Note Taking and Learning : A Summary of Research

Introduction The activity of note taking can be considered part of Writing Across the Curriculum. It crosses over all disciplines and has the two characteristics of Writing Across the Curriculum: note taking helps students learn, and note taking helps students learn to write. Even though techniques for understanding and writing texts are widely taught and practiced throughout a student’s school and university career, very few students are taught even basic “note taking” skills. This despite the fact that students are expected to take extensive notes during their courses across the curriculum, and despite the recognized usefulness of note taking for storing, learning and thinking about what is being taught. The functional complexity of note taking has not been sufficiently accepted by researchers and teachers, undoubtedly because the representation concerning the knowledge and skills it involves has been minimized. Too often, note taking is seen as the rapid transcription of information by using a few condensing techniques, such as shortened words and substitution symbols, for the creation of an external memory whose only importance will be its later use. The work presented in this article shows that we can go much further than this minimalist view. This paper provides an overview of the research carried out in the fields of cognitive psychology, linguistics, and teaching science relevant to this specialized form of writing (see also, Piolat & Boch, 2004). It briefly presents four aspects of note taking: (1) the principal functions of note taking: “writing to learn”; (2) the main note taking strategies used by students; (3) the different factors involved in the comprehension and learning of knowledge through note taking; (4) the learning contexts that allow effective note taking: “learning to write.”