Why is following directions important for students

The Psychology of Following Instructions and Its Implications

Am J Pharm Educ. 2020 Aug; 84(8): ajpe7779.

doi: 10.5688/ajpe7779

, PharmD,^a, BS,^a and , PhD^a,^b

Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer

The ability to follow instructions is an important aspect of everyday life. Depending on the setting and context, following instructions results in outcomes that have various degrees of impact. In a clinical setting, following instructions may affect life or death. Within the context of the academic setting, following instructions or failure to do so can impede general learning and development of desired proficiencies. Intuitively, one might think that following instructions requires simply reading instructional text or paying close attention to verbal directions and performing the intended action afterward. This commentary provides a brief overview of the cognitive architecture required for following instructions and will explore social behaviors and mode of instruction as factors further impacting this ability.

Keywords: following instructions, working memory, metacognition, social psychology, teach-back method

Following instructions is an important ability to practice in everyday life. Within an academic setting, following instructions can influence grades, learning subject matter, and correctly executing skills. In this commentary, we provide an overview of the primary factors that influence the ability of an individual to follow instructions. We translate these findings from the psychological literature into practical guidelines to follow in the educational setting.

Literature on following instructions first surfaced in the late 1970s.¹ Researchers observed a subset of housewives who demonstrated a preference to tinker with a new home appliance to get it started or watch a demonstration video on how to set it up rather than read the accompanying instruction manual. Since then, numerous factors that influence following instructions have been investigated including a person’s working memory capacity,^2-6 societal rules,^7-9 history effects,⁷ self-regulatory behavior,^10,11 and instruction format. ^3,6 Although not completely independent of each other, these factors warrant some individual attention to better understand their implications on following instructions.

Working Memory and Following Instructions

Working memory is the brain’s workbench, linking perception, attention, and long-term memory.^12,13 As an example, in the classroom setting, learners may receive information visually from slides and/or auditorily from instructor narration. However, only items that learners pay attention to within the environment enter their working memory. These items are then processed, resulting in the formation of a mental representation (ie, encoding) that effectively moves from working memory to long-term storage. Thus, working memory performance is an important intermediary between perception and learning. Because working memory capacity is limited,¹⁴ a person’s ability to follow instructions may be impacted if the instructional load is greater than that capacity, ultimately leading to information loss (for more information, explore cognitive load theory^15,16). This loss of information may be more pronounced when a task must be performed immediately and the presentation rate of instructions cannot be controlled by the user. Imagine a student named Dennis. During class, Dennis is nervous about an upcoming examination and this emotional state preoccupies his working memory, leading to, in that moment, a lower working memory performance. As a result, when the professor gives verbal instructions for an upcoming assignment, the amount of instructional load supersedes Dennis’ capacity to hold on to those instructions in his working memory. Because he cannot hold on to those instructions, he is less likely to store them in his long-term memory and will not be able to refer to them later when completing the task. To summarize, the ability to hold instructions within working memory is necessary to execute the desired function; thus low working memory performance can compromise a student’s ability to follow instructions.² If a student cannot process or hold instructions in working memory, they will probably fail to complete a given task correctly.

There are two potential strategies to assist the learner in this situation. One strategy is to have the learner immediately act on the received information.¹⁷ A common example of this is the teach-back method, which is a practice of enactment. The practice of enactment has demonstrated greater retention of new information.^4,5 This line of research has shown that the accuracy of recalling instructions was increased when immediately after instruction, actions were performed at both the initial learning phase (ie, encoding) and later during recall. The second strategy is to use different forms of instructions (eg, written and verbal), which allows the learner to control the rate of presentation. If the learner can control the rate, they can review the instructions as needed or go at a slower pace to fully encode the instructions.^18,19

Societal Rules and History Effects

Following instructions is a behavior, and most human behavior depends on social context. Part of the social context is the presence of another individual. The mere presence effect is the phenomenon that human behavior changes when another human is around.⁹ The presence of another person can make an individual more pliant. Being more or less pliant, or pliance, describes behavior that is controlled by a socially mediated consequence. As an example, if an instructor tells a student to write their name at the top of a test sheet and the student does so to gain the instructor’s approval, this is a ply and the student is being pliant. Imagine a student, Angela. She follows instructions because she feels it is a professional expectation that her mentors and peers have. Angela will be pliant because following instructions has a social consequence. For this to occur, however, the instructor must monitor the completion of the task, possess the ability to impose a consequence, and observe the effect of the consequence on the student. Donadeli and colleagues⁸ explored the effect of the magnitude of nonverbal consequences, monitoring, and social consequences on instruction following. They observed that the presence of an observer and social reprimand for not following instructions improved the rates at which people followed instructions. This suggests that societal constructs, such as following authority figures and the fear of reprimand, may be drivers in motivating people to follow directions.

