Note-Taking Instruction for College Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Using a multiple baseline across participants design, this study examines the functional relationship between instruction in note-taking skills and the ability of young adults with autism spectrum disorder to take notes on college lectures. The three participants were enrolled in a program aligned with the Higher Education Opportunity Act (Public Law 110-315) to support students with significant cognitive disabilities in attending community college classes. All had graduated high school on a special diploma status and had mild cognitive disabilities. Despite some variability in performance during baseline (when only the note-taking template was introduced), all three students demonstrated increased performance during intervention when they were taught skills such as distinguishing between subtopics and details, paraphrasing, and using abbreviations and symbols. Participants’ improvements were maintained after the intervention instruction stopped. Participant Tau-U effect sizes ranged from 0.67 to 1.00, and the weighted average Tau-U effect size was 0.88 (CI₉₅ = 0.53 to 1.24). The discussion addresses implications for the postsecondary participation of students with autism spectrum disorder as well as possible changes needed in their secondary education.     

Use of Student Notes and Lecture Summaries as Study Guides for Recall

Abstract

This study represents an extension of previous research on interfering and facilitating variables affecting the encoding function of note taking by adding several review conditions. Ninety-six subjects were assigned to five note-taking and three non-note-taking groups. Subjects heard a 16-minute segmented lecture and recalled lecture content 48 hours later. The review of notes neutralized both the interfering and facilitating effects on recall of note-taking manipulations reported in previous research. Review of student-generated notes resulted in better recall than did review of lecturer-generated summaries.     

Note-Taking and Memory in Different Media Environments

Through this study the authors investigated undergraduate students’ memory recall in three media environments with three note-taking options, following an A x B design with nine experiments. The three environments included no-distraction, auditory-distraction, and auditory–visual-distraction; while the three note-taking options included no-note-taking, taking-notes-on-paper, and taking-notes-on-computer. The results of word recalls from 21 participants showed significant interactions between media environments and note-taking options. In the no-distraction environment, the participants had better word recall taking notes on paper than taking notes on computer or not taking notes. However, in the auditory–visual-distraction environment, the participants had better word recall with no note taking than taking notes on computer or taking notes on paper. The participants’ comments provided insights for implications for learning in different media environments.     

A more equitable account of the note-taking functions in learning from lecture and from text

Previous research investigating the encoding, encoding-plus-storage, and extermal-storage functions of note taking has failed to equate processing opportunities among the groups. The present studies did so by having the encoding group take notes on two occasions without review, the encoding-plus-storage group take notes one time and review notes the next, and the external-storage group twice review a set of borrowed notes. Three forms of note taking were used: conventional, and note taking on skeletal and matrix frameworks. In both Experiment 1, involving lecture learning, and Experiment 2, involving text learning, an advantage was found for the encoding-plus-storage function on tests involving factual-recall and recognition performance but not on tests measuring higher-order performance. With respect to note-taking forms, no advantage existed for any form when information was acquired from lecture. When text material was used there was some advantage for conventional notes and a clear advantage for not taking notes at all, but instead twice reading the material. These findings were explained relative to observed note-taking behaviors, the opportunity for review, and the processing demands proposed by the combination of reading and note taking, particularly when notes must be classified into an existing framework.     

Immediate and Delayed Recall of Lecture Material as a Function of Note Taking

Abstract

Randomly chosen halves of an undergraduate class were instructed either to take notes in their usual manner or to refrain from note taking while listening to a guest lecturer. Immediately following the lecture, notes were collected and a quiz on the lecture was administered. Ten days later, a second quiz was administered. Statistical analysis indicated that the note-taking group performed significantly better overall than the no-notes group on both the immediate and the delayed quizzes. Both groups showed a significant decline in performance on the latter quiz. Alternative explanations for these results were examined.     

Difficult Words and the Beginner

ABSTRACT

The authors investigated the effects of a 5-week note-taking skills instructional program on note-taking and reading comprehension performance of elementary students. The participants included 349 fourth-grade students from 2 elementary schools in Taiwan. The Note-Taking Instruction group received approximately 40 min of note-taking skills instruction per week for 5 weeks in contrast to the free note-taking group and the free-recall writing group who did not receive any instruction. A note-taking evaluation task and a comprehension test were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the instruction on students’ performance in note taking and reading comprehension, respectively. The study yielded 2 findings: first, teaching students a note-taking strategy significantly improved their performance in note taking and reading comprehension, and second, poor readers showed the greatest gains in note-taking skills with instruction.     

