Researcher: Tammi Stein, Lead Researcher for EnvisionSTEM
Author: Alexander Dominguez, Lead Writer for EnvisionSTEM
While in class, students are expected to take notes during the teacher’s lecture in order to show engagement and have material to study. However, there are students that ineffectively take notes, forget the material, or just never study their notes, which often doesn’t lead to the students’ desired outcome on exam day.
The Importance of Note-taking:
Since teachers need students to show some engagement in their classes, they usually have notes for students to copy down, but students often overlook the purpose of writing these notes or they don’t know how to correctly take notes. Obviously, note-taking is vital for students' success. According to Mary Shier, who has worked in adult education for over thirty years in British Columbia, "Creating good notes means that you will have a record for later review. Reviewing a set of condensed and well-organized notes is more efficient than re-reading longer texts and articles." (Shier). Also, "A set of concise, well-organized notes from each class session gives you what you need for study, learning, and review after class." (Austin Community College).
Besides taking notes in class, it’s important for students to constantly review and mentally engage with them to reinforce the material. "Actively review your notes to solidify your knowledge and help organize the course material. This will help you remember more of the material and prepare for the next lecture. Actively rehearsing your notes involves more than simply looking them over. Useful strategies include self-questioning, summarizing, semantic mapping, drawing inferences, and connecting new information to something you already know." (LSA College). In other words, as students review their in-class notes, they should ask themselves questions, summarize the information in their own words, and connect ideas (see more at the bottom). Moreover, constantly re-reading notes not only helps students know the material better, but it’s great for studying for an exam in advance. "The more you review, the less you forget. You’ll do better on exams if you review regularly. And when it comes time to study, you just have to finish your review process rather than relearning the material. Review more, study less!" (Academic Success Center).
A general rule in life: the more you practice at something, the better you’ll get at it. The same applies to students when it comes to studying. If a student continues to study their notes over and over again, that material will become reinforced and stored in long-term memory. "That's why reviewing information regularly is so important. It allows us to transfer new knowledge and skills from short-term to long-term memory, and then keep it there. The more valuable or complex the information is, the more effort we need to put in." (Mind Tools Content Team). Similarly, this strategy can be used by teachers to review material with students more frequently, not just the day before the exam. Moreover, if students take notes and don’t review them, they’re more likely to forget. "If we review that new information the next day, we are more likely to remember what we learned for a longer period of time. If we continue to review what we learn over the next few days, we lock in that new information for vastly larger periods of time." (Education Corner).
How Can Students Improve Note-Taking?
First and foremost, before students can learn how to study material, they should learn how to correctly obtain the material. In this scenario, students must learn how to effectively take notes. Here are some ways that we (Tammi & Alexander) recommend for our fellow students to improve note-taking (KidsHealth):
Write down key facts: Students should only write down the important facts that they’ll need. If a teacher has written notes, that’s a bonus, and students are encouraged to copy them down since they're probably important. However, if a student is in a class where the educator is doing a pure lecture, they should write down the important details in their speech. How to know what’s important vs. not important: students should decide.
Don’t overdo it: Similarly to the previous tip, students don’t have to write down everything that the educator speaks about. Use key words and use symbols to show ideas. Some symbols that students may use are:
• → leads to
• ↑ increase in • ↓ decrease in • + & (and) • / new idea
Ask: Students shouldn’t be afraid to ask the teacher for clarification or to repeat something if they speak too fast. Sometimes, students might be doing their classmates a favor as well, because chances are that they’re also taking notes and might’ve missed something as well. It’s much easier later on when students are studying, so they avoid extra confusion and stress.
Compare: Going over their notes with a friend or peer can help both of them reinforce the material. It can also help students remember information when preparing for a test, and it might even provide a fun perspective on studying.
Copy: If students rush while note-taking for whatever reason, they should rewrite their notes so they’ll be able to read them while studying. Also, copying helps them remember what they wrote.
Organize: Students should keep their notes organized. This is arguably the most important rule because disorganized notes can make it hard to study, thus making the sole purpose of note-taking obsolete.
What Can Students Get Out of Note-taking:
Once students have the skill of note-taking down, they should learn how to review and study those notes. Again, here’s what we’ve researched:
Ask questions: "Once you learn to question, you will start to learn." —Abhijit Naskar. Students asking questions to themselves can help them find answers, therefore boosting learning.
Summarizing: When studying notes, students should occasionally summarize the material in their own words and be able to explain what they’ve learned. Doing this every day will actually boost students’ performance on exams and in future material from the class.
Connecting ideas: Students should be able to connect ideas they’ve obtained from a lecture to other ideas in the class, other classes, or in their own life (analogies). This is another way students can fortify their knowledge.
Additionally, "Research shows that 10 minutes of review for every hour of lecture, done within 24 hours of class, dramatically improves recall. Regularly reviewing class notes is one of the most powerful study strategies… Consistent review, like any new skill, may seem awkward and difficult at first. Regular review is an incredibly powerful study strategy, and is well worth the struggle." (Silverman).
Final Words:
Overall, making notes helps students make meaning out of class material, and if done and studied effectively, it can help students excel in their exams as well as remember material later on in life. Note-taking is a great skill to build upon in not only school but in life as well.
Works Cited:
Shier, Mary. “Student Success.” 5.6 Note Taking, British Columbia, Canada, BCcampus, 2020, https://doi.org/Chapter 5.
LSA College. “Getting The Most From Class - Effectively Using Your Notes.” LSA College, lsa.umich.edu/advising/stay-on-track/getting-the-most-from-class-time/effectively-using-your-notes.html. Accessed 25 Sept. 2022.
Austin Community College. “Benefits of Notetaking?” Austin Community College, https://sites.austincc.edu/student-skills-workshops/taking-effective-notes/benefits-of-notetaking. Accessed 25 Sept. 2022.
Academic Success Center. “Reviewing Lecture Notes.” Academic Success Center, 4 June 2019, https://asc.tamu.edu/Study-Learning-Handouts-(1)/Reviewing-Lecture-Notes.
Mind Tools Content Team. “Review Strategies.” MindTools, www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newISS_05.html. Accessed 25 Sept. 2022.
Education Corner. “The Forgetting Curve.” Education Corner, www.educationcorner.com/the-forgetting-curve.html. Accessed 25 Sept. 2022.
KidsHealth. “Note-Taking Tips.” Kidshealth, https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/take-notes.html. Accessed 25 Sept. 2022.
Silverman, Ruth. “Student Learning Commons: Reviewing After Lecture.” Simon Fraser University, 26 Sept. 2017, www.lib.sfu.ca/about/branches-depts/slc/learning/exam-prep/reviewing-after-lecture.
Comentários