There are two possible ways to address societal effects on following instructions. The first way is to establish an expectation of professionalism by explaining why instruction following is important. This would be consistent with aspects of social identity theory.^20,21 The second way is to create the fear of reprimand. In this case, faculty members hold students responsible for following the rules. This could be with respect to assignment formatting, assignment deadlines, or other aspects that might be tied to a penalty.

Following instructions is affected by the presence of another person even if there is no history of reinforcement for such behavior, suggesting that instructional control may be strengthened by social contingencies. ^7,8 However, societal rules can lead to history effects. If students never receive feedback on or consequences for their inability to follow instructions, history effects dictate they will continue that behavior. Now imagine a student named Amber. Amber wrote down the instructions during class but did not follow them because she generally does well on her assignments despite not completely following the instructions. As such, she abstained from following the rules because a consequence was not associated with not following them.

Metacognition and Self-regulation

Following instructions also depends on self-regulation, ie, a person’s awareness of their own behavior to act in a manner that optimizes their best long-term interests.²² To do so, an individual must be aware of their own thoughts and actions. This awareness plays a role in metacognitive monitoring, or a person’s monitoring of their own thoughts and behaviors.

Metacognition has been described as thinking about thinking. ²³ At its core, it is about planning, monitoring making progress, and evaluating the completion of a process. For instance, if a student is asked to conduct a journal club meeting, the planning stage would involve gaining an understanding of what is required to successfully complete a journal club meeting. This could include time needed for completion or where to look for an article. The monitoring phase is the awareness to review the article and pull out key information. The final part, evaluation, involves checking the work to determine whether goals were met.

Imagine a student named Craig. Craig wrote down instructions for an assignment, but after completing the assignment, he did not review the instructions to ensure he followed them correctly. He failed to monitor his progress. As such, the ability to be metacognitively aware can be a key piece in following instructions. In this case, individuals may not follow instructions because they are poor monitors of their learning. ^22,24-28 Students may not adequately plan before tackling their assignment, such as by reading instructions beforehand. Next, they may not monitor their progress during completion of the assignment. And finally, once students think they have completed the task, they may not go back and read the instructions to ensure they have fulfilled all expectations. To help them with this and other aspects of instruction, students may need to use accountability (societal rules) as a primary source of motivation. Without accountability, students may not follow instructions, thus perpetuating poor metacognitive skills, leading to unawareness of what they know, what they do not know, and the process to correct errors. A strategy may be the use of checklists to help students monitor their thoughts during a process (see Tanner²⁹ and Medina and colleagues³⁰ for a review of methods to develop metacognition).

Verbal vs Written Instructions

When examining best practices for conveying instructions to learners, the instructor should consider whether instructions are best retained and applied if received in a verbal versus a written format. To date, no published studies have examined whether one format offers greater benefit over another; however, one study explored both formats in relation to working memory.⁶

Written instructions are efficient because large amounts of detail can be provided that students can read rapidly. Thus, step-by-step manuals can be found for almost all electronic devices. While there is a large body of literature describing the mechanics of how we read, there are some important points to underscore.⁶ When reading and following instructions, a person will act in the same sequence in which action items are presented in the text. In the television show MASH (season 1, episode 20), one of the characters was instructed to “…cut wires leading to the clockwork fuse at the head, but first remove the fuse.” He proceeded to cut the wires before removing the fuses. He acted in the same sequence in which the instructions were presented but failed to follow the actual instructions. This raises an important point: individuals are more likely to remember instructions when the order is consistent with how events occur. ⁶ Writing instructions according to the sequence of actions the reader needs to take may lead to better results. For example, “do A before doing B’ is a superior form of wording instructions than stating, “before doing A, do B,” as illustrated in the above scenario.

