NOTE TAKING 3

Should students take notes? What about giving students access to your PowerPoint slides and lecture notes? Students have been known to ask for them pretty aggressively and lots of teachers do make them available. Is it a good idea?

The related research on using PowerPoint slides shows with some consistency that although students think using PowerPoint slides helps them learn, it does not change their grades. Findings about giving student the slides are mixed, but are quite strong against giving them your notes.

Here are some of the reasons why students should be taking notes for themselves. The practice of note-taking develops several important skills—starting with listening. You can’t take notes if you aren’t listening. You need to be able to take decent notes because in most professional contexts, indeed in life, you are regularly in situations that require taking in and processing information that you need to remember and later apply. You can’t always be asking people to give you a copy of what they just told you.