In the Winter Term of 1990, Prof. Griver Parulava gave us an assignment to write a course paper on any topic of Old Georgian Literature. All students who used but did not quote the respective scholarly sources failed his class and this was a first lesson for all of us. In 1993 I was writing a paper for students’ conference and I based my paper on my own findings and observation, but I suffered from my supervisor, Prof. Rismag Gordeziani. He was questioning every paragraph, every sentence and idea of my paper, asking if I have read them somewhere. I was frightened and I got a kind of “childhood trauma” and since that time I am questioning every paragraph of my work. 

What is important: None of these legendary scholars never mentioned the term plagiarism (and in that time there was not a legislation regulating this issue), but they gave to me and my classmates a lesson forever that if you use the ideas and words of others, you should mention them. In 1990 and 1993 there was not a legislation about the plagiarism, but there was an academic and quality culture in place. These two legendary scholars were anti-plagiarists before the anti-plagiarism legislation.  

I strongly believe that the concrete, personal examples, everyday activities and academic culture (the environment we observe around us) are essential and the most effective way of teaching. 

PS. How, using which assessment tool could we assess the effectiveness of these two teachers? 

Irine Darchia