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.     

Laptop versus longhand note taking: effects on lecture notes and achievement

There has been a shift in college classrooms from students recording lecture notes using a longhand pencil-paper medium to using laptops. The present study investigated whether note-taking medium (laptop, longhand) influenced note taking and achievement when notes were recorded but not reviewed (note taking’s process function) and when notes were recorded and reviewed (note taking’s product function). One unique aspect of the study was determining how laptop and longhand note taking influence the recording of lecture images in notes and image-related achievement. Note-taking results showed that laptop note takers recorded more notes (idea units and words) and more verbatim lecture strings than did longhand note takers who, in turn, recorded more visual notes (signals and images) than did laptop note takers. Achievement results showed that when taking laptop notes, the process function of note taking was more beneficial than the product function of note taking (i.e., better image-related learning and similar text-related learning). When taking longhand notes, the product function of note taking was more beneficial than the process function of note taking (i.e., better text-related learning and similar image-related learning). Achievement findings suggest that the optimal note-taking medium depends on the nature of the lecture and whether notes are reviewed.     

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

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 non-linear 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.     

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.     

The role of time and cuing in a college lecture

The lecture process was studied systematically with the following objectives: to reexamine the effects of time upon note-taking and immediate retention, to compare the relative effectiveness of spoken and written cues, and to investigate cuing schedules. Students were asked to view one of a series of videotaped lectures in which certain statements were highlighted by either spoken or written cues. The contents of students' notes and assessments of immediate recall and recognition provided the dependent measures. Students recorded increasingly less information in their notes over the course of the lecture, but retention of material from different portions of the lecture was essentially the same. Written-cued statements were recorded more frequently and retained better than statements preceded by spoken cues. Finally, the different schedules of cuing were shown to have subtle effects upon note-taking and recall.     

A review of note-taking: The encoding-storage paradigm and beyond

This review article investigates the encoding and storage functions of note-taking. The encoding function suggests that the process of taking notes, which are not reviewed, is facilitative. Research specifying optimal note-taking behaviors is discussed as are several means for facilitating note-taking, such as viewing a lecture multiple times, note-taking on a provided framework, or generative note-taking activities. The storage function suggests that the review of notes also is facilitative. Research addressing particular review behaviors, such as organization and elaboration, is discussed as are the advantages of reviewing provided notes, borrowed notes, or notes organized in a matrix form. In addition, cognitive factors related to note-taking and review are discussed. The article concludes with an alternative means for defining and investigating the functions of note-taking, and with implications for education and for research.     

Note Taking on Trial: A Legal Application of Note-Taking Research

This article is about note taking, but it is not an exhaustive review of note-taking literature. Instead, it portrays the application of note-taking research to an unusual and important area of practice—the law. I was hired to serve as an expert witness on note taking in a legal case that hinged, in part, on the completeness and accuracy of handwritten meeting notes. Based on my own research and that of others, I rendered three opinions about handwritten notes: (a) They omit most of what is said, (b) they omit details, context, and essential qualifiers, and (c) they contain inaccuracies or vague statements. This article tells the story of how I came to investigate note taking, become an expert witness, and render those three opinions. It concludes with a call to investigate note taking in non-academic settings such as meetings and to uncover ways to boost and improve note-taking methods.     

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.     

汉英交替传译质量提高策略

衡量口译质量的标准包括大意回复（clause recall）、关键词翻译（key word retrieval）、流利性标识（dysfluency markers）及语速（speed rate）。在实践过程中研究分听辨、笔记、表达诸方面相关因素与口译效率的关系,试图探讨汉英交替传译提高交传质量的策略。实践研究结果显示,交传质量受到听辨能力、记笔记能力和中英双语转换能力的影响。     

口译笔记初探

口译,一项特殊的语言处理行为。坊间对口译员有"民间的外交家"之称。口译一度神秘。口译笔记,似乎一直都颇具争议。巴黎和会时期,欧洲译坛曾视译员借助笔记为实力不济。而如今中国的各大对外场合,小至商务谈判,大至记者招待会,现场口译总会依靠口译笔记辅助记忆。近几年,许多国内学者纷纷在不同的外语类核心期刊(尤其是《中国翻译》)发文,试图从不同角度来探讨口译笔记。2006年以来,市面上便出现了口译笔记教学的专业书籍,可见口译笔记正逐渐引起重视。本文试图从国内三大主流口译笔记入手,也谈谈口译笔记,望能抛砖引玉。     

The Effect of Encoding and an External Memory Device on Note Taking

College students were randomly assigned to seven note-taking and review conditions in order to determine the relative importance of the functions of encoding and either an externally provided or a personally produced memory device. Results of the post-test showed that a combination of encoding and reviewing either one’s own notes or an outline of the lecture produced the best recall scores, while either personally encoding notes or being provided with a lecture outline during the lecture accompanied by “mental” review produced the least recall. The findings are discussed in terms of practical suggestions for professors and their students.     

汉英交替传译中的笔记策略

近些年来,人们对汉英交替传译研究这一课题越来越关注,笔记策略也自然成了人们关注的焦点。该文通过对现有国内外有关汉英交传笔记方法的研究,总结和梳理出一套可行的汉英交传笔记策略。从而提出:要在熟练所有笔记方法的基础上,反复地练习,不断的修改和完善,最终总结出一套适合自己的笔记方法。     

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.     

