d37
Cindy E. Hmelo (ceh@cc.gatech.edu)
Tue, 16 Jan 96 18:21:38 0000
http://gopher.indiana.edu:2002/eric_rec/gopher/ericdigs/olddigs/d37>
ED300805 88 Note-Taking: What Do We Know about the Benefits? ERIC
Digest Number 12.
> Author: Beecher, Jeff
> ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Bloomington, IN.
>
> THIS DIGEST WAS CREATED BY ERIC, THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER.
> FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ERIC, CONTACT ACCESS ERIC 1-800-LET-ERIC
>
> Research on note-taking has generated debates since C. C. Crawford
> began his studies in the 1920s. Initially the debates centered on
> whether note-taking resulted in improved student performance on tests.
> Over the years, researchers have tried to verify that note-taking
> helps students "encode" the information involved and that notes are
> valuable as materials for review (Ladas, 1980).
>
> The research findings on whether note-taking promotes encoding have
> been mixed. Hult et al. (1984), for example, found that note-taking
> does involve semantic encoding; but Henk and Stahl (1985) found that
> the process of taking notes in itself does little to enhance recall.
> They found, however, that reviewing notes clearly results in superior
> recall. Their conclusions were dramatically different from those of
> Barnett et al. (1981), who found "strong support" for the encoding
> function of note-taking but not for the value of using notes to review
> material.
>
> DOES NOTE-TAKING PROMOTE ENCODING?
>
> In 1925, Crawford published a study which sought to verify his
> observation that there is a positive correlation between analyses of
> college students' lecture notes and their grades on subsequent
> quizzes. He concluded that taking notes was better than not taking
> notes, that reviewing notes was a key to their impact, and that
> organizing notes effectively contributes to improved performance on
> tests.
>
> After a lull in note-taking research, Ash and Carlton (1953) worked
> with instructional films and concluded that films lacking necessary
> pauses and repetitions led to note-taking attempts which actually
> interfered with listening comprehension and learning. McClendon (1958)
> used taped lectures and concluded that note-taking doesn't interfere
> with listening, that no particular note-taking method is best, and
> that students might as well record as much as possible during
> note-taking.
>
> In 1970, Howe concluded that students were seven times more likely to
> recall information one week after it was presented if the information
> had been recorded in their notes. Howe argued that "the activity of
> note writing per se makes a contribution to later retention..." (p.
> 63).
>
> Di Vesta and Gray (1972) observed that "note taking* and rehearsal
> function as learning aids which facilitate learning" (p. 134), while
> Fisher and Harris (1974) found that students perform better when they
> are allowed "to encode in the way that they prefer" (p. 386)--using
> notes or other strategies.
>
> There is growing evidence that note-taking combined with critical
> thinking facilitates retention and applications of the information.
> Bretzing and Kulhary (1979) compared note-taking that indicated
> in-process semantic processing (encoding) with verbatim note-taking
> and found that subjects who took verbatim notes scored lower on
> comprehension tests than those who processed information at a higher
> level while they took notes. Einstein et al. (1985) found that
> successful college students engaged in greater integrative processing
> during note-taking, and that note-taking itself "enhances
> organizational processing of lecture information." (p. 522)
>
> Anderson and Armbruster (1986) concluded that there is a benefit to
> students when the lecture environment permits deep processing while
> taking notes. Denner (1986) describes a method of using "episodic
> organizers"--a kind of semantic web or map--to produce a positive
> encoding effect when seventh-grade subjects were reading complex
> narrative passages.
>
> IS REVIEWING NOTES AN EFFECTIVE LEARNING STRATEGY?
>
> The importance of reviewing notes was mentioned briefly by Crawford in
> 1925. In 1973, Fisher and Harris concluded that "note taking serves
> both an encoding function and an external memory function reviewing,
> with the latter being the more important." (p. 324) Kiewra (1983)
> found that reorganizing notes while reviewing led to higher test
> achievement. The Cornell system of note-taking encourages this
> practice (King et al., 1984).
>
> In a report on their study which allowed students to review their
> notes immediately before a test, Carter and Van Matre (1975) argued
> that the benefit of note-taking appeared to be derived from the review
> rather than from the act of note-taking itself. They even went so far
> as to suggest that reviewing notes may actually cue the student to
> reconstruct parts of the lecture not initially recorded in the notes.
