Typing Versus Learning

We are all trying to help students learn so that they can succeed; we invest great amounts of time in designing classroom work and other components, and many of us are willing to spend ‘free time’ helping individual students. Our work will be improved if it is informed by research and theory on learning in general, and learning mathematics in particular.

I ran into an item that referenced a research study conducted on using a laptop to take notes compared to hand-written notes in class. The reviewed article has not been published yet but you can read a summary at https://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/were-only-human/ink-on-paper-some-notes-on-note-taking.html

The key findings:

Taking notes on a laptop tended to be verbatim and less useful than hand-written notes.

Students who took notes on a computer memorized the same amount of information as those using hand-written notes.

Students who took notes on a computer performed more poorly on test items dealing with the ideas involved in their notes.

There also appears to be a pattern of verbatim notes (little processing) even if students are directed to not take verbatim notes; the device seems to encourage this type of behavior.

I do not see many students using a computer to take notes in my math classes (though it does happen). What we all see more often is the use of another machine — calculators in particular, possible internet with a browser. Would these activities also tend to be at the ‘verbatim’ level of processing?

To a large extent, I think the answer is yes — typing on a calculator tends to be done as a keyboarding activity with little processing of ideas. I am not about ready to give up the learning advantages of using a calculator, nor am I going to pretend that those internet resources do not exist. However, I need to be aware of the potential impact on the quality of learning when students do a lot of keyboarding of any kind.

Like many others, I tend to use a graphing calculator as a tool to explore properties and relationships. This usually involves entering an expression or function, and then looking at some type of results. Although I believe this is a “good thing”, the results of my efforts have consistently been disappointing — students seldom get the idea in a way that sticks with them. It’s not like there is no gain; it’s more a sense that the calculator process is creating some type of opposing force that makes the learning more difficult.

We, as a group, may tend to equate “getting something, making it visible” with “learning the ideas”. When we use calculators or other keyboarding technology, the research cited above suggests that students may be processing the activity primarily as one of the keyboarding itself — like transcribing a conversation. Processing of ideas, and looking for connections, might be more difficult when using calculators or computers — not impossible, just a challenge. We need to provide a structure will pulls student attention away from the required keyboarding to the level where they think about ideas and connections.

I think our results will improve if we keep these factors in mind as we design instruction and experiences for our students.

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cognition | Jack Rotman | April 1, 2014 11:31 am

3 Comments

By Larry Stone, May 7, 2018 @ 4:55 pm

I believe in hands-on note-taking. Certainly it has been the key to my own learning — which, I admit, has been in traditional lecture settings.

Question: Would switching away from traditional lecturing and towards an active learning/group work model bring a reduction in “traditional” note-taking as well as traditional lecturing?

I guess my main concern is whether the statement “I think I’ll teach a Math Lit course with group activities and active learning” is compatible with “and I’m going to adopt the Cornell notes system.”
By Jack Rotman, May 7, 2018 @ 5:59 pm

Perhaps a balance — intentional note taking when appropriate, highest use during presentations with somewhat less use during active learning. Group activities and active learning should also involve some note taking (though not verbatim in all learning modes).
By Larry Stone, May 11, 2018 @ 10:49 am

Sure, but there’s a big difference between just writing things down vs. training yourself to listen & quietly reflect first, then write something down, then review/beef up/reorganize your notes later, etc., as in the Cornell system. It’s the difference between teaching people to be independent critical thinkers vs. group thinkers (pun not intended).

Maybe that’s all I can do at first, is try to work in both. By the end of one term I will probably know whether I want to lean one way or the other. Perhaps I’ll end up leaning one way for the algebra-lit side and the other for the math-lit side.

My longer-term worry is that, in this increasingly typity-type and finger-point world, people will begin to disdain hand-written notes they way they presently disdain print books and direct instruction — as though it could all be bad.

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