Spoken instructions are advantageous in face-to-face interactions (eg, within the classroom). Spoken instructions are processed through the phonological loop, a component of working memory focused on verbal information, which is more flexible and convenient. Intrinsically, listening requires less effort than reading. Spoken words can also be paired with visual aids to guide action, such as in measuring blood pressure or administering an immunization.⁶ Remarkably, individuals cannot read and follow visual objects at the same time. Combining text with pictures can be more taxing to working memory than combining spoken words and visuals. A drawback associated with spoken words is the rate of presentation. While the speed at which text is read can be controlled by the end user, the instructor’s speed of speech cannot. The phonological loop mediates the ability to hold and process auditory information.^13,31 Items (bits of information) in the phonological store can rapidly decay, and because items are usually chained in such a way that an item primes the next item,³¹ one lost step can lead to the loss of all subsequent steps (eg, if a student cannot remember step 3, she is unlikely to recall any step after that). To prevent this loss, people tend to “rehearse” following instructions by repeating the instructions to themselves.³ Access to both written instructions and verbal instructions may prove beneficial, as written instructions can be referred to if any verbal instruction is missed.

Several factors can impact a student’s ability to follow instructions. Recommendations to increase the probability of learners following instructions are available within the literature (). While these modalities may not guarantee success, these recommendations should increase the probability that most students will follow instructions. Although we cannot extrapolate from current literature whether one mode of instruction delivery is preferred over another, we can apply some of these findings to pharmacy students in a learning environment where instructions are used to guide the completion of deliverables. The first thing the instructor can do is provide both written and verbal instructions. These instructions should be concise, written in student-friendly language, and given in order of operation (ie, step A then step B). Students can read (and reread the written instructions), which should minimize errors resulting from not paying attention or insufficient working memory. Although distracted when verbal instructions were given, a student can review written instructions in a self-paced manner, thus reducing cognitive load and increasing the probability of remembering them. The instructor could then employ metacognitive monitoring and assess the student’s understanding of the instructions by including a checklist within the assignment, ie, a strategy to help Craig monitor his learning and check his work (much like journals have checklists for authors). Finally, the instructor should penalize students for not following the instructions thereby using the social context to reinforce their need to follow instructions. Amber benefits by learning there are consequences for not following instructions. For Dennis and Craig, the threat of punishment in the form of lost points may motivate them to review the instructions to ensure they have done their work correctly, a process which can improve their attention (Dennis) and metacognitive monitoring (Craig).

Table 1.

Common Errors in Following Instructions and Recommendations to Enhance the Probability of Instruction Following

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How To Help Kids Develop This Important Skill

Does it sometimes feel like your child isn’t the greatest at following directions? Or the older they get, the more they want to do everything their way, regardless of the instructions given to them?

Before you start thinking you’re doing something wrong, it’s important to know that you’re not alone. The truth is sometimes our kids are not the most cooperative, and following our instructions isn’t always high on their priority list.

In this article, we’ve compiled a list of effective strategies you can try at home to help them follow directions. Let’s get started!

Why Is Following Directions Important?

The ability to follow directions is a basic life skill that will serve your child well both now and in the future.

When you look at the various aspects of our everyday lives and daily interactions with others (like following the user manual’s instructions for a new gadget), you realize how this skill actually allows us to accomplish so much.

For kids, in particular, there are a couple of key benefits to following directions.

Children Can Function In Different Environments

As much as we’d like to keep them all to ourselves, our children aren’t going to stay at home for the rest of their lives.

They are going to go to school, take tests, participate in sports, go to camps, visit a friend’s house, etc. Learning to follow directions will help them function effectively across these different environments.

It Keeps Kids Safe

You never know when an emergency can occur. Whether at home, school, or the local park, the skill of following directions may save your child’s life one day.

In addition to the above, helping your child learn how to follow directions can:

Maintain order at home
Impact their ability to complete tasks and reach the desired purpose
Learn new skills
Keep them calm and feeling secure as they know what comes next

With these examples, we hope you understand that following directions is a beneficial skill your child can use in various aspects of life.

The Age Factor

Before discussing the different strategies you can try at home, it’s important to mention the role age plays in our children’s ability to follow directions.

0 – 24 Months

Trying to get a newborn to follow directions is unrealistic. However, as you respond to their cues (like hungry and tired cries) and they respond to yours, it helps lay a solid foundation for cooperative interactions.

As children enter the toddler stage, they are usually able to begin following simple, one-step instructions, such as, “Wave bye-bye to Laura!” or, “Give mommy the book. ” Keep in mind that attention spans at this age are super short, so be clear and make eye contact with your child.

