Explains the need to teach students different strategies for taking notes for research, especially at the exploration and collecting information stages, based on Carol Kuhlthau's research process. Discusses format changes; using index cards; notes for live presentations or media presentations versus notes for printed sources; and forming focus…

Reviews the major research on notetaking, the conclusions of these studies, and suggestions for the classroom. Argues that moderately hearing impaired students can take their own notes under certain circumstances and that severely hearing impaired students can use others' notes since review is the most important function of notetaking. (RS)

Learning-disabled students in mainstream settings can use guided notes to help them actively participate in notetaking, follow the sequence of lectures/discussions, and produce useful summaries of important information for future review. This article defines guided notes, describes how to develop guided notes, and offers tips to maximize their…

Discusses McPhee's interviewing techniques, how he handles the mass of notes he generates in preparing and researching a book, how he translates those notes into a first draft, his relationships with editors, and the course on "The Literature of Fact" he teaches at Princeton. (RS)

Methods for recording information derived from focus groups are described as follows: (1) transcribe the entire discussion from a tape; (2) expand reporter's notes by using a tape; and (3) work from reporter's notes only. Three approaches are also suggested for synthesizing the discussion into an accurate text. (SLD)

Describes study of college students that was conducted to determine the effect on an information retrieval task of different ways of organizing users' knowledge. The effect of user characteristics on information interactions is discussed, and the note-taking instructions designed to generate different organizations of knowledge are explained. (20…

Examines construction and use of documentation to create and disseminate order in activity systems of several engineering organizations. Finds that participants used documentation to protect themselves and to describe future actions for others to take. Suggests that creating effective documentation was difficult when writer and reader were from…

Explores the effect of note-taking instruction on ninth graders' comprehension of high- and low-interest passages on teacher-made, objective tests. Finds a statistically significant interaction between note-taking training and passage type that suggests the training was more effective for the low-interest than the high-interest passage. Concludes…

Describes the Guided Lecture Procedure (GLP), a procedure that requires students to suspend all notetaking and listen carefully during an approximately 20-minute lecture, followed by an active notetaking and small group interaction phase. Adds one extra requirement in the active notetaking phase: requiring each learner to write a question for the…

Introduces notetaking tools used successfully with English-as-a-second-language students and low-achieving high school freshmen. Provides an overview of each tool and explains how students use them to take notes when reading textbooks and articles. Notes these tools and academic habits have helped students succeed in their mainstream academic…

Explains concept mapping as a heuristic device that is helpful in visualizing the relationships between and among ideas. Highlights include how to begin a map; brainstorming; map applications, including document or information summaries and writing composition; and mind mapping to strengthen note-taking. (LRW)

Meta-analyses of 33 studies were conducted to examine (1) how much the combination of taking and reviewing notes contributes to school learning, and (2) whether interventions in the note-taking/-reviewing procedure enhance note-taking/-reviewing effects, and if so, how much and under what conditions. Syntheses of findings from…

Students with learning disabilities lack effective note-taking skills for a variety of reasons. Despite the important role that notes play in helping students to understand lecture content information and serving as documents for later review, many students with learning disabilities are simply not effective note-takers. Many of these students…

Twenty years of research shows that using interactive techniques more often can make a class more effective. For example, a study of six thousand physics students compared classes using passive lecture to classes using interactive techniques that allowed for discussion among students and between the professor and students. The study showed that…

A survey asked medical students studying the basic sciences to identify effective learning strategies. The purposes of the survey were three-fold: firstly, to identify learning strategies that students prefer; secondly, to encourage students to evaluate their learning strategies; and thirdly, to inform faculty about their students' learning…