literature on plagiarism offers many different reasons for student plagiarism. These include, but are not limited to, time to complete tasks(poor time management), perceived disjuncture between award(grade)and effort required, too much work to complete over too many subjects, pressure to do well, perceptions that students will not get caught, anomie, motivation, and individual factors(age, grade point average, gender, personality type)(Anderman，Griesinger, and Westerfield, 1998; Anderman and Midgley, 1997; Calabrese and Cochran, 1990; Caruana, Ramaseshan, and Ewing, 2000; Davis, Grover, and Becker, 1992; Kibler, 1993; Love and Simmons, 1998; Newstead, Franklyn-Stokes, and Armstead, 1996; Park, 2003; Perry et a1., 1990; Roig and Caso, 2005; Sheard, Carbone, and Dick, 2003; Whitley, 1998). These studies tend to focus on individual student characteristics.

Focusing on individual student characteristics can be problematic, as the emphasis is then placed on the individual behaviour change process, with little attention to socio-cultural and physical environmental influences on behavior. McCabe and Trevino (1997)examined both individual characteristics and contextual influences on academic dishonesty. Their results indicated that decision-making relating to academic dishonest behaviour is not only influenced by individual characteristics(e. g. age, gender and grade point average), but also contextual influences(e. g. the level of cheating among peers, peer disapproval of cheating, membership of societies for male and female students[fraternity／sorority], and the perceived severity of penalties for cheating). Therefore, to better understand student perceptions of plagiarism, we need to take into account not only individual student characteristics but also broader contextual factors. 0nly a few studies have been conducted to explore students’ perceptions of plagiarism, and these tend to focus on the reasons why students plagiarise(Ashworth, Bannister, and Thorne, 1997；Devlin and Gray, 2007; Marsden, Carroll, and Neill, 2005), or utilise attitude scales that are developed with the assumption that all relevant stakeholders share the same meaning frame of how plagiarism is understood(Brimble and Stevenson. Clarke, 2005; Franklyn. Stokes and Newstead, 1995; Hasen and Huppert, 2005; Lira and See, 2001). The assumption that the term plagiarism has shared meaning is due to the institution's reliance on university policy to be an instrument to both define what plagiarism is and the possible consequences if breached. It has been argued, therefore, that having a good understanding of institutional policy reduces the risk of engaging in plagiarism. Jordan(2001)found that students classified as non-cheaters reported greater understanding of institutional policy than did cheaters. The apparent lack of knowledge of institutional policy is further compounded by contradictory and often ambiguous information delivered by academic staff, as they also struggle to enforce an accepted and clear definition of plagiarism(McCabe, Butteriield, and Trevino. 2003). For instance, in a study conducted by Burke(1997), over half of the academics surveyed not only reported a lack of familiarity with the university’s policy on plagiarism, but also did not refer to the policy when dealing with incidents. As Carroll (2005a)suggests, it is this lack of clarity about plagiarism that influences how students perceive plagiarism.

In order to both understand how students perceive plagiarism, and develop and evaluate learning

materials

aimed

at

educating

students

about

plagiarism,

Breen

and

Maassen(2005)conducted a two-phase research project, that firstly explored student perceptions of plagiarism and then developed learning materials to be embedded within courses. This was done

by utilising four focus groups, consisting of 13 under-graduate psychology students across the first, second and third years. Their findings suggest that apart from a clear understanding of verbatim use of other people's work without referencing. Students had difficulty comprehending ‘grey’ areas (e. g. ability to comprehend and paraphrase work with due citation). The lack of familiarity with what required citation was, in part, due to the inability to source adequate ‘information regarding the subtlety of paraphrasing, inconsistency between staff and the fear of inadvertent plagiarism. They also found that students reported an increasing understanding of plagiarism as a function of year level, with the associate skill development to complete assignments. Students also made suggestions for course improvement to focus on proactive strategies, as opposed to the reactive nature of dealing with plagiarism once discovered.

Whilst Breen and Maassen(2005)aimed to explore students’ understanding of plagiarism, their main focus was to develop resource material to embed within their courses. Consequently, only a small sample pool of 13 psychology students was utilized, and questions centred specifically on students’ ability to define and avoid plagiarism. Though Breen and Maassen were able to elicit some understanding of student perceptions, based on how students define plagiarism and then avoid it, the current study aims to extend and build upon their work. It is proposed in this study to sample across disciplines and delve deeper into student understandings of plagiarism. McCabe and Trevino(1993)argued for a shift in our conceptualisation and examination of plagiarism, from one focused on individual factors that may inform an individual’s propensity to plagiarise, to one of examining situational or contextual variables that can be utilised towards an integrated institutional response. Despite this exhortation, relatively little systematic research has been done on the topic of understanding student perceptions of what plagiarism is, and most has been conducted in the USA or the UK. The aim of the present study is to develop a better understanding of how students construct plagiarism by using group discussion to explore the range of opinions regarding students’ perceptions of plagiarism．