Children seek lots of adult approval at this stage, and making your tone of voice enthusiastic and appreciative can help influence how your toddler responds.

Giving positive feedback is also a great way to encourage them. So, if they don’t do as you say, instead of responding negatively, focus on what they should be doing.

2 – 4 Years

At the preschool level, most children can understand and follow two-step instructions. For example, “Put your toys in the box, then place the box in the corner.”

If your child hasn’t yet developed this ability, don’t worry. At this stage, kids are still learning the valuable skill of listening and paying attention to the details in the information given.

To help your child process information and instructions, you can continue to give them lots of positive reinforcement.

In addition, remember to also give them simple choices. For example, “Get your green shirt out of the bottom drawer” is more challenging than pointing to a visible shirt and asking them to get it.

4 – 6 Years

At this stage, your child’s vocabulary and listening skills have improved. This can make following directions a bit easier.

Most kindergarteners can follow three- or four-step instructions. They may also ask questions to seek clarification.

To help your child continue to improve this skill, you can:

Break complicated directions into smaller steps
Give instructions in context (for example, if your child is learning to draw, give instructions while they are busy with the activity)
Keep a fun and playful tone while giving directions to help motivate them

Following directions is a skill that your child will use for the rest of their life. So, here are seven strategies to help them improve.

Tips To Encourage Following Directions

1) Get Your Child’s Attention

Before giving your child directions, it’s essential that you have their full attention. Otherwise, the activity will feel impossible for both you and them.

You can gain their attention by simply asking for it — e.g., “Look toward me now. I need to tell you something.” Getting down to your child’s level can also help.

2) Be Clear

One of the key components for helping your child learn to follow directions is being clear on what you need them to do. To achieve this, be direct and use simple language.

For instance, “It’s time to jump into bed,” is much better than, “You need to sleep early. We have a long day ahead tomorrow, and it would be great for you to get enough rest.”

You might assume that the latter will help a child become more understanding. However, giving too many details may lead to a child getting “lost” in the information you’re giving them. It’s best to say what’s necessary and leave the rest out.

3) Focus On One Instruction At A Time

Going along with the previous point, we sometimes make the mistake of giving children too many instructions at one time.

For example, we might say, “Pick up your toys, place them in the toy box, wash your hands, and then tell your brother it’s time to eat.”

With this many instructions, it can be hard for your child to decipher what they’re actually supposed to do. That’s why, whenever possible, it’s best to give one instruction at a time or group them together in a way that makes sense.

Using the example above, you could hand your child a toy and ask them to put it in the toy box. Then hand them another one and do the same. When this is easy for your child, you can then group instructions together by saying, “Pick up your stuffed lion and put it in the toy box.”

Then you may want to move on to even more complicated directions. For example, you may have them pick up all the toys on the floor and put them in the toy box. Finally, once they’ve completed that, ask them to wash their hands and tell their brother that it’s time to eat.

4) Number Your Instructions

This tip is very effective if you’re going to be grouping your instructions into manageable tasks.
Simply number the directions you’re giving your child.

For example, start with, “I need you to do three things right now,” or “Pay attention. There are four things I need you to do.” You can also use ordinal numbers such as “first,” “second,” “third,” and so forth to label each task.

By using this technique and verbiage, you can help your child become aware that there is more than one thing being asked, and they can distinguish between and keep track of to-dos on their list.

While numbering your instructions helps make things clear, it’s still important to keep the list relatively short. Because people can typically only hold up to four different things in their working memory, we recommend giving no more than four instructions at a time.

5) Help Your Child Visualize The Instructions

Giving visual cues can be very effective in helping your child understand what you need them to do. To use this tactic, demonstrate a task and then ask them to follow your example.

For example, “Watch me carefully. See how I’m arranging this plate, fork, and spoon? I need you to set the rest of the table just like this.”

This “me first, now you” approach allows your child to visualize exactly what you want them to do before giving it a go. It can also be a very effective strategy to use with children who have language processing challenges.

6) Allow Your Child To Process The Information

Do you know how you sometimes have to pause and think through information you’ve just read or heard? Kids need that, too, especially when they’re learning to follow directions.

After giving them instructions, allow a few seconds to pass, which may help the information sink in.

Doing this may also help your child learn to listen the first time, rather than requiring you to repeat yourself. However, if they don’t do as you say or seem confused, it’s OK to repeat the instructions.

7) Minimize Distractions

Children have short attention spans. That’s why it’s essential to keep their attention when you have it.

