AÇI SCHOOLS’ ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICY

As per their educational philosophy, Açı Schools aim to raise independent, curious and happy students who adopt universal values as a principle.

At Açı Schools, students can discover themselves and their interests in a safe, inspiring, encouraging and motivating learning environment; Many learning experiences are offered, where they can relate what they have learned to real life and share their knowledge with their peers and other people.

These opportunities guide the students to develop their academic, social and emotional skills, to realize that they have responsibilities towards the society they live in, to develop their empathy skills and to respect differences. They also help them develop organizational and communication skills. All these studies are based on the principles of academic honesty.

WHAT IS ACADEMIC INTEGRITY?

Academic integrity is a set of values that reflects individual honesty, good practices in learning and teaching, and objectivity in assessment. A student who adopts the principles of academic honesty behaves in accordance with ethical values in all circumstances without being affected by peer influence or family expectations.

Our students are guided throughout their school life on the importance of academic honesty and the benefits of honest and properly conducted academic studies. Starting from the first grade of primary school, our students learn to respect all kinds of ideas and products of effort that do not belong to themselves and to show the resources they use in their studies in accordance with the rules.

 

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY PRACTICES

Citation is to state who owns any idea or work used. Whether the content quoted or referred to is transmitted in its original form or by changing the narration, the source must be indicated in the text. The person who transmits information in any form must bear the responsibility of showing the source of the information. The “Bibliography” section at the end of the study is not sufficient for citing references. The information in your work should also be shown in the text by quoting and citing. So citation includes referencing; citation and providing bibliography.

Why should we cite sources?

1. Because we are honest individuals:
This is a sign of honesty. Suppose you are an engineer, an inventor, or a thinker who has a groundbreaking new idea or invention. Two months later, you read an article that uses your ideas or inventions, and the article author does not state that the opinions are your own. How would you feel? Would it be appropriate if another student used your ideas for their own work and never mentioned it? A person who adopts academic honesty shows the sources he cited in his academic writings, respects the work of the people who produced the ideas, and acts with the principle of honesty.

2. In order to complete a piece of work in line with expectations:
When you cite the source, you share with your teacher that you have found the right sources and that you have developed your ideas by reading them.

3. To show which of the ideas in the whole article are yours:
If you cite references in the text, your teacher can distinguish between the ideas you have learned by reading about the subject and the ideas you have developed yourself.

4. To provide opportunities for further learning by sharing resources on the subject:
By citing references, you also guide readers to obtain more information by making use of the sources if they wish so.

Originality means to be made for the first time, not to be a copy, not to be like anything else, but to be original. An original study is based on the student’s individual, original ideas and research results. For this reason, all work, written or spoken, should include the student’s own language and expressions. When cited or refrenced these sources must be fully and accurately mentioned.

 

BEHAVIOR WITH NO ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s ideas or work as their own without attribution. Rewriting these ideas or studies in their own words and not citing the source is also considered plagiarism. Plagiarism can be done in all publication and publication formats. Our students and teachers are required to cite the source when quoting from the internet (drawings, pictures, photographs, maps, graphics, etc.).

Cheating is providing information from another source or another person’s worksheet, homework, project, etc. Duplication is when a student uses the same assignment, part of the same assignment, or a similar one in another work.

Connivance (Collaboration) is supporting another student’s behavior against academic dishonesty. An example of condoning (consulting or collaborating) is when someone else cheats on an academic work for which the student is individually responsible, or allows them to present it as their own.

OUR RESPONSIBILITIES WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

A Student Adopting Academic Honesty,
• knows that it is unethical to try to cheat, cheat and support cheating during written and oral evaluations and adopts ethical practice.
• knows that any behavior that will disrupt the evaluation order during written and oral assessments will violate the rights of other students and avoids this.
• knows that he/she should not attempt to learn written and oral evaluation questions from others.
• knows that it is unethical to access and make changes to the system records.
• knows that under no circumstances should he/she make any changes to his/her evaluated written papers.
• knows that it is not appropriate to share the data obtained in homework tasks or projects with others without the permission of his advisor.
• completes homework and projects with his/her own effort, submits his/her own work.
• shows the source for all visual materials such as pictures, photographs, video images, maps taken from websites or books.
• In cases where group work is allowed, at the end of the work, he presents his product in his own words and in an original way, as in individual work.
• Knows that it would not be ethical to present another student’s materials, products or a part of that product as their own product and acts accordingly.
• During assessment practices he/she only uses the authorized tools. (Calculator etc.)
• Uses the ideas put forward in another work by citing sources in his own work.
• Uses library resources in a way that does not prevent others from doing research.