浅议提高汉英交替传译质量策略——以2009年国家主席胡锦涛新年讲话的实践研究为例

通过2009年国家主席胡锦涛新年讲话分析发现受训译员在汉莫交替传译过程中的各方面的特征,试图探讨汉英交替传译提高交替传译质量的策略。在实践过程中研究分听辨、笔记、表达诸方面相关因素与口译效率的关系。结果显示,交替传译质量受到听辨能力、记笔记能力和双语转换能力的影响。     

Note-Taking Interventions for College Students: A Synthesis and Meta-Analysis of the Literature

ABSTRACT

Although note taking is frequently described as an important skill for postsecondary success, there have been few note-taking intervention studies involving multiple sessions spanning more than one week. In a systematic search, we identified seven peer-reviewed articles reporting 10 intervention studies published from 1990–2014. The only single-case design study addressed taking notes from texts, but four treatment-comparison studies that taught note taking during lectures assessed students' abilities when taking notes from texts. The remaining four treatment-comparison and one single-group design studies focused solely on note taking during lectures. Three types of notes were represented in the corpus: guided (seven studies), split-page (two studies), and self-restructured (one study). In comparing students who did and did not receive note-taking instruction, Hedges's g effect sizes on outcome measures of content learning and note quality ranged from ?0.35 to 2.11. Across nine group design studies, the weighted average effect was 0.54 (CI₉₅ = 0.47 to 0.62). The weighted average Tau-U of the single-case design was 1.00 (CI₉₅ = 0.60 to 1.40).     

A Preliminary Analysis on the Note-taking in English Interpretation

Interpretation is a very immediate translation practice.To be a qualified interpreter,you must have a good bilingual ability,rich knowledge as well as some relevant skills.The scene of interpretation is very complicated,so interpreters often can not successfully com plete the task of interpretation only by memory.They have to rely on the help of taking some notes.Therefore,note-taking is of essential importance in interpreting and it is very important in interpreting practice.This paper mainly make a brief summary of five kinds of note-taking symbols commonly used and illustrates each one by one.Besides,this paper puts forward practical training methods of note-taking.     

Spontaneous spatial strategy use in learning from scientific text

Two studies explored the role of the spontaneous use of spatial note-taking strategies (i.e., creating maps and drawings) and spatial ability in learning from a scientific passage. In Study 1, college students read and took notes by hand on a 10-paragraph scientific passage about the human respiratory system. Students tended to use verbal strategies such as lists (on 48% of the paragraphs), outlines (29%) and running text (15%), but also used spatial strategies such as maps (28%) and drawings (11%). Regression analyses indicated that spatial ability and the use of spatial strategies (maps or drawings) significantly predicted learning outcomes, with spatial strategy use explaining additional variance beyond spatial ability. In Study 2, students read the same scientific passage and took notes either by hand on paper (paper group), by hand on a large whiteboard (whiteboard group), or on a laptop computer (computer group). A similar general pattern as Study 1 was found for the paper group, but this pattern was not found for the computer or whiteboard groups, suggesting that the relationships found in Study 1 might depend on the note-taking medium. Results also indicated that students in the paper and whiteboard groups spontaneously used more spatial strategies, whereas the computer group tended to use verbal strategies (i.e., words only), suggesting that different note-taking contexts encourage different strategies.     

The effects of cross-modality and level of self-regulated learning on knowledge acquisition with smartpads

Recently, there has been a transition from traditional paper or computer-based learning environments to smartpad-based learning environments, which are based on touch and involve various cognitive strategies such as touch operation and note taking. Accordingly, the use of smartpads can provide an effective learning environment through cross-modality, which simultaneously integrates information using two or more sensory modalities. Based on this rationale, this study investigated the effects of cross-modality (vision and tactility) on knowledge acquisition in a smartpad-based learning environment. Interaction between different modalities and learners’ self-regulated learning (SRL) skills was also tested. Ninety-nine college students were randomly assigned to three different learning environments: paper-based, smartpad-based unimodal, and smartpad-based cross-modal environments. Students were differentiated according to high and low SRL skill levels. The findings suggest that the participants in the smartpad-based cross-modal environment significantly outperformed the participants in the smartpad-based unimodal environment pertinent to identification and comprehension knowledge acquisition. Furthermore, the participants in the smartpad-based cross-modal environment performed equally with the participants in the paper-based environment.     

Both handwriting speed and selective attention are important to lecture note-taking

The primary purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the relationship of handwriting speed, fine motor fluency, speed of verbal access, language comprehension, working memory, and attention (executive control; selective) to note-taking and all of the aforementioned variables to test performance (written recall). A second purpose was to determine whether one or both of the hypothesized components of handwriting speed (as based in the children’s literature), fine motor speed or speed access to verbal codes (SAVCs), are responsible for the relationship of handwriting speed to notes. Results indicated that handwriting speed and selective attention were the only variables significantly related to notes and note-taking skill was the only variable that was significantly related to test performance. In a secondary analysis, we tested whether fine motor fluency and SAVC were related to handwriting speed. Handwriting speed was regressed on all of the other independent variables. Only fine motor fluency and SAVC were related to handwriting speed. The implications of these results for conceptualizations of note-taking and handwriting speed are discussed.     

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.