If the TV is on in the background or they’re busy playing games, it’s going to be challenging for them to follow through on any of your instructions. Turn the TV off. Have them put their game or anything else they’re busy with down and give you their full attention.

Another essential component is to give your child your full attention as well. This may help them realize that the information is important.

8) Focus On Tone Of Voice

You know the phrase, “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it”? Different people can recite the same words, but the differences in tone, volume, pace, and pitch can completely change the message.

When it comes to helping children follow directions, it’s much more effective to speak in a calm, clear, and even tone. Remember that you want your child to focus only on the instructions and not the volume or tone.

9) Don’t Ask, Tell

Sometimes children are in the mood for a power struggle and phrasing the directions in a way that it seems like there’s room for negotiation will not help you.

If you give directions such as, “Would you pick up your toys, please?” It may give your child the impression that they don’t have to do it.

Instead, change the wording to, “It’s time to pick up your toys,” as this makes it clear that they don’t have a choice.

10) Offer Praise

Positive reinforcement is a great way to help your child feel good about following your instructions. So, clap your hands, cheer them on, give them a high five, or pat them on the back to show that you’re happy about what they’ve just done.

The more they realize how happy you are, the better they’ll feel about listening to your instructions, and the easier it will be for them to continue following your directions in the future.

Activities To Help With Following Directions

Plenty of games and activities can help you encourage your child to get into the habit of following directions. These include:

Follow The Leader
Simon Says
I Spy

One of our favorite activities to help develop this skill is what we call the “playful instructions game. ” This is where you give children instructions by adding playful elements.

For example, ask your child to jump as high as possible and then make a silly face. For older kids, you can even add more playful instructions (stick your tongue out, wiggle your nose, etc.).

This game can be incorporated into your regular routines — jump out of bed, tiptoe to the bathroom, and grab a toothbrush. Adding a playful element can make mundane routines much more fun.

In addition to the well-known games above, we’ve included a few more activities to help your child learn to follow instructions.

1) Red Light, Green Light

To prepare for this game, clearly define the playing area and mark the start and finish lines with a strip of tape on the floor (or ground if you’re outside). Safety comes first, so feel free to push things out of the way if you need a little more room to move around.

To begin, have all players stand on the starting line. Then, when you say “Green Light,” everyone moves toward the finish line. But, as soon as you say “Red Light,” everyone needs to immediately stop.

Anyone who is caught moving when “Red Light” is called out has to go back to the starting line. The first person to make it across the finish line wins the game!

This listening and moving game uses simple instructions to encourage children to follow directions — and have some fun while doing so!

2) Grid Game

The goal of this activity is simple: Make your way through a grid by following instructions.

Start by creating a numbered grid on your floor. The size of grid you create will depend on the space you have available. But whether you create a 4×4, 5×5, or 6×6 grid, make sure all the squares are the same size.

(You can either use your feet — one foot in front of the other — to measure each square, or you can use an actual ruler. It’s totally up to you!)

The type of floor you have will also dictate the type of tape you can use to create your grid, but masking tape usually works well for most floors because it easily comes off without causing damage.

To play this game, have your child stand in the first square and then follow your instructions to move throughout the grid.

Your instructions could look something like this:

Take two steps forward.
Take one step backward.
Take two steps to your right.
Take three steps to the left.

As they move this way and that within the defined space, it’s great practice because they have to switch gears quickly and listen carefully to the directions you’re giving.

3) Visual Directions

For this activity, simply make cards using your child’s routine. For example, let’s say your child’s bedtime routine is the following:

Take a bath
Put on pajamas
Brush teeth
Get into bed
Read a book
Sleep

Print out images of a bathtub, a toothbrush, pajamas, a bed, a book, and a child sleeping to represent each part of the routine.

Next, stick each of these pictures on a numbered index card. Then, whenever it’s time for bed, your child can just grab their card stack and follow the instructions.

This can work for any routine, so feel free to adapt it as necessary. It’s also a helpful tactic if you have a nonverbal child.

Using cards as a method of explaining instructions can eliminate unnecessary confusion, promote confidence in daily activities, and increase cooperation between a parent and a child.

Things To Consider When Giving Directions

1) Avoid Empty Threats

Sometimes parenting little humans can get overwhelming, especially when they are in the mood to be defiant.