> An interesting study by Kiewra (1985) also endorsed the value of
> review--but not of student notes. He suggested that "Teachers should
> be aware of students' relatively incomplete note-taking behaviours,
> and therefore, encouraged to provide learners with adequate notes for
> review." (p. 77; emphasis added)
>
> WHAT DOES THE RESEARCH SUGGEST TO THE TEACHER?
>
> An increasing number of sources try to synthesize the implications of
> research on note-taking to benefit and advise educators (e.g., Kiewra,
> 1987). Much of the synthesis relates directly to teacher/instructor
> presentation of material. Earlier researchers had offered such
> suggestions: Ash and Carlton (1953) recommended that students be
> supplied with prepared notes for pre-film and post-film study. Based
> on his study of college students' notes, Locke (1977) suggested
> stressing the importance of material that is not written on the board,
> announcing explicitly the precise role that lectures play in the
> course, and combating student fatigue by providing a rest break. (p.
> 98).
>
> In his underlining and note-taking research synthesis for students and
> teachers, McAndrew (1983) suggested that instructors use a spaced
> lecture format, insert verbal and nonverbal cues into lectures to
> highlight structure, write important material on the blackboard, avoid
> information overload when using transparencies or slides, tell
> students what type of test to expect, and use handouts that give
> students room to add notes. Carrier and Titus (1981) asked teachers to
> devote some class time exclusively to a review period before an
> exam--an emphasis like that placed on reviewing by Carter and Van
> Matre (1975), who had also stressed highly organized lectures.
>
> WHAT ARE THE CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS?
>
> Note-taking research, along with educational research in general, has
> begun to concentrate on the cognitive processes of individual learners
> (Kiewra and Frank, 1985). The relevance of schema theory (Shaughnessy
> and Evans, 1986) and of metacognition (Tomlinson, 1985) has been
> studied in recent years.
>
> Kiewra and Benton (1988) have been studying "the relationship between
> lecture note-taking behaviors and academic ability by using more
> global measures of ability, such as GPA and predictive achievement
> test scores. In addition, they have considered a) scores on an
> information-processing ability test, b) analyses of notes taken during
> a designated lecture, c) scores on a test based on a lecture, and d)
> scores on a course exam covering several lectures. They concluded that
> the "amount of notetaking is related to academic achievement" and the
> "ability to hold and manipulate propositional knowledge in working
> memory is related to the number of words, complex propositions, and
> main ideas recorded in notes." (p. 33).
>
> Thus while most note-taking research continues to measure the impact
> of note-taking on recall as measured by tests, there is increasing
> emphasis on cognitive analyses that may have more explicit
> instructional implications in the near future.
>
> *Over the years the term "note-taking" has been spelled several ways.
> Webster's Third New International (1986) lists it only with a hyphen,
> but "notetaker" as one word.
>
> REFERENCES
>
> Anderson, Thomas H., and Armbruster, Bonnie B. "The value of
>
> taking notes during lectures," Technical Report No. 374.
>
> Cambridge, Massachusetts: Bolt, Beranek and Newman and Center for the
>
> Study of Reading, Urbana, Illinois, 1986. 49pp. ED 277 996 Ash,
> Philip, and Carlton, Bruce J. "The value of note-taking
>
> during film learning," British Journal of Educational
>
> Psychology, 23, 1953, pp. 121-125. Barnett, Jerrold E.; Di Vesta,
> Francis J.; and Rogozinski,
>
> James T. "What is learned in note taking?" Journal of
>
> Educational Psychology, 23(2), 1981, pp. 181-192. Bretzing, Burke H.,
> and Kulhary, Raymond W. "Notetaking
>
> and depth of processing," Contemporary Educational Psychology, 4 (2),
>
> April 1979, pp. 145-153. Carrier, Carol A., and Titus, Amy. "Effects
> of notetaking
>
> pretraining and test mode expectations on learning from
>
> lectures," American Educational Research Journal, 18 (4), Winter 1981,
>
> pp. 385-397. Carter, John F., and Van Matre, Nicholas H. "Note taking
>
> versus note having," Journal of Educational Psychology, 67 (6), 1975,
>
> pp. 900-904. Crawford, C. C. "Some experimental studies of the results
> of
>
> college note-taking," Journal of Educational Research, 12,
>
> 1925, pp. 379-386. Denner, Peter R. "Comparison of the effects of
> episodic
>
> organizers and traditional notetaking on story recall," Final Report.
