Notetaking

Many readers of this book will be reading it in conjunction with an educational psychology course. They will probably do something to help themselves remember, integrate, recall, and apply what they learn from this book, from the instructor, and from the other instructional materials. Chapter 1 suggested several useful strategies; and as you read the present and the previous chapters, you should have been able to identify the rationale behind many of these strategies.

One study skill that is especially important in independent learning is notetaking. Activities that can be classified as notetaking can range from highlighting or underlining information while reading a textbook to making a transcript of what a lecturer is saying to outlining the main ideas of a lecture or text. The present textbook cannot cover notetaking in detail; but it is appropriate to point out that many of the principles discussed in this and the preceding chapter apply to notetaking.

The basic principle is that notetaking is effective to the extent that it helps students become actively involved with the subject matter in order to organize it, to encode it, and to integrate it with their previous knowledge. Many students who underline information in their textbooks underline too much information; it is much more useful to select only the most important information to underline. For example, students who ask themselves questions while reading and underline the answers to these questions in the text are employing some of the major strategies that are employed in reciprocal teaching (described in the Reading section of Chapter 17). It is this active thinking that plays an important role in learning. On the other hand, students who underline a much larger amount of information without first carefully sorting it out are less likely to be applying active thought processes. Likewise, students who take notes and look at them only before the exam are less likely to be actively involved in serious thinking than those who take notes during class, transcribe them into a more organized format after class, and refer to them before subsequent classes. It is the quality of thought rather than the activity of transcribing words that turns notetaking into a productive activity. More detailed discussions of notetaking can be found in Kiewra (1987, 1988) and in Ornstein (1994).

Mr. Graham requires his high school students to take notes during each of his history lectures. He has explained to his students that notetaking will enable them to organize the information correctly, so that it will be easier to study for the exam. His lectures run parallel to the text, and so the outline for his lectures is the same as the outline for the book. This enables students to relate his lectures to the text. His students do not consider this duplication of topics to be boring; they like the way he brings up interesting anecdotes and examples to make the information more interesting. He asks questions during his presentations and encourages his students to ask him questions as well. When they are absent, students are encouraged to obtain notes from one of their friends. His students enjoy Mr. Graham's classes, which are among the most popular in the school.

Mr. Graham speaks from an outline, and he expects the students to transcribe this outline into their notes. He expects the students to get all his main ideas in their notes, and he encourages them to include additional information as well, if they wish to do so. He does not write the entire outline down anywhere for the students to see it; but he is careful to state each idea clearly. He states each main idea, which is always the same as a chapter heading or subheading, and then he elaborates on that idea. When he finishes each major topic, he briefly summarizes that topic and each of the main ideas supporting it and asks if there are any questions about what he has said.

At the end of each of the six grading periods, he requires the students to turn in their notes, right after they take a major test on the material covered during that grading period. He grades the notes on the basis of their neatness and how well the students' outlines correspond to his. The notes count for 25% of the grade. He follows this procedure for the entire year. At the end of the first grading period, the students' notes are not very accurate. By the end of the second grading period about half the students turn in nearly perfect outlines. By the end of the third grading period, nearly all the outlines are perfect.

Evaluate Mr. Graham's notetaking policy. After you have given the policy some thought, answer the following questions:

1. Is it appropriate for Mr. Graham to require that all students take notes?
   
   Yes. Notetaking is an effective cognitive strategy that can be learned while the students are studying a subject matter like history. As long as he does a good job of it, Mr. Graham is acting appropriately by requiring notetaking.
   
   
2. Is it appropriate to grade the students on their notes?
   
   Yes. As a matter of fact, if he did not grade them or provide some other incentive for taking good notes, there is a good chance that the students might not value the activity and might not learn this useful skill.
   
   
3. Is it appropriate for Mr. Graham to insist that the students all use an outline format for taking notes?
   
   Probably not. There's a good chance that at least some of the students might have benefited from a different format, such as a chart or diagram of some kind. The justification for Mr. Graham's policy is that it may have been necessary to teach the students to take notes in an outline format, with ideas properly organized and subordinated. This initial instruction in outlining would be much easier to coordinate if everyone uses this approach while they are learning to do it. However, by the second half of the year, everyone knew how to do this, and it may have been better to permit or even encourage other formats.
   
   
4. Is it appropriate for Mr. Graham to grade the students on the neatness of their notes?
   
   Yes. This is probably appropriate, since neatness is a characteristic of good notes. However, accuracy and organization are more important; and so he should not overdo the emphasis on neatness.
   
   
5. Besides grading them for the accuracy of their notes, what other incentives could Mr. Graham use to encourage effective notetaking?
   
   He could permit them to use the notes on the tests. He would have to exercise a little more control - for example, he might regulate the length of the notes, so that students don't just transcribe the entire textbook into their notes; but letting them use the notes on at least some of the tests would demonstrate to them the natural value of taking good notes.
   
   
6. Since he's requiring a transcription anyway, wouldn't it be better just to write the outline down and hand it to the students?
   
   Probably not. That would encourage more passive learning. If he did give them a copy of his outline, it might be a good idea to require them to transform it into a format more suited to their personal preferences (such as a chart or a diagram).
   
   
7. Should he have given the students prompts to help them outline better?
   
   That might be a good idea. For example, at the very beginning of the year, he could have given them a page with the main ideas listed and blank spaces in which the students could write the subordinate ideas. As the year went on, he could have faded these prompts until they were deriving the entire outline themselves. It would also be a good idea to collect the first set of outlines sooner. Why wait until the end of the grading period to give corrective feedback to the students who are making mistakes?
   
   
8. Is it likely that since all the students eventually turned in perfect outlines that they have all developed a high degree of proficiency at notetaking?
   
   No. What is likely is that at least some have become proficient at making an outline from the textbook. There's a good chance that numerous students are simply copying the outline from their peers.
   
   
9. Isn't this whole process stupid and boring?
   
   No, it's not. While Mr. Graham could improve his strategy, the description clearly says that his students liked his class. They were not bored. Many teachers who demand that their students take notes are boring and uninspired teachers; however, it is possible (but not necessary) to use this procedure effectively, as Mr. Graham did.
   
   
10. What are the main improvements Mr. Graham could make?
    
    First, he might consider some prompting to get the students up to par more quickly. Secondly, he needs some incentives to make the students want to take good notes, instead of merely copying. Thirdly, he should help the students develop more than a single notetaking format.
    
    Finally, he should let the students experience the natural value of having good notes, by letting them use the notes on at least some of the tests.

Click on a topic from the following list, or use your web browser to go where you want to go:

• Introduction
• Learning-to-Learn Skills
• Content Thinking Skills
• Basic Reasoning Skills
• Summary of Thinking Skills
• Metacognitive Skills
• Development of Thinking Skills
• Cognitive Skills Instruction
• Self-Regulation of Learning
• Notetaking <<You are here>>
• Stimulating Creative Thinking
• Stimulating Critical Thinking
• What Teachers and Parents Can Do to Simulate Thinking Skills
• What Students Can Do to Simulate Thinking Skills
• Summary
• Annotated Bibliography