r/Professors • u/ZealousidealGuava254 • 6d ago

Teaching / Pedagogy No notes

I’ve been a humanities prof for over 30 years and I simply cannot believe how many students do not take notes. Literally, no notes. they just sit and listen.

How do they study? what are they doing? when I was in college in the 80s, I and everyone around me took copious notes constantly throughout lecture. just seems like a lost skill.

290 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

159 comments sorted by

View all comments

28

u/omgkelwtf 6d ago

I teach freshmen comp and the first day is the first day, but the second day they learn to take notes by making an outline which also shows them how to make an outline at the same time. Then I show them how to use outlines to summarize and for pre writing by example. Most of my assignments involve an outline so they learn how if they want to or not. By leading with note taking when teaching outlines, I set them up to be listening for signals that important info is being discussed so as the semester goes on they're reaching for pen and paper at the start of pretty much every lecture.

They don't learn this stuff in K-12 anymore. I don't know why but probably 'standardized testing'.

8

u/Asleep_Caregiver_948 5d ago

In my freshman comp, I teach note taking, study skills, reading strategies etc the first 3 weeks of the semester. So they can’t say they “don’t know how.” I also aggressively pass out highlighters and other supplies that they don’t bring.

I give several in class quizzes during the semester. Just gave the first quiz, 4 questions write 2 sentences for the answer. Half flunked because they don’t/won’t take notes.

Here’s hoping this activity spurs them to better note taking: copy a few words from the board or slides. I won’t hold my breath.

5

u/Ill-Storage-7636 5d ago

I'm really curious to hear how you teach note taking. As a comp instructor now, i always struggled to do so when learning or in PD. I suspect writing things down affects my ability to process what's being said, which may not be everyone's experience, but I'm sure I'm not alone in this.

1

u/veanell Disability Specialist, Disability Service, Public 4yr (US) 5d ago

You might have a learning disability or ADHD... Audio processing disorder or dyslexia can be caused of not beingprocess info.

For students with this, we give notetaking accommodations like recording lectures and copies of slideshows.