Practical Advice for Your Student - Part 1 - Note Taking

After I began attending Learning and the Brain conferences in 2018, one of my favorite things to do was have individual conferences with students who were not performing as well on tests as they would like.  I knew that I had advice that could help them because of what I had learned about cognitive science and memory.

I started by asking them how they currently study.  Their number one answer was, "I look over my notes."  I asked them what that meant, and it was clear why their study habits were ineffective.  They were basically re-reading the words they had copied from the wall with no context or processing.  For a couple of years, I gave them better advice about studying for tests.  

Then, I realized I needed to start expanding these conversations.  We discussed, first, what they were doing in class while learning.  I then addressed more effective study techniques.  Then, finally, we talked about how to deal with questions during the test.  

So, that's what I will do with this blog as well.  We'll start with note taking.  Students tend to fall into one of two extremes.

1. Note taking is not only copying what is on the board.  Before I had a textbook, my students had to rely on their notes.  Parents would come to conferences and say, "We don't know how to help because we can interpret his notes."  I would look at them and find that they had copied the words from the slides and nothing else.  Literally nothing else.  No examples.  No practice problems.  No thoughts of their own.  It needs to be more than that.  What is projected on the wall or written on the board is an outline at best, not the only things that are important from the lesson.
2. Note taking is not a class transcript.  The other extreme is when students become court stenographers, attempting to write down every word that is said in class.  This is more likely to happen when they are taking notes by typing on a laptop because it allows them to gain speed.  But, it also shuts off any processing of the information through their brain.  By writing more, they think about it less.  This is what leads some to believe that taking notes by typing is ineffective.  It's not the typing that causes the problem; it's the lack of thinking.  When taking notes by hand, we usually summarize what we hear to save time.  It's that summarizing that is helpful.
3. Notes should be a collaboration of brains.  So what notes should be then?  Well, as I already mentioned, they should be a summary of what happened in the lesson, not just what was projected but also the important parts of what was said.  This takes practice because students have a hard time identifying what was important.  (By the way, for some good advice in this area, see Daniel Willingham's great book Outsmart Your Brain.). They should also involve thoughts from the student himself.  It's probable that he thought of something while the teacher was explaining that would be useful to his memory later on.  The purpose of note taking isn't to have notes.  The purpose of note taking is to jog ones memory later, so write down anything that will be likely to help with that.  
4. Notes are for the student.  The important thing to remember is to write down what will help YOU to remember.  Notes aren't for the teacher or for your parents.  They are for the student to have a memory aid for what happened in class.  This is frustrating for parents who want to help their student study.  They want to be able to pick up the notes and make sense of them.  But they weren't in class, so it won't help them remember what happened in class.  The best thing a parent can do with their child's notes in helping them study is point to something and say, "Tell me about this."  The child should be able to look at that note and retrieve an episodic memory from that day's lesson.  If they can, these are good notes, no matter what they look like.  Conversely, if they can't, these are not good notes.

It's tempting to ask the teacher to provide a crutch for students who aren't yet good at this.  Some teachers provide a fill in the blank sheet of notes.  Run away from these!  That means the teacher did the summarizing (so she'll remember, but you won't).  It also means students only stay engaged for long enough to fill in the word.  Then, they check out for the next word.  Students, I implore you to take your own notes.  Don't do group notes with your friends on a google doc.  Don't borrow someone else notes (unless you were absent or looking to see if your own notes are missing something).  I know it takes more work, but if you care about learning, it is the only way.