The Problem of Plagiarism Essay

The problem of plagiarism is of great concern to many teachers who want to ensure that learners can acquire knowledge and skills. On the whole, this behavior significantly decreases the value of education. This issue is particularly relevant to people who study art and design. Creativity and originality have to be the top priorities for them. If students do not develop these qualities, it is unlikely that they will become good artists. Therefore, it is vital to change the attitudes of learners who should remember that plagiarism will not help attain their professional goals. Moreover, teachers should work on the development of more challenging and interesting tasks that can engage students. This paper is aimed at discussing these questions in more detail.

It should be borne in mind that in some cases, it is difficult to prove that a certain person relied on the ideas of other people without giving credit to them. Educators, who teach art and design, also face such a difficulty because students can incorporate the creative thoughts of other people and elaborate or modify them. However, they must take independent decisions in order to create artistic works. Yet, this result is impossible to attain provided that students simply choose to use the materials posted by other people. This is one of the aspects that can be identified.

This issue becomes particularly important at the time when Internet technologies provide many opportunities for students who can get access to numerous informational resources. In some cases, they rely on websites that can provide plenty of information for them. They can rely on them while writing their papers or taken exams. As it has been said before, such practices undermine the value of education.

An educator, who notices that the contents of the paper could be taken from Wikipedia, has every reason to be concerned about this problem. In this case, plagiarism means that learners decided to do the assigned task without relying on their knowledge, skills, or creativity. They simply preferred to copy the work of others. This is vital for teachers to change the values of students who should know that plagiarism is a form of self-deception. In other words, learners, who act in this way, believe that the ultimate goal of education is a good grade. Yet, they forget about such things as knowledge, skills, critical thinking, and creativity. This is the main problem that should not be disregarded.

Moreover, the instances of plagiarism can also indicate that the teacher failed to provide the interesting and challenging task to learners. It is possible that they did not see the value of this task. This possibility should also be taken into account. Therefore, educators need to modify the assignments that they provide to learners. Such an approach can also increase the effectiveness of education.

This discussion indicates that plagiarism is one of the threats to the quality of education. The study of art and design is also based on the premise that students comply with the principles of academic and artistic integrity. More importantly, they should attach importance to creativity and novelty of their work. This is why this problem of plagiarism should not be overlooked. Additionally, it is vital to work on instructional design and the development of challenging tasks. Finally, they must demonstrate that plagiarism is not compatible with learning and education.