Confessions of a Recovering Notetaker



Photo by David Travis on Unsplash

I am an avid notetaker. I always have been. In middle school through graduate school, I thought I was being a diligent student. I did all the reading. I highlighted passages. I wrote down definitions and key points from the texts. I took notes at each lecture. I have notebook upon notebook filled with facts and information that my brain has quickly discarded.

But this is not an effective way to learn.

Dr. Bjork (2016) mentions that "students go into a court stenographer mode taking notes and that suppresses learning rather than creates learning". I am a court-stenographer-learning-suppressing person! And what's even sadder is that I am in my second-to-last semester of my master's program. I most likely will not attend school after this, yet I just learned how ineffective my predominant learning methods have been. All that wasted paper and hand cramping and what do I have to show for it? High percentages of forgetting.

Don't be me - reform your note-taking ways!

Resource
Bjork, R. (2016). How we learn versus how we think we learn [video file]. Retrieved from https://colostate.instructure.com/courses/87684/pages/how-we-learn-robert-bjork?module_item_id=2335989 

Comments

  1. Jessica BarrSeptember 23, 2019 at 2:37 PM

    Hi Jess- I can relate so much... I spent a lot of time early on in grad school religiously taking notes, thinking that it would drastically help me to retain information. So I'm gonna join the hand cramping club! Better late than never that our learning techniques are addressed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JesshanmacSeptember 23, 2019 at 2:47 PM

      Yes, better late than never! I'm glad to learn now, instead if continuing on in ignorance.

      Delete

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