Optimising the use of note‐taking as an external cognitive aid for increasing learning

Abstract

Taking notes is of uttermost importance in academic and commercial use and success. Different techniques for note-taking utilise different cognitive processes and strategies. This experimental study examined ways to enhance cognitive performance via different note-taking techniques. By comparing performances of traditional, linear style note-taking with alternative nonlinear technique, we aimed to examine the efficiency and importance of different ways of taking notes. Twenty-six volunteer adult learners from an information management course participated in this study. Cognitive performance scores from a traditional linear note-taking group were compared with another group by using a commercially available non-linear note-taking technique. Both groups were tested in two settings: after a classroom lecture and a panel forum discussion. Tasks included measures on story comprehension, memory, complexity of mental representations and metacognitive skills. Data analysis revealed that the non-linear note-takers were significantly better than the linear group both in terms of the quantity and the quality of the learned material. This study demonstrates the importance of using cognitively compatible note-taking techniques. It identifies the cognitive mechanisms behind effective note-taking and knowledge representation. Using such techniques enables deeper understanding and more integrated knowledge management. BackgroundNote taking is one of the first and most established cognitive technology (Dror, 2007). As such, it offloads cognitive processes and extends our 'in head' cognitive abilities (Dror & Harnad, 2008). A great controversy in academic performance is that although students rely vastly on their information acquisition and representational skills (Armbruster, 2000), their note-taking efficiency is only around 20-40% in a typical

Impact of Online Lecture-capture on Student Outcomes in a Therapeutics Course

“…5 Students must comprehend what they hear, write it down, organize the information, and then store and integrate that freshly processed material from existing knowledge. 6 This requires the working memory to acquire and understand new incoming information, which must interact with already stored knowledge. 6 To compensate, students often request access to the lecture slides to review and fill in missing information in their lecture notes.…”

“…6 This requires the working memory to acquire and understand new incoming information, which must interact with already stored knowledge. 6 To compensate, students often request access to the lecture slides to review and fill in missing information in their lecture notes.…”

Reading and Note Taking in Monological and Dialogical Classes in the Social Sciences

“…Some studies have shown that this writing practice encourages learning not only when they review their notes, but also while they are taking them as it is an activity that facilitates retention and promotes connecting segments of information (Kiewra, 1985a(Kiewra, , 1985bLaidlaw, et al, 1993). Researchers have also analyzed which techniques allow for a better registration and lectures' recall (Makany, et al, 2009;Palkovitz & Lore, 1980;Sutherland, et al, 2002) and how teachers' guidelines can help students take note of important information that they could otherwise overlook (Kiewra, 1985c;Titsworth, 2004). Finally, some studies have concentrated on the relationship between the quantity and the quality of the notes taken by students with their examination scores (Baker & Lombardi, 1985;Neef, et al, 2006;Nye, et al, 1984).…”

It’s a SNAP: Student Note-taking Achieves Performance

“…The performance results in Table 1 provide additional evidence that the organization of material with handwritten notes could be translated to problem solving 4 . However, the rapid cycle of concepts and analysis during the course provided by the nearly weekly SNAP quizzes is also Page 26.1046.6…”

“…Thus the student's requisite notes become a compilation of reading the text, hearing the lecture and self-organizing the course content and are seemingly an aid to learning 2,3,4 . Of course, the temptation is there to obtain the SNAP notes developed by another student in a prior semester or Page 26.1046.2 to produce only a cursory compilation.…”