Combined Effects of Note‐Taking/‐Reviewing on Learning and the Enhancement through Interventions: A meta‐analytic review

Meta‐analyses of 33 studies were conducted to examine (1) how much the combination of taking and reviewing notes contributes to school learning, and (2) whether interventions in the note‐taking/‐reviewing procedure enhance note‐taking/‐reviewing effects, and if so, how much and under what conditions. Syntheses of findings from note‐taking/‐reviewing versus no note‐taking/‐reviewing comparison studies indicated that the overall effects of note‐taking/‐reviewing were substantial. The advantage of note‐taking with intervention over without intervention was modest but significantly greater than zero. This intervention effect was moderated by two variables: presence of provided notes and academic level of participants. Providing a framework or instructor's notes was more effective in the enhancement of note‐taking/‐reviewing effects than pre‐training or verbal instruction only. The participants at lower academic levels gained greater benefits from interventions compared with the participants at a higher academic level.     

Requirements for electronic note taking systems: A field study of note taking in university classrooms

Note taking is the core activity for students in a classroom. There has been a large amount of research conducted, both from industry and from academia, into facilitating the note-taking process. There is evidence that shows that note taking can be beneficial for the students’ educational growth. There are also many available systems for taking notes electronically (e.g. Tablet PCs, PDAs). However, what has not been given as much attention is how these electronic devices affect (or support) the note taking task. In this paper, we study university students’ current note taking behavior and the changes caused by the use of electronic systems for this activity. The goal of our work is to identify issues that should be considered when evaluating electronic note taking systems and to formulate requirements for future electronic note-taking systems. Our findings show that while the technological support for writing with pens on electronic surfaces is quite advanced, the task of note taking in the classroom is not well supported. We identify the limitations of typical note taking systems and discuss the implications for the design of future note taking systems. Our work consisted of three parts: a survey of current note-taking practices, an observational study in a classroom environment, and a semester long case study of students using electronic note-taking devices. All of these activities took place at a large 4-year university. We found that the people reacted to note-taking devices very differently and that their current practices were not always well supported. The users all wanted to input information as fast as possible, in the manner they wanted but they were not always able to achieve that. Hardware limitations (i.e. screen size, responsiveness) added to this issue. We also found that the features that are well supported in an electronic medium (i.e. modification, reorganizing, multiple pen colors/styles, handwriting recognition, sharing) were not commonly used or wanted.     

Student note-taking related to university examination performance

Student note-taking is an almost universal activity among university students, yet few naturalistic studies have examined relationships between note-taking practices and subsequent examination performance. Complete sets of notes on an introductory psychology course, involving 75 lectures presented by ten instructors, were obtained from nineteen male and nineteen female students. Notes on ten selected lectures (one per instructor) were analysed, and information derived about class attendance and the quantity, organization, and presentation of the notes. Variables based on this information were then correlated with performance on two three-hour final examination papers (one multiple-choice, one essay). High correlations were found between the quantity of notes and examination performance. Surprisingly, these correlations increased in subsamples consisting of those students who attended class most diligently. The correlations involving the multiple-choice examination tended to be higher than those involving the essay examination, most probably because of wider sampling of lecture content and a more factual orientation in the multiple-choice examination. The results appear to conflict with the advice given in student study guides, many of which suggest that students should be very selective and concise in their note-taking.     

An integrative review of the cognitive costs and benefits of note-taking

Students frequently engage in note-taking to improve the amount of information they remember from lectures. One beneficial effect of note-taking is known as the encoding effect, which refers to deeper processing of information as a consequence of taking notes. This review consists of two parts. In the first part, four lines of research on the encoding effect are summarized: 1) manipulation of the lecture material, 2) manipulation of the method of note-taking, 3) the importance of individual differences, and 4) the testing procedure used in the empirical studies. This review highlights the fragmented nature of the current literature. In the second part of this review five forms of cognitive load that are induced by note-taking are distinguished. Cognitive load theory is used to integrate the divergent results in the literature. Based on the review, it is concluded that cognitive load theory provides a useful framework for future theory development and experimental work.     

