Plagiarism has been a growing concern among institutions and academics in recent years. To address the problem, and to alleviate the growing trend of this academic misconduct, students’ perceptions of plagiarism should be considered. This study explores students’ self-perception and actual understanding of plagiarism, and the relations between them. Survey responses were collected from 433 students in a Hong Kong junior secondary school. Results reveal that students show different understanding towards ‘obvious’ and ‘obscure’ plagiarism, with misunderstanding or misconception more likely arising over obscure plagiarism. This study also reports that students’ self-perception on their understanding of plagiarism differed across grade levels, and their academic performance of inquiry-based learning has a relation to their self-perceived and actual understanding of plagiarism. Implications for improving the teaching and learning of plagiarism are discussed.
AlamLS (2004) Is plagiarism more prevalent in some forms of assessment than others. In: Beyond the comfort zone: Proceedings of the 21st ASCILITE conference, Perth, Australia, 5–8 December 2004, pp 48–57. Available at: http://www.ascilite.org/conferences/perth04/procs/pdf/alam.pdf (accessed 27 August 2019).
2.
AppiahMK (2016) The evil that men do in academics: Understanding plagiarism and its extenuating circumstance. British Journal of Education4(6): 56–67.
3.
AshworthPBannisterP, Thorne P and Students on the Qualitative Research Methods Course Unit (1997) Guilty in whose eyes? University students’ perceptions of cheating and plagiarism in academic work and assessment. Studies in Higher Education22(2): 187–203.
4.
BennettR (2005) Factors associated with student plagiarism in a post-1992 university. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education30(2): 137–162.
5.
CarrollJ (2002) A Handbook for Deterring Plagiarism in Higher Education. Oxford: Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development.
6.
CarrollJ (2005) Handling student plagiarism: Moving to mainstream. Brookes eJournal of Learning and Teaching1(2): 1–5.
7.
ChuSKW (2012) Assessing information literacy: A case study of Primary 5 students in Hong Kong. School Library Media Research15: 1–24.
8.
ChuSKW (2014) Developing 21st century skills with plagiarism-free inquiry learning, collaborative teaching, social media, and gamification. In: Learning and Teaching Expo 2014, Hong Kong, December 2014.
9.
ChuSWKHuX (2016) Surveys on plagiarism in assignments of students in secondary schools and introduction of UPCC model in avoiding plagiarism. In: Social Media 2016: 25th international education and technology conference, Hong Kong.
10.
ChyungSYRobertsKSwansonI, et al. (2017) Evidence-based survey design: The use of a midpoint on the Likert scale. Performance Improvement56(10): 15–23.
11.
CizekGJ (1999) Cheating on Tests: How to Do It, Detect It, and Prevent It. London: Routledge.
12.
Comas-ForgasRSureda-NegreJ (2010) Academic plagiarism: Explanatory factors from students’ perspective. Journal of Academic Ethics8(3): 217–232.
13.
CroasmunJTOstromL (2011) Using Likert-type scales in the Social Sciences. Journal of Adult Education40(1): 19–22.
14.
DantDR (1986) Plagiarism in high school: A survey. English Journal75(2): 81–84.
15.
DobrovskaDPokornyA (2007) Avoiding plagiarism and collusion. In: International conference on engineering education ICEE 2017, Coimbra, Portugal, 3–7 September 2007. Available at: http://icee2007.dei.uc.pt/proceedings/papers/112.pdf (accessed 16 August 2019).
16.
FinnKVFroneMR (2004) Academic performance and cheating: Moderating role of school identification and self-efficacy. Journal of Educational Research97(3): 115–121.
17.
FishRMHuraGM (2013) Students’ perceptions of plagiarism. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning13(5): 33–45.
18.
GlendinningI (2014) Responses to student plagiarism in higher education across Europe. International Journal for Educational Integrity10(1).
19.
GulliferJTysonGA (2010) Exploring university students’ perceptions of plagiarism: A focus group study. Studies in Higher Education35(4): 463–481.
HuddSSApgarCBronsonEF, et al. (2009) Creating a campus culture of integrity: Comparing the perspectives of full- and part-time faculty. Journal of Higher Education80(2): 146–177.
22.
JonesDL (2011) Academic dishonesty: Are more students cheating?Business Communication Quarterly74(2): 141–150.
23.
KikuchiKBrowneC (2009) English educational policy for high schools in Japan: Ideals vs. reality. RELC Journal40(2): 172–191.
24.
KoulRClarianaRBJitgarunK, et al. (2009) The influence of achievement goal orientation on plagiarism. Learning and Individual Differences19(4): 506–512.
25.
KwongTNgHMMarkKP, et al. (2010) Students’ and faculty’s perception of academic integrity in Hong Kong. Campus-Wide Information Systems27(5): 341–355.
26.
LeeCWYChuSKWChengJOY, et al. (2016) Plagiarism-free inquiry project-based learning with UPCC pedagogy. In: ASIS&T 2016 annual meeting, Copenhagen, Denmark, 14–18 October 2016. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.2016.14505301033 (accessed 27 August 2019).
27.
LiuWCWangCKJParkinsEJ (2005) A longitudinal study of students’ academic self-concept in a streamed setting: The Singapore context. British Journal of Educational Psychology75(4): 567–586.
28.
MaHLuEYTurnerS, et al. (2007) An empirical investigation of digital cheating and plagiarism among middle school students. American Secondary Education35(2): 69–82.
29.
MacatangayJ (2015) Understanding, perception and prevalence of plagiarism among college freshman students of De La Salle Lipa, Philippines. International Journal of Social Science and Humanity5(8): 672–676.
MadrayA (2007) Developing students’ awareness of plagiarism: Crisis and opportunities. Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal): Paper 134.
32.
MaxwellACurtisGJVardanegaL (2008) Does culture influence understanding and perceived seriousness of plagiarism?International Journal for Educational Integrity4(2).
33.
MokhtarIAMajidSFooS (2008) Information literacy education: Applications of mediated learning and multiple intelligences. Library and Information Science Research30(3): 195–206.
34.
NewlonGJ (2009) Plagiarism in high schools: A case study of how teachers address a perpetual dilemma. EdD Dissertation, West Virginia University, USA.
35.
Rodríguez-TrianaMJPrietoLPVozniukA, et al. (2017) Monitoring, awareness and reflection in blended technology enhanced learning: A systematic review. International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning9(2/3): 126–150.
36.
ScanlonPMNeumannDR (2002) Internet plagiarism among college students. Journal of College Student Development43(3): 374.
37.
SearsA (2004) Mind the gap: Prospects for easing the transition from high school to university. Guidance & Counseling19(4): 166–172.
38.
SistiDA (2007) How do high school students justify internet plagiarism?Ethics and Behavior17(3): 215–231.
39.
SiuFLCChanRCHChuSKW (2014) Developing information literacy among liberal studies students in Hong Kong. In: 12th Annual Hawaii international conference on education, Honolulu, Hawaii, 5–9 January 2014.
40.
SmithJKGivenLMJulienH, et al. (2013) Information literacy proficiency: Assessing the gap in high school students’ readiness for undergraduate academic work. Library & Information Science Research35(2): 88–96.
41.
WalkerJ (2010) Measuring plagiarism: Researching what students do, not what they say they do. Studies in Higher Education35(1): 41–59.
42.
XiaoCYeJEstevesRM, et al. (2016) Using Spearman’s correlation coefficients for exploratory data analysis on big dataset. Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience28(14): 3866–3878.
43.
YeungAHChuCBChuSKW, et al. (2018) Exploring junior secondary students’ plagiarism behavior. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science50(4): 361–373.