>
> Idaho State University, 1986. 36pp. ED 270 731 Di Vesta, Francis J.,
> and Gray, Susan G. "Listening and
>
> note taking," Journal of Educational Psychology, 63 (1), 1972, pp.
>
> 8-14. Einstein, Gilles O.; Morris, Joy; and Smith, Susan.
>
> "Notetaking, individual differences, and memory for lecture
>
> information," Journal of Educational Psychology, 77 (5), October 1985,
>
> pp. 522-532. Fisher, Judith L., and Harris, Mary B. "Effect of
>
> note-taking preference and type of notes taken on memory," Part 2,
>
> Psychological Reports, 35 (1), 1974, pp. 384-386. Fisher, Judith L.,
> and Harris, Mary B. "Effect of note
>
> taking and review on recall," Journal of Educational Psychology, 65
>
> (3), 1973, pp. 321-325. Henk, William A., Stahl, Norman A. "A
> meta-analysis of
>
> the effect of notetaking on learning from lecture." Paper presented at
>
> the 34th Annual Meeting of the National Reading Conference, 1985.
>
> 15pp. ED 258 533 Howe, Michael J. "Using students' notes to examine
> the
>
> role of the individual learner in acquiring meaningful subject
>
> matter," Journal of Educational Research, 64 (2), October 1970, pp.
>
> 61-63. Hult, Richard E., Jr., et al. "Different effects of note
>
> taking ability and lecture encoding structure on student learning."
>
> Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Eastern Educational
>
> Research Association, 1984. Kiewra, Kenneth A. "Learning from a
> lecture: An investigation
>
> of notetaking, review and attendance at a lecture,"
>
> Human Learning, 4, 1985, pp. 73-77. Kiewra, Kenneth A. "Notetaking and
> review: The research
>
> and its implications," Instructional Science, 16 (3), 1987, pp.
>
> 233-249. Kiewra, Kenneth A. "The process of review: A levels of
>
> processing approach," Contemporary Educational Psychology, 8 (4),
>
> October 1983, pp. 366-374. Kiewra, Kenneth A., and Benton, Stephen L.
> "The
>
> relationship between information-processing ability and notetaking,"
>
> Contemporary Educational Psychology, 13, 1988, pp. 33-44. Kiewra,
> Kenneth A., and Frank, Bernard M. "Cognitive
>
> style: Effects of structure at acquisition and testing," 1985. 23pp.
>
> ED 261 072 King, James R., et al. "Integrating study skills and
>
> orientation courses," College Reading and Learning Assistance
>
> Technical Report 84-07. Atlanta: Georgia State University Division of
>
> Developmental Studies, 1984. 42pp. ED 248 760 Ladas, Harold.
> "Summarizing research: A case study,"
>
> Review of Educational Research, 50 (4), Winter 1980, pp. 597-624.
> Locke, Edwin A. "An empirical study of lecture note
>
> taking among college students," The Journal of Educational Research,
>
> 77, 1977, pp. 93-97. McAndrew, Donald A. "Underlining and notetaking:
> Some
>
> suggestions from research," Journal of Reading, 27(2), November 1983,
>
> pp. 103-108. McClendon, Paul I. "An experimental study of the
>
> relationship between the note-taking practices and listening
>
> comprehension of college freshmen during expository lectures," Speech
>
> Monographs, 25, 1958, pp. 222-228. Shaughnessy, Michael F., and Evans,
> Robert. "The
>
> educational psychology of note taking: Effects of prior word/world
>
> knowledge." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Rocky
>
> Mountain Educational Research Association, 1986. 13pp. ED 283 217
> Tomlinson, Louise M. "Group oral review in the reading
>
> lab: A means of synthesizing individualized approaches applied to one
>
> body of written material." Paper presented at the Developmental
>
> Studies Conference, 1985. 11pp. ED 259 305 ERIC Clearinghouse on
> Reading and Communication Skills Indiana University 2805 East Tenth
> Street, Suite 150 Bloomington, IN 47408
>
> This publication was prepared with funding from the office of
> Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education,
> under contract no. RI88062001. Contractors undertaking such projects
> under government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their
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> opinions, however, do not necessarily represent the official view or
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