Mar 25, 2007

Taking Effective Lecture Notes

As a professor, one of the things that troubles me is how ill-equipped many students are to take good notes. Whenever I give an exam, I inevitably go over the test with students who did poorly and do not know why. Often the problem is that they have taken inadequate class notes, which I discover quickly when I ask to see their notebook. Here's an article that I hope will help:

How to Take Effective Class Notes

So why is it that so many students lack note-taking skills? I suspect that one problem is that high schools are not doing nearly enough to prepare incoming college students for this important task. When I recently looked over the notes of a student who had done poorly on my test, he told me that no one had ever looked at his notes before or instructed him on how to take notes properly. This is a problem.

Another problem, of course, is the issue of Generation Y college students and their poor attention spans. This generation has been inundated by music television, iPods, hypertext, and a world full of fast-paced technology and fun distractions. They are not used to paying attention. This seems like all the more reason for high school and college instructors to make sure students know how to be active listeners. Instead of bemoaning poor attention spans, we should try to help improve them.

Related to this problem is the overuse of technology to present information to students. Of course technology can enhance education, but it has to be used properly. Some students are so accustomed to bullet-pointed PowerPoint slides and other high-tech organizational tools that they are ill-equipped to take notes in a more traditional environment. Unfortunately, the world does not come with bullet points, and neither do meeting with bosses and other professional settings where taking good notes is essential.

In recent years, many schools have come to emphasize basic skills such as reading and writing. We need to recognize note-taking as an important basic skill as well.