One solution for increasing student success has little
to do with interactive content and electronic course materials. It’s as simple
as taking better notes.
Carol E. Holstead, associate professor of journalism,
University of Kansas, Lawrence, decided she had had enough of students
mesmerized by their laptop computer screens instead of listening to her
lectures, so she banned the devices from her classroom. She did continue using
PowerPoint presentations to outline her lecture and provide examples, but also
instructed her students they needed to be more selective in writing down
important points.
“It turned out my theory was right and now is supported
by research,” Holstead wrote in an article for The Chronicle of Higher Education. “A study published last year in Psychological
Science showed that students who write out notes longhand remember conceptual
information better than those who take notes on a computer.”
The problem for students who used laptops is they become
so intent on capturing every word of a lecture they don’t always listen to what
is being said. Students who used paper and pen to take notes were more
selective because they couldn’t write fast enough, allowing them to retain more
information and understand it better, according to the research.
Holstead ended her first semester without laptops by
having students fill out a questionnaire. Nearly 52% of the 95 responding
students said they paid more attention without a computer in front of them.
More importantly, test scores went up in her classes.
“Their answers reinforced the note-taking study,”
Holstead said. “The students who tried to transcribe my lectures, even without
a laptop, hated taking notes longhand. The students who figured out how to take
selective notes liked it.”