This may lead to making impulsive threats, like, “If you don’t set the table right now, you’re going to be sorry!” Or, “I’m giving you two minutes to clean up. If this isn’t done by the time I get back, you’re going to be in big trouble!”

The problem with making such statements is that they tend to shut down communication and lead to power struggles. While threats may give you short-term gains (i. e., your child performing the tasks you want them to), they’re not ideal for the long haul.

It’s important to teach children to communicate their needs and wants clearly and, if there is a disagreement, how to get their point across calmly and respectfully.

So, remember to stay calm when addressing your child. If you notice that they are being extra defiant and their behavior is making you lose your patience, consider taking a moment to calm down before conversing with them.

2) Sometimes Reasoning Doesn’t Help

As adults, we often want to understand why things need to be done because this can help motivate us to perform a specific action. But explanations don’t always work for children, especially those under six years of age.

For example, “If you don’t pick up your toys after using them, you might end up stepping on them and hurting yourself. I want you to tidy up because it’s best to have a clean space so you can move around freely.”

While such a statement might work for older kids, younger children aren’t able to relate to future consequences, so they may not get motivated to perform a task. This is another reason it’s best to keep directions short and to the point.

3) Empower, Don’t Overpower

We’ve discussed how important it is to give clear instructions, and in some instances, this means not asking your child but telling them what to do. This approach works perfectly for young children who cannot grasp explanations and extra information from your directions.

But as children get older, they may start to respond to different situations independently.

For example, if you’ve always told them to pick up their toys because they may hurt themselves, they may decide that leaving toys lying around on one side of the room, where they are out of the way, works better than actually having to tidy up.

Sometimes parents view this as disrespectful behavior and resort to overpowering their children. Unfortunately, this can make children feel powerless and encourage defiance as they fight to “take back their power.”

A great solution may be to allow children, as they get older, some freedom to make their own decisions. For example, if they complain about their bedtime routine, encourage them to find what may be a better solution.

This is not to say that children should do as they please. You’re still the parent! However, as children get older and start thinking independently, it’s perfectly fine to allow them room to make some decisions (at your discretion, of course).

Practice Makes Progress

With the strategies above, we hope you realize that, while it can be challenging to get children to follow our instructions, it’s not impossible. Sometimes simplicity, clarity, and a little fun are all you need.

Check out HOMER Learn & Grow app for more playful and interactive ways to give your growing child the skills they need to thrive in life!

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Why it is important to follow instructions essay example

Following instructions is not just an important learning skill; it's a vital skill. From coloring the right frame in preschool to applying for Social Security, referrals are an important part of everyone's life. However, many seem to have trouble following them. Parents tell us that we toddlers shouldn't touch anything that could be potentially dangerous. If we don't heed these directions, we'll either get hurt or have "wait time" to learn our lesson. Throughout childhood and adolescence, instruction in following directions must be strengthened through the education of the individual. Many activities have been designed for this single purpose.

Standardized written exams also test this skill, as many students fail each year due to "not following directions." In the traditional classroom, teachers have developed non-traditional tools to demonstrate the importance of following directions. Some teachers have students follow a recipe for a favorite, age-appropriate food, but intentionally leave out an important ingredient. Others used a simple worksheet, numbered 1 to 10, with task #1 asking students to read all the instructions before doing anything. The result of this lesson is task #10, which will simply say: Now that you have read all the instructions, please go back and just complete #1 and #2. read everything first.

The steps above can be duplicated by homeschooling parents teaching a lesson to young people. At Time4Writing, our goal is not only to help students improve their writing skills; We also want to highlight the importance of the following areas. At the beginning of each course, there are a series of guidelines that students should read before beginning.

They should copy and paste their assignment instructions into their individual text boxes so they can see them in full as they work. Students are expected to follow these directions as closely as possible. So, perhaps in the coming years, students who take Time4Writing courses won't need to reapply for driver's licenses, turn down insurance forms, or spit out tax returns because they were filled out incorrectly. They will remember that online writing course that showed them how to write and how to follow instructions.

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Online interview
Plagiarism at the university, or How can a student protect his copyright?

Online interview with Doctor of Law Professor of the Russian Academy of Justice Vladimir Sergeevich Melnikov

Who owns the copyright for student papers (abstracts, term papers, theses): the university or the student? How can a student prevent misuse of their work? Should you protect your copyright? These and other questions were answered by Doctor of Law, Professor of the Russian Academy of Justice Vladimir Sergeyevich Melnikov.