Note-taking within MetaTutor: interactions between an intelligent tutoring system and prior knowledge on note-taking and learning

Hypermedia learning environments (HLE) unevenly present new challenges and opportunities to learning processes and outcomes depending on learner characteristics and instructional supports. In this experimental study, we examined how one such HLE—MetaTutor, an intelligent, multi-agent tutoring system designed to scaffold cognitive and metacognitive self-regulated learning (SRL) processes—interacts with learner’s prior domain knowledge to affect their note-taking activities and subsequent learning outcomes. Sixty (N = 60) college students studied with MetaTutor for 120 min and took notes on hypermedia content of the human circulatory system. Log-files and screen recordings of learner-system interactions were used to analyze notes for several quantitative and qualitative variables. Results show that most note-taking was a verbatim copy of instructional content, which negatively related to the post-test measure of learning. There was an interaction between prior knowledge and pedagogical agent scaffolding, such that low prior knowledge students took a greater quantity of notes compared to their high prior knowledge counterparts, but only in the absence of MetaTutor SRL scaffolding; when agent SRL scaffolding was present, the note-taking activities of low prior knowledge students were statistically equivalent to the number of notes taken by their high prior knowledge counterparts. Theoretical and instructional design implications are discussed.     

How college science students engage in note‐taking strategies

A composite theory of college science student note‐taking strategies was derived from a periodic series of five interviews with 23 students and with other variables, including original and final versions of notes analyzed during a semester‐long genetics course. This evolving composite theory was later compared with Van Meter, Yokoi, and Pressley's (Journal of Educational Psychology, 86, 323–338, 1994) corresponding composite “college students' theory of note‐taking.” Students' notes in this long‐term study were also compared with a standard of “adequate” note‐taking established by experts. Analyses detected many similarities between the two composite theories. Analyses also provided evidence of inadequate note‐taking strategies, inconsistencies between what students claimed and evidently did with their notes, and weak self‐regulating learning strategies. Recommendations included prompting students during class on how to take notes. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 786–818, 2006     

Exploring metacognitive strategy use during note-taking for students with learning disabilities

This mixed-methods study analysed over 200 interviews from 20 seventh-grade students with learning disabilities (LD). Students were instructed how to use a note-taking intervention during science lectures. The interview analyses were supported by pre- and post-intervention quantitative data. Data suggest that the intervention helped students identify important information; systematised the process of listening to, interpreting and using that information; and offered students a means by which to organise the information they were hearing. A discussion about metacognition and attention explores how these processes altered students’ awareness of their own learning, as well as how they equipped students with a new strategy for holding onto and translating information from their science lectures into a useful set of notes. These findings have implications for how theorists conceptualise the relationship between metacognition and attention and how teachers use scaffolding to support the learning of students with LD.     

论口译中的笔记

遗忘是口译方法论中的一个比较棘手的难题,也是无笔记口译时令译员感到头痛的问题。人的记忆能力是有限的,因此必须寻求一种辅助性手段———口译笔记,来帮助译者保持通过识记得来的信息。口译笔记不同于速记,也不同于课堂笔记,它具有个性化,提示性强,现场性等特点。先理解,后下笔;符号、缩写的恰当应用;图式的巧妙应用;特殊词的处理等口译笔记中的技巧能够有效地减轻译员的精神压力从而大大提高工作效率。     

Role of Study Skills in Graduate-Level Educational Research Courses

Abstract

Graduate students' predominant study skill strengths and weaknesses were examined, as well as the relationship between specific study skills and achievement in a research methodology course. Graduate students (N = 122) from various education disciplines who were enrolled in 3 sections of an educational research course at a southeast university were administered the Study Habits Inventory (Jones & Slate, 1992). Students responded appropriately to 57.8% of the statements measuring study skills. Although that proportion was significantly higher than that found for undergraduate students in previous studies, graduate students could benefit from study skills training. Study skill weaknesses were identified in the areas of note taking and reading skills. Regression and discriminant analyses led to the identification of specific study behaviors that discriminated higher and lower levels of course achievement. Implications for intervention programs are discussed.     

