Beyond Detection: How Belonging Shapes Academic Integrity in the Age of AI

It's been a little less than three years since the release of ChatGPT. In that time, I've sat with my children—twins who were finishing elementary school at the time and now have progressed most of the way through middle school—and used AI-powered learning tools to create study guides, to act as thought partners, and even to help solve problems when they were stuck. I feel confident that I've done almost all I can do as a parent to model how AI tools can promote learning rather than be a conduit for cognitive offloading.

I know my kids have built up a vocabulary of AI strategies that help them research interesting topics, re-teach topics when their teachers have moved on but they aren't ready to, and provide feedback on their work. Similarly, I'm confident that we've engaged with AI as a family while living within the bounds of academic integrity. And still, I worry about whether I've done enough as a parent to transmit the message that you can use AI as a learning tool, and you can also use AI as a substitute for learning.

At the same time, I've also had the privilege of stepping into schools as a facilitator for workshops exploring how AI can be used in schools by both educators and students. Over the past few years, my sense is that educators are coming to grips with the idea that AI is not going anywhere. LLMs keep getting better at a broader variety of tasks, and AI is becoming pervasive in non-education settings.

As pervasive as the use of AI is, so also is the underlying fear of lack of academic integrity and pessimism surrounding whether AI use can promote learning that has led some teachers, schools, and districts deciding to ban the use of AI outright and then walk that decision back.

Student use of AI tools have left educators who are concerned about both a lack of integrity and potential cognitive offloading feeling like they are trying to hold back the ocean singlehandedly. Ensuring student honesty was never an easy task and it seems like it's become increasingly difficult since the fall of 2022.

Earlier this year, I engaged in a series of conversations with GOA Student Ambassadors about belonging, where they felt like they belonged in school, why, and what it actually meant to belong. One student, Annicka from Hong Kong International School, used the metaphor of a puzzle that has stayed with me: 

"I would sort of think of those really big 700-piece puzzles, and when you're trying to solve them, you know, with some pieces, it's like you first put them together, and you feel like it kind of fits, but not really. And then, when you actually find a place where that puzzle piece fits, it clicks just right. And you know it. Like, it's an instinctual thing where you're like, this works. It works in every sense—the structure of the piece fits, the way they look fits.”

Annicka wasn't the only student I talked to who used the puzzle metaphor, and other students related belonging to their sense of agency and purpose in their learning, and to the relationships they had with others in their learning environments, both online and in person.

The metaphor of belonging as a puzzle is apt. Belonging is positively correlated with better academic and behavioral outcomes. The social connections they have make a difference for how students perform in school. Whether a student feels like they belong also impacts how and whether students seek help when they need it. So, the idea that a student's sense of belonging in class is connected to how they act with integrity shouldn't be terribly surprising.

For a long time now, researchers have described a sense of belonging in school as feeling accepted, respected, included, and supported. When it comes to questions of academic integrity, blaming the tool is an easy way out of getting at the underlying issues that propel academically dishonest behavior. How students behave in and out of class is tied to how they perceive themselves in relationship to others in the learning community.

As researchers at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education note, students are "less likely to cheat when they feel a sense of belonging and connection at school, and when they find purpose and meaning in their classes." When students feel respected and valued, they're more likely to engage in learning and act with integrity.

It's easy to focus on the tool as the reason for the cheating, but this is an oversimplification and feeds into the myth that ChatGPT set ablaze a trend of academically dishonest behavior that didn't exist before.

So, what do we do about it? Let's reframe conversations about academic integrity by broadening the scope of our conversations with students beyond AI plagiarism detectors and discrete infractions. I'm not suggesting that we don't use frameworks to help students understand what acceptable use is and isn't. But I am suggesting that promoting AI use for learning in schools has as much to do with pastoral care as it does with having an updated academic honesty policy.

Of all of the variables that shape student belonging, strong teacher-student relationships are among the most important. When we shift our attention from policing tools to cultivating belonging, we create learning environments where students feel that they fit—where their puzzle piece clicks into place. In those environments, integrity isn't enforced through detection software; it emerges naturally from genuine connection, purpose, and respect.

So, maybe, if we do suspect a student has used digital tools to avoid learning, we should focus as much on why the student made that choice as the tool they used in the process. A word of caution, though. Feeling a strong sense of belonging is not a panacea for all student-related problems. Students might cheat for any variety of reasons: too much homework, too little time, and assignments that seem disconnected from students’ identities and realities all might be reasons why students look for dishonest shortcuts. And we educators need to have conversations about all of those issues. But if we are going to engage in hard conversations about the work students are doing in schools, those conversations need to be grounded in respect, acceptance, inclusion, and support. 

The question isn't whether students will have access to AI. They will. The question is whether they'll feel connected enough to their learning community to use those tools in ways that promote their learning rather than provide a shortcut.

Douglas Beam, Ed.D.
GOA Director of School Membership

Douglas works on the Engagement Team with GOA, supporting key stakeholders in GOA member schools and leading GOA’s Student Ambassador Program. Prior to joining the GOA team, Douglas worked as an educator and leader across schools in Europe, Asia, and North America. He has taught and coordinated programs at the elementary, middle, high school, and graduate levels. In his various leadership roles, including Head of Department, Grade Level Coordinator, IB Middle Years Programme Coordinator, and GOA Site Director, Douglas has focused on collaborative program building, curriculum development, school policy, and pastoral care. He is dedicated to creating inclusive school environments where all students feel a strong sense of belonging. Douglas lives in Dayton, Ohio with his husband and their twin boys.

For more, see:

• Building Belonging: Lessons from GOA Students
• Student Perspective: Reflecting on the Role of AI in Education
• Belonging Beyond the Bell

This post is part of our Shifts in Practice series, which features educator voices from GOA’s network and seeks to share practical strategies that create shifts in educator practice. Are you an educator interested in submitting an article for potential publication on our Insights blog? If so, please read Contribute Your Voice to Share Shifts in Practice and follow the directions. We look forward to featuring your voice, insights, and ideas.

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