When I reflect back on my first year of college, I can see an overly eager kid who was woefully unprepared for the amount of information she was about to encounter. While professors gave us their notes or took notes on the blackboards present in all classrooms, when I would go back through my notes to study for exams, I had a hard time identifying the main takeaways or the key points that I should have learned. This was not a one-time event. It happened more often than not.
Similarly, in my work as a graduate student, whether I’m assisting in the classroom or offering one-on-one mentoring in a research setting, I have found that undergraduates struggle, like I did, to identify when note-taking would be appropriate, what they should be taking notes on, and how to do it in a way that would be helpful to them in the future.
Research shows that note-taking is an essential part of the learning experience. By engaging the brain to translate what is being presented into tangible words, the content is more easily digestible and remembered. Furthermore, through the writing process, students are more likely to own the content that was presented to them. (Kobayashi, 2006)
So why are students not taking notes? Well, research points to multiple causes, but I will focus on two here: a lack of knowledge on how to take effective notes and how to organize them on the student side, and a lack of a structured lecture that facilitates the organization of notes on the instructor side.
Let’s start with the second one. Research shows that students benefit from being given structure, which can be offered in many ways. Still, the key ones are providing an outline of the lecture/topic, offering handouts with key takeaways, and sharing with students all of the notes that the instructor has prepared for a class.
In addition to structure, these practices introduce a starting point for students. The outline, especially when brought up multiple times throughout a lecture, can help situate the students, enabling them to organize their notes more efficiently. The handouts provide a scaffolding system to which students can add their own thoughts and questions. Lastly, with access to all the notes to a lecture, they can compare their own notes to the instructor’s, which helps them identify any gaps in their understanding of the material.
As well as outlines and handouts, instructors can emphasize the goals of the class session through clearly stated learning objectives. This helps students know which parts of the lecture are most essential and focus their notes on those concepts. Instructors can also mention anecdotes of strategies that helped them in college—for example, underlining or adding a star to a note that you missed so that you know to review and fill in that material after class.
But what about when students are unsure how to take good notes to begin with?
When students start college-level classes, they are expected to be able to jot down notes about complex topics in a fast-paced environment and then sort through and understand them later during subsequent review. That does not always happen.
To support student learning, especially in first year and sophomore-level classes, instructors might consider spending some time early in the semester teaching students how to take notes and pointing them to resources like the study mentors in the Learning Resource Center.
It’s worth noting that these resources do not all need to showcase different note-taking styles and strategies. Instead, they could be a sample of well-written notes exemplifying best practices for your particular subject. You might also make yourself available, say through your regularly scheduled office hours, to review students’ notes and give feedback on what they can improve.
College is a big transition from high school. By paying attention to how our students take notes—which on the surface may seem simple—we are equipping them for success not only in our own classes but also all those that they will take down the road.
Ana Barreto is a graduate associate at Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and is pursuing a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at the University.
Resources
- “Note-Taking: Engaging with Courses,” Academic Resource Center, Harvard University
- “Notetaking and Reading Resources,” Academic Success Center, Iowa State University
- “The Cornell Note-Taking System,” The Learning Strategies Center at Cornell University
- “3 Effective Note-Taking Methods,” Connections Academy, Pearson
- “Study Skills, Learning Strategies, and Study Skills Mentors,” Learning Resource Center, University of Notre Dame
References
DeZure, Kaplan, & Deerman (2001). “Research on Student Notetaking: Implications for Faculty and Graduate Student Instructors.” Center for Research on Learning and Teaching. University of Michigan.
Kobayashi. (2006). “Combined Effects of Note‐Taking/‐Reviewing on Learning and the Enhancement through Interventions: A meta‐analytic review.” Educational Psychology, 26(3), 459–477.