Buy essay on Note taking

The initial hypothesis was the following: note taking behavior acts as a distract factor for concentration. The participants of the research were divided into two groups, one group was allowed to take notes and the other was not. Then the short video was shown to both groups, and after watching the video both groups were tested about its content with a quiz.
To a first approximation the hypothesis was supported with the quiz results: note taking group showed a lower quiz score than the group without notes. On closer inspection the result isn’t so definite. First, the number of participants wasn’t enough to provide the statistically significant difference between the results of two groups. Second, the note taking group wasn’t allowed to use the notes for the quiz, though the members of group concentrated their attention partly on the note making and partly on the video memorization. Thus, the lower score of note taking group was expected. Third, to get more significant result in studying the influence of note taking on the memory it would be useful to watch shorter and longer video and compare the quiz results, because the time limits could have an effect on the participants behavior. (Miller, Weiss, 1976).
Earlier note making was considered as the significant help in the process of learning amd progressive memory-improving technique. Kate Wilson writes in her article:
“The literature on reading and note-taking contains both prescriptive texts and empirical research. The prescriptive texts of the past 50 or 60 years have offered a range of note-taking formulae. Most of these methods have encouraged students to pick out the main ideas of the text; to reflect, question, or comment on the material; or sometimes to transpose the information into graphic or diagrammatic form. (Wilson, 1999)”
Kate Wilson is the representative of the whole schools of note-taking supporters. Barzun (1992) suggests that the student has to get into the habit as early as possible of performing the transformation. However, current research can prove the opposite hypothesis.
Returning to the research it is worth mentioning that p-value (the probability that the results observed in a study could have occurred by chance if the null hypothesis was true) was equal to p=.065, and its meaning was rather close to the threshold of .05: if p<.05, the result can be considered as statistically significant. To obtain the more proper and statistically significant data it is necessary to provide further research increasing the number of participants and varying the length of the video. Besides, it is worth to compare the results of the note taking group, which was allowed to use the notes in a quiz, and which wasn’t; and the comparison of results for group, which knew about the impossibility of note using, and which didn’t, could have the statistical importance. The further researches should be conducted in this direction.
The results of further research can be used by educational system and the different training and learning systems, too, because the understanding of the human attention’ mechanism is important for the process of learning. “Note-taking in the second-language writing process is not a well-researched area, perhaps because of the traditional divide in the English as a Second Language (ESL) curriculum between reading and writing” (see Blanton, 1994).

 
References
Barnett, Jerrold E.; di Vesta, Francis J.; Rogozinski, James T. What is learned in note taking?.
Journal of Educational Psychology. Vol 73(2), Apr 1981, 181-192. doi: 10.1037/0022-0663.73.2.181
Miller,T. W. ; Weiss,David J. Effects of Time Limits on Test-Taking Behavior. Technical rept., Minnesota univ Minneapolis dept of psychology. April 1976 Retrieved April 2010 from http://www.ntis.gov/
Kiewra, Kenneth A. A review of note-taking: The encoding-storage paradigm and beyond. Educational Psychology Review. Springer Netherlands. Volume 1, Number 2 / June 1989, pp. 147-172. DOI 10.1007/BF01326640
John P. Rickards and Frank Friedman. The encoding versus the external storage hypothesis in note taking. Contemporary Educational Psychology. Volume 3, Issue 2, April 1978, Pages 136-143. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0361-476X(78)90020-6
Kiewra Kenneth A., Benton Stephen L., Kim Sung-Il, Risch Nancy and Christensen Maribeth. Effects of Note-Taking Format and Study Technique on Recall and Relational Performance. University of Nebraska, Lincoln Kansas State University University of Nebraska, Lincoln Rexburg Colle.. Contemporary Educational Psychology. Volume 20, Issue 2, April 1995, Pages 172-187. doi:10.1006/ceps.1995.1011 |
Kate Wilson. Note-Taking in the Academic Writing Process of Non-Native Speaker Students: Is It Important as a Process or a Product? Journal of College Reading and Learning, Vol. 29, 1999
Barzun, J. (1992). The modern researcher. Sydney, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.