Multimedia,It's How You Use It

SUMMARY

The current study chronicles what one professor learned from teaching a distance education course with and without the aid of PowerPoint multimedia presentation software. It compares student ratings of three lectures from the same classes by the same professor; the first, a traditional lecture without any audiovisual aids; the second, a lecture supplemented by PowerPoint notes outlining the lecture; and finally, a multimedia lecture utilizing PowerPoint notes with pictures, music and animations. Students reacted no differently to any of the presentations when delivered by an experienced teacher. The students did, however, prefer PowerPoint multimedia to PowerPoint outline presentations. Suggestions for the optimal uses of presentation software are provided.     

Applying questioning or reading strategy to review technology enhanced coedited notes of elementary school students

The authors examined whether applying questioning review better enhances elementary level students' learning from technology-enhanced coediting-based note taking than does traditional reading review. A nonequivalent comparison group quasi-experimental design was implemented and replicated on four independent units. Two sixth grade elementary classes (66 students) participated in this study and were arranged into coediting notes with questioning review and coediting notes with reading review conditions respectively. The comparisons of student notes and achievement tests do not reveal that the questioning review group achieves better performance than does the reading review group. Considerations associated with technology enhanced coediting notes and questions are discussed based on the results.     

The (Embodied) Performance of Physics Concepts in Lectures

Lectures are often thought of in terms of information transfer: students (do not) “get” or “construct meaning of” what physics professors (lecturers) say and the notes they put on the chalkboard (overhead). But this information transfer view does not explain, for example, why students have a clear sense of understanding while they sit in a lecture and their subsequent experiences of failure to understand their own lecture notes or textbooks while preparing for an exam. Based on a decade of studies on the embodied nature of science lectures, the purpose of this article is to articulate and exemplify a different way of understanding physics lectures. We exhibit how there is more to lectures than the talk plus notes. This informational “more” may explain (part of) the gap between students’ participative understanding that exists in the situation where they sit in the lecture on the one hand and the one where they study for an exam from their lecture notes on the other. Our results suggest that in lectures, concepts are heterogeneous performances in which meaning is synonymous with the synergistic and irreducible transactions of many different communicative modes, including gestures, body movements, body positions, prosody, and so forth.     

Effects of single‐case reading interventions for students with and at‐risk of emotional and behavioral disorders in grades K–12: A quantitative synthesis

This study examined the effects of reading interventions from single‐case design studies for students with and at‐risk of emotional and behavioral disorders in grades K–12 using a quantitative synthesis. Seventeen studies met the selection criteria of having one more dependent variables meeting what works clearinghouse (WWC) design standards with or without reservations. Although students’ reading performance significantly improved from baseline to intervention phases (p < 0.001), the overall weighted average effect size was weak (Tau‐U = 0.58, 95% confidence interval = [0.54, 0.63]; d = 0.29); smaller effects were found on reading comprehension. Interventions were less effective for students in secondary grades, students with a comorbid disability, and students in substantially separate settings. While no studies meeting the selection criteria were conducted in inclusive settings, the teacher provided interventions were more effective than those provided by researchers suggesting the importance of the student–teacher relationship for reading instruction. Study limitations, areas for future research, and implications for school practices are discussed.     

Using guided notes with academically at‐risk high school students during a remedial summer social studies class

This study evaluated the effects guided notes on the performance of academically at‐risk high school students during a remedial summer American History class. The study compared students' own notetaking strategies with that of short‐ and long‐form guided notes. Three students were selected for data collection due to their low baseline notetaking accuracy and quiz scores and a history of severe learning problems: One was enrolled in special education programs for developmental disabilities and the other two were enrolled in English as a Second Language programs (ESL). A modified ABAB reversal design with an imbedded alternating treatments design during intervention (A. E. Kazdin, 1982) was used to compare the effects of students' notetaking accuracy and daily quiz scores while taking their own notes with the effects of responding under the short‐ and long‐form guided notes. The results indicated that both guided notes procedures were successful at increasing the accuracy of students' notes, improving session quiz scores, and were overwhelmingly preferred when compared with students taking their own notes. Differences were the number of concepts written correctly. Practical considerations and implications for adoption in the classroom were discussed. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.