Note-Making
What we wanted to do We wanted to help Year 1 Applied Science students to develop their note-making skills We hoped that this would also help their understanding of the information, as effective note-making would allow them to read back over the information easily later on
How the study was set up Each tutor delivered one of the note taking methods to the group of students in their topic area Students used that method for the remainder of the session Students then reflected on each method
Mind-Mapping
The Outline Method
The Cornell Method
How we assessed success Attitude- students rated each method out of 10 for the ease of the method, usefulness to refer to later and overall score Performance- we looked at samples of each method, focusing on the amount of information shown and the overall quality Behaviour- we observed how the learners reacted to each method and monitored the time taken to use each method
The Results- Attitude Mean Score
The Results- Performance When looking at the various notes at the end of each session, it was noted that mind-maps were much more detailed than the other methods, however they were incomplete The outline notes tended to be complete, however some of the sentences were a little unclear Notes using the Cornell method were again a little unclear, with a lot of scribbling out
The Results- Behaviour Method Positive Observations Negative Observations Mind-mapping + Much more care taken + Lots of thought went into presentation of the information and layout + Students chatting about the information and how best to present it - Took much more time out of the lesson Outline Method + Less time consuming - A little bit more guidance required for the headings - Less concentration Cornell Method - More time consuming due to the level of guidance required
Moving Forward… Overall, mind-mapping was the most useful overall for students To minimise the time spent on this, perhaps a template could be given, which students then complete, or another method (eg: outline) could be used and then translated onto a mind-map to consolidate To minimise guidance required for the outline/cornell, again a template may be useful
Have a Go Think of a session you are teaching next year Create a template that your students could be given to take effective notes during that session