The Effect of International Baccalaureate Program on High School Students’ Misconceptions Regarding Plagiarism

Abstract

Writing research and project assignments based on scientific ethical principles becomes challenging for high school students when they have lack of research and writing experiences. Plagiarism is the most encountered problem for students while writing their research assignments. Students can act to plagiarize not only consciously but unconsciously in cases of misconceptions. The main aim of the present study is to find the success of the IB program which includes targets of enhancing academic honesty and related skills in deleting plagiarism related misconceptions. The research is carried out including 114 students who participate in IB program and those 225 students who did not participate in an IB program. Data is collected via 3 Likert type test which was constructed by the researchers. SPSS program was utilized for data analysis. Frequencies and percentages for each test item was calculated and discussed. Adding Chi-square statistical analysis was used to reveal and discuss the significant differences, if so, between the two groups of students regarding each test item. The IB program was found to be successful in specific plagiarism types, but must be improved for more significant results.