ConsultantPlus: Students of Russian universities annually prepare essays, term papers and theses. Ideally, they should be unique works with their own conclusions and comments. Can student work be copyrighted? Who owns the rights to these works? Who is the subject of copyright: student, supervisor (teacher) or university?

Vladimir Sergeevich Melnikov: Abstracts, term papers and theses prepared by students are subject to copyright if it is the result of independent creative work, and not plagiarism. The rights to these works belong to their authors. The subject of copyright in this case is the student.

As is known, the objects of copyright are works of science, literature and art, regardless of their merits and purpose, as well as the method of expression, which are the result of the author's creative activity and expressed in an objective form, i.e. in a form accessible to third parties. The objects of copyright also include derivative works, that is, works that are a processing of another work and composite works, that is, works that are the result of creative work in terms of the selection or arrangement of materials.

As a general rule, any mental activity is recognized as creative, and the result of this activity is protected by copyright, unless it is proved that it is the result of direct copying or plagiarism. Plagiarism (from Latin plagio - I steal) is a type of violation of the author's rights. It consists in the illegal use of someone else's work under one's own name (in whole or in part) without indicating the source of the borrowing.

Student works are usually created on the basis of already existing works (in this case such works are derivative or composite works) and the issue of their protection as objects of copyright will be decided if there is sufficient creativity.

According to Art. 1257 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the citizen whose creative work it was created is recognized as the author of a work of science, literature or art. The person indicated as the author on the original or copy of the work is considered to be its author, unless otherwise proven. Thus, the rights to student works belong to the author of the result of intellectual activity, whose creative work created such a result. The subjects of copyright in this case may be not only the creators of works, but also their legal successors or employers and other persons who acquire exclusive copyrights by virtue of law or contract.

Consultant Plus: Is it important for students to have their copyrights recognized for their work? What practical value does recognition of their copyright have for students?

V.S. Melnikov: It is important for students to obtain recognition of their copyright in their work for several reasons.

According to Art. 1255 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the author of the work has the following rights:

1. The exclusive right to the work, i.e. the right to use the work at its own discretion in any way that does not contradict the law. The right holder may dispose of the exclusive right to the result of intellectual activity, unless the Civil Code of the Russian Federation provides otherwise. He may, at his own discretion, allow or prohibit other persons from using the result of intellectual activity. The absence of a prohibition is not considered consent (permission).

Other persons may not use the relevant results of intellectual activity without the consent of the copyright holder, except as provided for by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The use of the result of intellectual activity, if such use is carried out without the consent of the right holder, is illegal and entails liability established by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, other laws, except for cases when the use of the result of intellectual activity by persons other than the right holder without his consent is allowed by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

2. The right of authorship is the right to be recognized as the author of a work.

3. The author's right to a name is the right to use or allow the use of a work under his own name, under an assumed name (pseudonym) or without specifying a name, that is, anonymously.

The right of authorship and the right to a name are inalienable and non-transferable, including when transferring to another person or transferring to him the exclusive right to a work and when granting another person the right to use the work. Waiver of these rights is void.

4. The right to the inviolability of a work, which means that it is not allowed to make changes, abbreviations and additions to his work without the consent of the author, to supply the work with illustrations, preface, afterword, comments or any explanations when it is used.

5. The right to publish the work. The author has the right to publish his work, that is, the right to take an action or give consent to take an action that makes the work available to the public for the first time by its publication, public display, public performance, broadcast or cable, or in any other way. At the same time, publication (release to the public) is the release into circulation of copies of the work, which are a copy of the work in any material form, in an amount sufficient to meet the reasonable needs of the public based on the nature of the work. An author who transferred a work to another person under a contract for use is considered to have agreed to the publication of this work.

In the cases provided for by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the author of a work, along with the specified rights, has other rights, including the right to remuneration for the use of an official work, the right to recall, the right to follow, the right to access works of fine art.

Recognition of copyright is important for students, because even regardless of the property rights of the author and (or) in the event of assignment of these rights, he has the right to demand recognition of his authorship of the work and to oppose any distortion, distortion or other change in this work, as well as any other encroachment on the work, capable of damaging the honor or reputation of the author. The practical value of this right is the ability of the author to demand recognition that he is the author of the corresponding result of intellectual activity. This right is also interconnected with others, including the property rights of the author, such as the right to use the object recognized by the author of the work, the right to dispose of the object. Of particular practical importance is the recognition of copyright for persons wishing to continue their education in graduate school, because. the presence of these rights is evidence of the student's creative contribution to the development of a particular problem.

