Academic Honesty Policy

HUSEYIN AVNI SOZEN ANATOLIAN HIGH SCHOOL 

            ACADEMIC HONESTY POLICY

The principle of this document is the cornerstone of values of academic honesty among HASAL students and teachers. Our school is committed to ensure that all school members IB coordinators, teachers, students, management body and parents accept responsibilities of academic practice and prevent misconduct. Additionally, students must demonstrate academic honesty and accept that their breaches of the regulations must be penalised.

As stated in the IB Learner Profile, we are guided by two attributes of the IB Learner Profile describing the students as "principled", acting with integrity and honesty, justice and respect for the dignity of the individual, groups and communities and "reflective", being able to assess their own strengths and limitations to thrive and support their personal development.

At HASAL, students and parents are supposed to acknowledge the regulations of academic integrity and sign the document after reading the "declaration of academic policy."

HASAL acknowledges that HASAL Academic Honesty Policy aligns with IBO's Academic Honesty Policy ('Academic Honesty in the IB educational context' 2014). Therefore any circumstance, not specifically defined in this document, will be referred to IBO guide and regulations.

Definition

Academic Honesty can be defined as production of "authentic "work without cheating, stealing or helping others or replicating someone else's work.

Academic Misconduct

Academic Misconduct is any type of attempt gaining unfair advantage in relation to academic work, which is the result of unintentional or intentional actions. Here there are some actions of academic misconduct explained below, but are not limited to:

Plagiarism: Replication or presenting of someone else's work intentionally or unwittingly. Plagiarism could be a deliberate action to get better grades or unintentional behaviour because of forgetfulness such as failing to use quotation or citation when necessary.

Collusion: Supporting academic dishonesty by helping another student, working with someone else and permitting one's work to be copied.

Duplication of work: Submitting of the same work for different assessments and IBDP requirements.

Academic Dishonesty during the IB Exam: An attempt disrupting the examination such as talking, copying another student's work, sending notes, taking unauthorized material or equipment during the exam.

Acknowledging Sources:

• It is important to footnote all materials from any source including all phrases, sentences, illustrations, graphs, charts, maps, data and similar material.
• Sources including email messages, CD-ROMS, websites on the internet, any other printed and electronic media such as magazines, journals and books.
• Any idea of someone else's should be written either in footnotes or in text in parenthesis.
• Students should bear in mind that sloppy research techniques may result in plagiarism. It is important to plan ahead and not to procrastinate while writing research papers.

HASAL prefers MLA system while acknowledging sources.

Students Responsibilities:

Each IB DP student is responsible for:

• To ensure the work they submitted for assessment is authentic.
• To know and understand that they should fully and correctly acknowledge the work and ideas of others.
• To comply with all school deadlines for their assessment submissions.

Teachers Responsibilities:

• Being vigilant in case of academic dishonesty.
• Supporting and acting on the academic honesty guidelines on good academic practice and giving the students proper guidance about regulations of acknowledgement.
• Identifying the work which is not/ may not be authentic of the candidate.
• Checking the deadlines for assignment submissions, including all internal assessments.
• Supporting the students in research and study skills and giving adequate requirements of proper citation in their own discipline areas.
• Warning the students about the consequences of being negligent while recording sources or neglecting for the origin of material in their work.
• Acting as good role models for students in academic practice.

IBDP Coordinator and School Administration Responsibilities:

• Applying the IBO regulations and instructions promoting academic practice and academic honesty. ( www.ibo.org)
• Supporting IBO fully in preventing and investigating of malpractice.
• Informing IBDP students and the staff via media what constitutes HASAL academic honesty and how malpractice can be prevented.
• Ensuring that all IBDP students and parents are informed and they have signed a copy of "declaration of academic honesty" and confirmed the responsibility of acting good practice.

Principles for dealing with and consequences of malpractice:

At HASAL, we emphasize the significance of preventing academic misconduct in order that the students should realize the requirements of academic honesty and rules for citation. At any case of academic dishonesty, IBDP students may be penalized and regulations will be enforced.

