Sounds like you agree with the recent “Rate Your Students” posting that they should “move their own rocks.”
in high school note taking may not be so important. the quantity of information isn’t so great that it can’t be included in a good text book in many cases. class can be a work through or alternate explanation of the text.
at the university and graduate level it becomes important in math and sciences. there is too much information with too much detail to go into a textbook. a calculus book can make statements of going from one equation to another is obvious (to them) and so not show it. or a chemical transition is really a multiple step pushing of electrons.
the teacher will give lots of detail and could fill 3 or 5 boards and start over. you do have to write fast, sometimes you get a teacher with chalk in the right hand and eraser in the left hand.
Sure, just tell me what to Google on that doesn’t return thousands of irrelevant hits.
Out of curiosity, I Googled “Harvard study note taking effectiveness”, and the first result was this document from the Harvard Bureau of Study Counsel on how to take effective notes. They offer a few other resources on note-taking, too.
Obviously, this is unrelated to the study you’re referring to, but I’d think that if Harvard researchers had found note-taking to be so ineffective, they wouldn’t be encouraging it.
They do note that the student should not just try to copy down everything the teacher says, which certainly could prevent them from hearing the lecture, but rather listen for and write down key points and crucial information. I know this is true for me personally: if I try to write down everything the instructor says, I retain very little. But I do far better with taking copious notes on key concepts than just listening and trying to remember everything that was said. In fact, I find the act of writing things down helps me remember them. I have tested this on occasion, unfortunately, when I forgot to bring notepaper or pens to class. I can totally get behind encouraging students to listen and understand vs. transcribe, but saying they shouldn’t take any notes ever just seems a little nutty.
Teach the course that you are supposed to teach. Give out the grades that are earned by the students.
That’s really all you can do.
I don’t see this at all. A teacher’s job is to teach. If the students aren’t learning, then she isn’t teaching. So, if she wants to remain a teacher, the one thing she can’t* do is continue doing the same thing.
*I assume you are using can in the moral sense. Otherwise it makes no sense. Why would she even be considering this if she had rules to the contrary?
@RancidYakButterTeaParty: WTF!! You don’t grade homework even for completion, but then you try to force the kids to do it anyway? Do you honestly not understand the point of not requiring homework? It’s to let the students decide what they do and don’t need to do. The kid who actually learned what they were supposed to don’t need to do the 30-odd problems. And if you didn’t get it at all, you’re going to mess up on all of them, and learn absolutely nothing.
In fourth grade I had a teacher who made such a big deal about proper handwriting, that I never had time to get my work done. I stayed in from recess all the time to try and finish it. I never did, and my grades showed it. In comparison, I remember my high school calculus class. I never did any of the homework, yet I made the highest grade on every test. In fact, I am the only person who got college credit for the class.
Anyways, I have enough of a problem as it is that recess is being shortened and homework is being increased, so that kids have no time to be kids, using play to learn how to cope in society. Give me a teacher that does both at once, while pretending to be progressive by not grading it, and my kid would not be staying in your class.
head explodes
pulls head back together
Do they at least get feedback on where they made mistakes?
I have read through your replies and implemented a bunch of new strategies since I first posted. I will post a bit later today to update.