Academic Honesty within the Learning Environments - Essay Example

Academic Honesty ID Lecturer Academic honesty is a very significant tenet within the learning environments. The emphasis on having academic honesty is indeed for the betterment of the students, the instructors and the learning environment in essence. There is a great deal of attention paid towards this subject of late and the reason as to why academic honesty is deemed as an important area under the field of academics is because education demands of individuals to remain truthful about their learning capacities. It would be a great disservice to the learning environment if academic honesty is not a part of it. Academic instructors and the people at the helm of affairs within the learning regimes have long and hard focused on the incorporation of honesty so that the students could manifest their true selves within the coming times. They would be able to better mold their lives in accordance with the legal and moral aspects of the time. Academic honesty needs to be inculcated within the students so that they understand its true meaning as well as the implications that could be had once these students are honest within their respective dealings, in a learning environment. The encouragement must come from the teachers, the authorities at school and the parents. Essentially, academic honesty is a much desired proposition in the time and age of today. The reason for the same is that its compulsive use is not undertaken by the different segments of the society. There is not a great amount of focus on being academically honesty as per one’s learning undertakings and efforts. The idea generally is to have work done in a quick manner without much hassle. There is the element of being swift as far as the academic undertakings are concerned and this indeed leaves a very bad taste in the mouth, speaking strictly from an educational standpoint. This subject looks to pinpoint the grey areas within the field of academics and how the same could prove to be a vital cog in the wheel of a learning environment (Elias, 2003). Having said that it is important to know that academic honesty would essentially lay the foundation for a better career of a student and he would develop upon his skills and harness his strengths in a much better fashion, than ever envisaged without the missing ingredient of academic honesty. It would make him realize where his shortcomings are and how the same would provide him the much needed strengths in the coming phases of his life. Academic honesty therefore is something that needs to be understood within the proper settings. The facilitation for the same must come from the different learning environments – all of which embody growth and development for the students in the long run. The failure to have academic honesty incorporated within the domains of an educational environment lies with the educational and learning authorities. It could be a fact that the manner in which this academic honesty seems as a missing link is dependent on their inaction on the subject at hand. Some attention must have been missing and the steps that needed to be taken were left to the mercy of individuals who were unable to carry out the same. The reasons could be manifolds, from their inability to lack of motivation, but what one must understand here is the fact that the entire learning environment suffers as a result of the same. The learning environment bears the brunt of such wrong policies which induct individuals who have very less knowledge of the relevant subjects and how academic honesty at the end of the day turns into academic dishonesty without much attention and focus paid on its eventual manifestation. It is a fact that being honest within an academic environment is a thing of the past and there is solid evidence available for such a scenario to have taken its roots from (Eecke, 2006). The ethical concerns raised in the wake of academic honesty regimes suggest that there have been mistakes committed by people who were indeed responsible for making the learning environment an error-free one. However one could be optimistic in thought and purpose, as far as learning environments of the present and the coming times are concerned. Proper attention will eventually make one and all realize about the shortcomings that the present day academic systems have and what opportunities there could be for the people to understand and learn from, at the same time. Academic honesty gets marred whenever there are cases of plagiarism within the learning environments. What this means is that plagiarism essentially does more harm than any other thing possible. Plagiarism comes about when the student priorities are not set in a correct fashion. They learn that copying others’ stuff will make their own work get easy and hence they would have to strive less as compared to when they have to complete their assignments from scratch. This is a serious offence and one which must not be taken lightly by the academicians. The reason for the same is that academic dishonesty can have serious repercussions and plagiarism is one such act that leaves a lot to understand within the midst of the diverse educational regimes in place. Academic honesty is thus a far-fetched proposition in the current times due to the fact that the students like to take it easy. They do not want to mingle in research and inquiry, their emphasis is on getting their tasks completed without letting the other person know how they got there. The Internet is not helping their cause either. Much of the academic work is available online and this has raised a number of different issues within the learning environments of late. With the advent of Internet, the students have understood the fact that they can now easily copy-paste stuff and there would be no one who will find out the very same (Macdonald, 2003). Fortunately, on the part of the authorities within the learning environments, there are now different software available within the market which can detect for copied stuff off the Internet and there are serious ramifications once a student is caught in such acts. Thus it is advisable for a student to keep away from such settings so that he remains clean within his learning environment. The students need to discard off their malpractices for the better of their learning regimes, their educational undertakings and indeed for their own selves. This will give them a clear and contented conscience at the end of the day. It will also make them realize that they gave their best shot and there was absolutely nothing wrong with their completion of their education. The priorities need to be set in a correct fashion, so that nearly everyone takes a positive aspect out of this (Alfassi, 2003). The role of ethics and morals within this debate is of essence since any unethical act within the academic domains is equivalent to forgery and crime in the legal realms. A student who is dishonest would resort to such wrong measures within his coming life time, and there is solid reasoning available for this to happen. There is little doubt that parents want the same from their young ones, all they require is a whole-hearted effort and commitment shown on the part of their kids. All said and done, the role of academic honesty within a learning environment is an immense one and all attention must be paid on the fact that students should be academically honest and true to their own selves first and foremost. This will pave the way for their other undertakings as well. References Alfassi, M. (2003). Promoting the Will and Skill of Students at Academic Risk: An Evaluation of an Instructional Design Geared to Foster Achievement, Self-Efficacy and Motivation. Journal of Instructional Psychology, Vol. 30 Eecke, W. (2006). The Ethic of Honesty: The Fundamental Rule of Psychoanalysis. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, Vol. 37 Elias, M. (2003). Implementation, Sustainability, and Scaling Up of Social-Emotional and Academic Innovations in Public Schools. School Psychology Review, Vol. 32 Macdonald, R. (2003). The Student Lifeworld and the Meanings of Plagiarism. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, Vol. 34 Word Count: 1,269 Read More