Practical steps that can be taken for each academic misconduct include as follows:

• Investigating of misconduct.
• Holding a student meeting with the teacher related to the incident.
• Informing the IBDP Coordinator and the Head of School.
• Informing parent(s).
• Holding a meeting with the student, parent, teacher, the IBDP Coordinator and The Head of School.
• Preparing a report about the incident including the students file and appropriate documents.

Internal Sanctions:

There might be some cases that will be dealt by the school for malpractice incidences in which all assignments and internal exams will include:

First Infraction ( Offense) :

The student will be warned by the teacher and expected to re-do the work. Parents will be informed and malpractice is supposed to be recorded by the school. In case of cheating attempt during internal exam in order to get unfair advantage and mislead the teacher, the student will receive a "zero" and the incident will be reported to the head of school and IBDP Coordinator. Disciplinary Hearing Committee will enforce appropriate regulations for the disciplinary consequences.

Second Infraction ( Offense ) :

The student will receive "zero" and a disciplinary letter will be prepared. Parents will be informed by the Head of School that the student will receive disciplinary consequences. The malpractice incident will be documented in school reports.

Third Infraction ( Offense ) :

When a student is caught on 3rd breach of academic misconduct, the IBDP Coordinator and the Head of School will be informed for further action. Suspension may be recommended for such repeated offenses or even withdrawal from IBDP Programme.

Investigation of Malpractice:

• The IBDP Coordinator is supposed to inform that malpractice may have happened during the exam.
• When an examiner suspects the malpractice and evidence is given for the suspicion by the examiner.
• When an examination material is suspected to be unauthentic work by the IB member of the staff and evidence is provided for the suspicion.
• The IBDP Coordinator is informed by the head of examinations that a student is being investigated.
• The Head of School is informed by the IBDP Coordinator about the incident.
• IBCA will be provided by the IBDP Coordinator as follows:
• Statements from both the student and the subject teacher or EE Supervisor.
• Statement from IBDP Coordinator.
• Summary of interview with the student related to allegation of misconduct.

An investigation may process as follows:

• The student is and shown that there is a doubt in his work in relation to authenticity.
• The work should be done if a student acknowledges that the work is not his own.
• If the student insists that the work is authentic, a statement should be written by the subject teacher explaining why he believes there is doubt in student's work.
• A meeting should be held by the IBDP Coordinator, the student, parent and the subject teacher and a record of meeting is supposed to be kept.
• The student needs to prove the work is his own, otherwise; the school can enter F for the work.

MALPRACTICE SANCTIONS

• The student will receive "zero" for assessment if plagiarism is not much.
• If all parts of assignments are found to have been plagiarized, no grade will be awarded, which means the student will not awarded Diploma.
• If a CAS record is found to have been falsified, no Diploma will be awarded until 12 months after the examination session. The CAS report needs to be completed again.
• The students will not be allowed to re-register for exams session if malpractice is serious.
• If new evidence is provided to the final award committee, an appeal may be reviewed.

ACADEMIC HONESTY CONTRACT

HASAL is committed to encourage students to respect academic honesty and the work for others. Malpractice, plagiarism or giving or receiving unfair help is not acceptable in our school. With this rule, students are expected to read and sign the following contract for all academic work.

Academic Honesty Contract

With this signed document, I, as ( student name) ..................................................... declare that any unfair advantage is neither given or received for this work that I now submit. I have read the HASAL Academic Policy and understood the guidelines on academic integrity.

Student Name and ID:                                                                 Student's Signature

..............................................                                                        ..........................................

Parent  Name:                                                                                Parent Signature

.......................................                                                              .............................................

REFERENCES:

• The Responsibilities of IB World Schools ( Published November 2017)
• Academic Honesty in the IB educational context (Published August 2014)
• Rules for IB World School : Diploma Programme ( Published April 2014)
• IBO Academic honesty ( Published July 2009)