ConsultantPlus: Can a student's work be considered a "service work" in the event that the university (represented by the supervisor) gives the student an assignment to complete a specific author's work? Can a student's relationship with a university be considered an employment relationship? Are these legal relations spelled out in the charter of the university?

V.S. Melnikov: Student work cannot be considered "official work", because A work created under an employment contract or in the course of performing an official task is recognized as official, and the student is not in an employment or service relationship with the university.

Labor relations are relations in the sphere of labor regulated by the norms of labor law, based on an agreement between the employee and the employer on the personal performance by the employee of a labor function for payment. The relationship between the student and the university is not an employment relationship, because there is no employment contract between them and the student does not receive wages for the work performed.

The charter of an educational institution must specify: 1) name, location (legal, actual address), status of the educational institution; 2) founder; 3) organizational and legal form of the educational institution; 4) goals of the educational process, types and types of educational programs being implemented; 5) the main characteristics of the organization of the educational process; 6) the structure of the financial and economic activities of the educational institution; 7) the procedure for managing the educational institution; 8) rights and obligations of participants in the educational process; 9) a list of types of local acts (orders, orders and other acts) regulating the activities of an educational institution.

These legal relations do not apply to the mandatory conditions of the charter of the university and, as a rule, are regulated by the provisions of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation on the provision of educational services. The charter of the university usually states that the student is obliged to master the curriculum and perform all types of control tasks.

ConsultantPlus: If the copyright belongs to the student, what should he do in a situation where the university often publishes student papers in various university collections without concluding an author's agreement?

V.S. Melnikov: A collection is a composite work, which includes several works, both protected by copyright and not protected by copyright. The use of works without the permission of the author and without payment of remuneration to him is not allowed.

However, in the public interest, there are exceptions to this rule, when it is allowed without the consent of the author or other right holder and without payment of remuneration, but with the obligatory indication of the name of the author whose work is used and the source of borrowing, the free use of works for purposes: personal, informational, scientific and educational, without the intention to profit, but on the condition that the said work was lawfully published, i. e. introduced into civil circulation with the permission of the author. In case of copyright infringement, the student can apply to the court for their protection.

Consultant Plus: There are situations when the supervisor uses the work of students when writing his dissertation or other scientific papers. At the same time, students are not listed as co-authors in the works of teachers. Are such actions of teachers lawful, and how can a student protect his rights?

V.S. Melnikov: If the supervisor uses the work of students when writing his dissertation or other scientific papers and does not indicate students as co-authors, then such actions are illegal. In this case, the student can protect his rights in court, provided that he can prove his authorship of the material borrowed by the supervisor and accuse him of plagiarism. At the same time, it is very important what kind of material and how was used by the supervisor: whether there was a borrowing of objective novelty, developed personally by the student, or provisions were borrowed from already existing works, from the works of other authors that the student used in his work.

The use of material and the corresponding reference to the author of the original text does not constitute co-authorship. Co-authors are individuals who have created a copyrighted work through joint creative work.

Consultant Plus: Can you give examples of court precedents for students asserting their copyrights? Is there such a judicial practice, or do students most often not defend their rights because of ignorance of the laws or unwillingness to spoil relations at the university?

V.S. Melnikov: I am not aware of examples of judicial precedents on the issues of upholding by students of their copyrights. Most often, students do not defend their rights because of ignorance of the laws or unwillingness to spoil relations at the university.

ConsultantPlus: How can students prevent plagiarism? What must they do in the first place to ensure that their work is used legally by teachers or not used at all?

V. S. Melnikov: To prevent plagiarism, students should first attach a copyright mark to their work, which is a warning to all third parties that the work is protected by copyright. In accordance with the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the copyright holder, in order to notify him of the exclusive right to a work, has the right to use the copyright protection sign, which is placed on each copy of the work and consists of the following elements: the Latin letter "C" in a circle, the name or title of the copyright holder, the year of the first publication of the work. In addition, it would be useful to publish the results of your work in any available way (we have already talked about the methods of disclosure).

Intellectual property rights can be protected through self-defense and resort to government coercion. Self-protection of intellectual rights, taking into account the intangible nature of their objects, is mainly associated with the use of various technical means, as for the means of state coercion, this is an administrative and judicial procedure.