We were joined at our last department meeting of the year by Nancy and Ben for a discussion of research skills and projects in the Humanities department. As often happens, the meeting raised more issues than it resolved, though we began some useful discussions about academic integrity, appropriate sources and scaffolding the research process. (Each of these topics could be the basis of a future department meeting.)Academic Integrity
Ben made the interesting observation that there is a wide gulf of understanding between American and Asian students on the issue of plagiarism and intellectual property.
Is there a productive way we could address this issue in a class or integration activity? We might compare several examples of papers that make use of secondary sources and determine if they do so in an appropriate way. It might be interesting to hear the students' feedback on papers which offer the same progression of argument and textual support as the Summary & Analysis page of Sparknotes. Do the students think this counts as a kind of plagiarism? If not, why not?
Scaffolding
Thinking about reducing plagiarism led to a productive discussion of the pace and structure of our assignments. Throughout the grade levels, students get good practice with Works Cited format, annotated bibliography and thesis formulation. However, there may be more we can do to support their work with sources. Can we build in more structured exercises using a variety of source materials? Ben offered Document Based Questions as a useful model: these are short, focused exercises that allow students an opportunity to explore a research question while interacting with both primary and secondary sources. It would be ideal if we could increase the students' comfort level with the many databases that are available through the school and the Seattle Public libraries (thus also decreasing their tendency to go to Wikipedia and Google). Perhaps we could create an exercise that required them to compare ProQuest, J-Stor and e-library?
Finally, John pointed out that it might be helpful to be more explicit about the skills involved in reading for research: scanning a source for specific information and skimming to assess its relevance are techniques that need to be explicitly practiced with international students--and perhaps with domestic students as well.
Hey, that picture's the Jefferson Reading Room at the Library of Congress! I been there!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, just an anecdotal observation regarding research: today, my section of 9th grade students had a chance to do some unguided internet research about the "Columbian Exchange," and many of them made unprompted use of the library links and databases, such as ABC-Clio. Later in the day, my 10th grade section, which has just embarked on their "talk show" panel research, was in the library/lab. Again, most made effective and efficient use of both print and electronic resources.
My assessment is that we are doing a good range of research projects, and that their efficacy in terms of skill transmission will only increase as we become ever more coordinated, consistent, and intentional within and between the grade-levels.