1. Enhancing Assessment of Performance in Biology Courses
Exploring Note Taking Strategies to Support Comprehension, Retention and Recall
Erin Duckett & Danilo M. Baylen
University of West Georgia

2. What are Concept Maps? Concept Maps
Graphical tools for organizing and representing knowledge (Novak)
Concepts enclosed in circles or boxes
Relationships between concepts described by connecting line linking concepts

3. What are Concept Maps?...
Represented with a hierarchal structure (Novak)
Broad concepts located at top
Less general concepts on bottom
Construct maps in reference to question
Helpful to organize ideas/knowledge
Reorganize existing knowledge with already acquired knowledge (Briscoe & LaMaster, 1991)

4. Why Concept Mapping?
Science education is heavily teacher- centered (Brinkerhoff & Booth, 2013)
Relies on rote learning
Focuses on test scores
Students do not know how to take notes
Do not know how to recognize key ideas/concepts
Students do not know how to study
Easily overwhelmed by amount of information covered
Students lack critical thinking skills

5. Principles of Biology I
Overview
Large Lecture Class
Little Effort
Principles of Biology I
Pre-Nursing
Undeclared
Non-Science
Science
Competitive
High Admission Standards to Pro. School
High DFWs
Content-Driven
No effective Note Taking Strategies
Expect A or B

6. Note Taking Strategies
Concept
Mapping
Difficulty Retaining/Recalling Information
Better Study Strategies Beyond Written Notes
Visual Mapping

7. Notebooks Collected & Graded
Procedures
Visual Mapping *
139 Students Categorized
Comp. Final
Exam
Concept Mapping **
4 Unit
Exams
Student
Performance
Notebooks Collected & Graded
Traditional Notes
***

8. Data Collection Exam Scores
Affect on Student Performance
Demographic Information: Gender, Major, Credits Earned
Exam Scores
Notebook Grades
Demographic information: Gender, major, earned credits (year in college)
Exam Scores
Notebook Grades

9. Significant Relationships?
No significant relationship among gender, academic major, prior credits earned with any of the note taking strategies focusing on performance (final average)
No significant relationship for students who are freshmen or have GPAs above B in all note taking strategies focusing on performance
However, there is a significant relationship between a GPA of <B and note taking strategy, specifically traditional note taking strategy, focusing on performance
It seems that the traditional note taking strategy is not helping students with GPA of less than a B perform better in the course

10. Prior GPA and Note Taking Strategies
95% Confidence Interval
Mean
Std Error
Lower Bound
Upper Bound
Freshmen, first semester
Concept Mapping
83.894
1.678
80.573
87.214
Visual Mapping
81.617
2.056
77.550
85.684
Traditional Note Taking
86.902
1.625
83.687
90.117
Prior GPA Below B
83.490
3.064
77.428
89.552
80.802
74.740
86.864
70.811
2.772
65.327
76.294
Prior GPA Above B
3.475
76.813
90.561
87.066
80.192
93.940
86.959
2.457
82.098
91.819

11. Lessons Learned
Provide students with a better understanding of what is expected from the notebooks
Provide a rubric
Discuss how submissions will be assessed
Do check for plagiarism
Do not allow “swappers”
Remove traditional notes as a submission option

12. Lessons Learned…
Using concept or visual mapping strategies does make a difference in student performance
Design better study
Demonstrate how the use of note taking strategies impact comprehension, retention and recall
Collect more data
Combined averages:
Exam #1 Exam #2 Exam #3 Exam #4 Final Exam
Fall 2014 (214)
Fall 2015 (218)

13. References
Brinkerhoff, J. L., & Booth, G. M. (2013). The Effect of Concept Mapping on Student Achievement in an Introductory Non-Majors Biology Class. European International Journal of Science and Technology, 2(8),
Briscoe, C., & LaMaster, S. U. (1991). Meaningful Learning in College Biology through Concept Mapping. National Association of Biology Teachers, 53(4),
Novak, J. D. (2010). Learning, creating, and using knowledge: Concept maps as facilitative tools in schools and corporations. New York, NY: Routledge.
Patrick, A. O. (2011). Concept Mapping as a Study Skill: Effects on Students Achievement in Biology. International Journal of Education, 3(1),
Sakiyo, J. & Waziri, K. (2015) Concept Mapping Strategy: An Effective Tool for Improving Students’ Academic Achievement in Biology. Journal of Education in Science, Environment and Health (JESEH), 1(1),