A Teacher Who Adopts Academic Honesty,
• Adopts the academic honesty policy of the school and reflects it on its own practices, and becomes a role model for the students.
• guides all students about academic honesty. At each grade level, opportunities are created to increase students’ awareness of academic integrity at the beginning of each academic term and throughout the year.
• does not have any prejudices during studies and evaluations and avoids being judgmental.
• determines concrete criteria for evaluations and and informs the students about it.
• Encourages self-evaluation.
• Treats every student equally.
• Has the responsibility of guiding the students correctly during their research.
• Provides students with equal access to all educational materials, achievement assessments and interviews.
• Does not hesitate to talk to students about the difficulties they experience during their academic studies, and displays an open and encouraging attitude towards them.
• organizes the assessment and evaluation environment in accordance with academic honesty expectations.
• Starts and ends assessment assessments on time.
• provides equal opportunities for the students before, during and after assessments.
• is responsible for ensuring the safety of measurement and evaluation papers.
• marks the assessment and evaluation papers carefully and distributes them to the
students and does not change the results for any reason other than misreading.
• Provides studies that will allow for original thought and creativity.
• updates the assessment and evaluation topics and questions for each year.
• does not do any student’s homework or project for him.
• knows the need to reach concrete evidence in cases where academic honesty is
thought to be violated and applies the necessary procedures in this regard.

A School Adopting Academic Honesty,
• Ensures the implementation of the academic honesty policy in all units of the school, informs the school community about the expectations.
• conducts educational studies and organizes events so that academic honesty policy is put into practice.
• clearly identifies the situations that students, teachers and counselors will face in case of violation of academic integrity and informs them about this issue.
• makes the necessary technological infrastructure available to counselors and teachers to ensure academic honesty and to investigate possible plagiarism.
• Provides necessary training and relevant guidance to students about research techniques and scientific writing.
• carries out necessary practices in case of violation of academic honesty.

Parents Who Adopt Academic Honesty,
• Adopts the academic honesty policy of the school and their support becomes a role model for their children.
• Cooperates with the school on the actions to be taken in case of violation of academic honesty.
• Supports and enables the student to carry out all kinds of studies within the framework of academic honesty.

 

PRACTICES WITH NO ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

First of all, the teacher tries to understand the reasons for the behavior by discussing this situation with the student. The important thing is for the student to understand why the behavior is not appropriate and to turn this experience into an opportunity to acquire the right behavior.

• If the student acts against academic honesty in the written evaluations, the student’s work is evaluated according to the criteria determined according to the school policy.
• The family of the student who violates academic honesty in homework, projects and presentations and in written evaluations is also informed.
• Students who violate academic integrity lose their right to represent their school or class within the same academic year.
• “School Award and Discipline Regulation” of the Ministry of National Education for behaviors that do not comply with academic honesty provisions also apply.
• All teachers, administrators and students are aware of the above notions of academic honesty and responsible for the implementation and the follow-up.

AÇI PRIMARY SCHOOL CITATION GUIDE

1st and 2nd grade expectations

Books Author’s Surname, Name, the title of the book.


3rd and 4th grade expectations

Books Author’s Surname, Name, the title of the book.
Magazines Author’s Surname, Name, the title of the magazine
Internet Sources Author’s Surname, Name. ‘’Page name or the title’’

 

AÇI MIDDLE SCHOOL CITATION GUIDE

MLA CITATION GUIDE (MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION)
Books Author’s Surname, Name. Title of the book. Publishing place:Publisher, Publishing date, total page number.
Magazine Author’s Surname, Name. “Article’s name” Magazine’s Title. Volume (Magazine’s Date ): page number.
Newspaper Author’s Surname, Name. “Title of the Article” Heading of the newspaper, Date.
Web Author’s surname, Name. “Page Title or name ” Date. .
Visuals Surname of the Person, Name. Date .

 

AÇI HIGH SCHOOL CITATION GUIDE

Books with one writer Author’s Surname, Name. Book’s Title. Publishing Place: Publisher, Date.
Books with two writers Author’ Surname, Name and Author’s Name and Surname.Book’s Title. Publication Place: Publisher, Publication Date.
Books with more then 3 writers Surname, Name and others. Book’sTitle. Publication Place: Publisher, Publication Date.
Online book Author’s Surname, First Name. Book’s Title. Released date. Date of access.

 
Encyclopedia “Article Title.” Encyclopedia Name, Publication Date
Magazine Author’s Surname, First Name. “Article Title”. Journal Title Vol. Number (Year): Page no. If there is no author (journal name and page number in quotation marks)
Newspaper Author’s Surname, First Name. “Article Title” Newspaper Title, Date.
Movies Movie’s name. Director Name. Film Production Company Name, Production Year. Film
Interviews Surname, First Name of Interviewee. Personal Interview. Interview Date
Online Articles Author’s Surname, Name “Title of Text” (date of source, if any) Date of Access.

 
Recordings-videos Director’s Surname, First Name. Title of the product. Other contributors or institutions. Format. Publication Company’s  Name, Date
Performance Performance Name. Author’s Name Surname. Director’s Name and surname. Performer’s Name and surname. The place where the work is staged. The city where the work was staged. The date the performance was viewed.
Photographs taken by the students The title describing the subject. City. Photo taken by the author himself. The date when the Photo was taken.
Photographs taken by other individuals Artist’s Surname, First Name. Title of the Work. Production/Shooting year. Type. The museum/gallery it is in. Current City

 

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