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The flip side of not being able to make your own notes for your own learning is that you are less likely to read as much as you should. Independent learners must be people who are willing to read. They do not expect information to be given to them on a platter. They explore what they are interested in or what is important to them. They are seldom told what to learn. They decide what is to be learned.
But the absence of note-taking skills in anyone will deter him from making his own explorations. Text becomes a chore because they would not know how to process what they read as they are so used to be given everything in neat bulleted form. This addiction to ready-made processed notes means that they cannot process and organize information on their own. Reading would be difficult and a time-wasting chore because what is read is quickly forgotten without good processing of the information.For this reason, non-note-takers are poor readers.
A good note-taker knows that good processing of the information requires him to interact with the information, sifting out what is important from the unimportant, and organizing them so that it makes sense to him as he understands it. A lot of thinking is required and it is this thinking that will re-wire the neurons in the brain cells and help the brain make sense of what is read. This process is important because information only becomes deep knowledge to someone only if the person himself has processed the information. Reading ready-made notes processed by someone else makes it harder for the information to become deep knowledge. The reader of someone else’s notes only becomes a superficial learner.
The non-note-taker is a superficial learner because he does not undergo a richer learning process. He is only interested in an end product, not the process. The sifting and organizing of the information from the reading he would otherwise have to do himself are important cognitive processes that makes his understanding deeper. Worse, he will always be dependent on others. His learning will be crippled. He will nto be a successful life-long learner.
| Filed Under: learning , Thinking skills Tagged with learning, life-long learning, note-taking, pemikiran, thinking, Thinking skills |
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Hi,
Nice piece of writing! It should be made known to all students who want to excel
Thanks!
Cheers,
Wen Shih
Actually, it is the teachers who should take note (no pun intended) of it as it is they who will have to make sure it is done at the initial stage and implemented across the board in the whole school. Many schools today teach students mind mapping through external vendors but nothing comes out of it as teachers still insist on handing out prepared notes. Students therefore do not put into practice what they have learned. This happen far too often. It is a waste of money and time, not to mention that is a subversive activity by teachers since they are impeding their students’ real learning.
Hi,
On one occasion, my students shared with me that their teachers taught them about Polya’s problem-solving steps in maths. I was disappointed later to find out from them that only the names of steps were mentioned but not the details, and that they found the approach useless. I disagreed and took some time during my class to explain to my students the details of Polya’s steps with the aid of a concrete example, which later became an article on my website:
http://www.freewebs.com/weews/Polya's%20steps.pdf
Thank you.
Cheers,
Wen Shih
Note-taking tips from Cal Newport
http://calnewport.com/blog/2009/04/06/4-weeks-to-a-40-streamline-your-notes/
Nice link, Kelvin. Good addition to the topic.
In “Study Power: Study Skills to Enhance Your Learning and Your Grades”, William Luckie identified reading and note-taking as an important set of “Input Skills”. He based his Study Power System on his experience in helping Harvard students cope with their study skills. He identified 3 sets of Study Skills – Input, Process and Output Skills. I have based my range of Study Skills workshop on his ideas.
In my study skills workshop, I include a sharing on how I have used Post-Its as one medium for note-taking. As examples, I showed students my own notebooks and other notes.
Thanks, Suryakenchana. That’s is a great idea that you have shared. Personally, what is most important is that the students create their own notes. How they do it, is secondary! Of course it is always useful to teach them how to create their own notes (at least one method).
Regards
Amran