Note-Taking: Focusing On Quantity

Abstract

There is a common belief among note-taking researchers that "the amount of underlining must be controlled...otherwise a few subjects underline everything or underline nothing.” (Johnson, 1988). Due to this, most note-taking studies of reading have restricted the amount of notes students take, from 1 line per paragraph (Rickards & August, 1975) to 7 lines per page (Bretzing & Kulhavy, 1981). However, there is little rationale behind any specific restriction, and only one study comparing restricted note-taking with unrestricted note-taking (Santa et. al., 1979).

Glossary

Note-taking: The act of recording ideas from learning material, either by marking up the learning material directly or creating a separate sheet of “notes.”

Selection: This term is used in the context of this study to identify the behavior of using the mouse and cursor to actively highlight a portion of digital text. Selection is first step for several online note-taking techniques, including copy-paste and annotation.

Copy-Paste: This is the act of selecting material, copying it to the computer clipboard (via a keyboard shortcut or menu), and then pasting it into students’ notes.

Highlighting: The act of creating a lasting distinction between the selected text and the main content. For example, through creating a yellow background or underlining the text.

Research Question

How does the quantity of notes students record influence what they learn?

Dependent Variables

Behavior

Note-Quantity: The total number of ideas students place in their notes is captured, as well as the number of words used to express those ideas.

Note-Wording: How students word their notes is recorded. Each ideas is either recorded Verbatim, Abbreviated, or in students Own words.

Completion Time: The time students take to complete the learning material is recorded.

Motivation/Interest

Experience: After taking the final test, students are given a survey which solicits their reaction to the tool they used. They are asked to identify their most and least favorite features of the tools, and how they believe the tool affected their note-taking behavior.

Tests

Note: all tests include both multiple choice and free response questions. The multiple choice questions all involve solving problems (for example, given a response structure, which variables are direct causes of an effect, or which interact to produce an effect). In addition, some free response questions ask students to explain terminology used in the module.

Normal Learning, immediate: Students are given a test immediately after studying the material.

Long-Term Retention, Normal Learning: Students return a week following the treatment (which lasts between 30 and 90 minutes) to take this test.

Normal Learning, review: After taking the long-term retention test, students are given their notes to review for 5 minutes. Following this review period, students take a final test.

Independent Variables

Read-Only: In this condition, students do not take notes, they are only allowed to read the material.

Context/Mediating Variables on Student Characteristics

SAT Score: All students are asked to provide their SAT scores, as in previous studies SAT-Math was found to be an important covariate.

Pretest score: Prior to the learning material, students take a pre-test similar to the normal tests described above.

Preferences: In the survey, students are asked how they prefer to take notes in their regular student-life.

Descendents

None at this time

Further Information

'References' -Bretzing, B.H., Kulhavy, R.W. "Note-taking and Passage Style", Journal of Educational Psychology 73, 2 (1981) 242-250 -Johnson, L.L. Effects of Underlining Textbook Sentences on Passage and Sentence Retention. Reading and Research Instruction 28, 1 (1988), 18-32 -Rickards, J.P., August, G.J. (1975) Generative Underlining Strategies in Prose Recall. Journal of Educational Psychology, 67(6), 860-865 -Santa, C.M., Abrams, L., Santa, J.L (1979) Effects of Notetaking and Studying on the Retention of Prose. Journal of Reading Behavior, 11(3) 247-260