Note-making in Biology: How the School Experience Influences Note-making Practice and Approach at University

Figures & data

Table 1. Percentages of students’ practice of making notes at school (n = 404)

Student category	Note-making practice	Percentage
Self-regulated	Construct own notes	16
	Construct own notes and copy text from teacher’s slides/chalkboard	11
	Construct own notes and copy text from teacher’s explanation	1
	Construct own notes and copy text from textbook	3
	Construct own notes and copy text from teacher’s explanation and textbook	2
	Construct own notes and copy text from teacher’s slides/chalkboard, and textbook	12
	Construct own notes and use teacher’s slides/chalkboard and teacher’s explanation	2
	Construct own notes and use teacher’s slides/chalkboard, teacher’s explanation and textbook	11
Underprepared	Copy text from teacher’s slides/chalkboard	37
	Copy text from textbook	1
	Copy text from teacher’s slides/chalkboard and copy text from teacher’s explanation	2
	Copy text from teacher’s slides/chalkboard and from the teacher’s explanation, and read textbook	1
Total		100

Table 2. Students’ reported use of the slides provided by their lecturers (%, n = 60)

	Made own notes using slides as a guide (%)	Studied slides with own notes (%)	Added to slides using textbook (%)	Inserted teacher’s explanation onto slides (%)	Studied slides (%)	Made summaries of slides (%)
Self-regulated students (n = 30)	37	10	37	10	3	3
Underprepared students (n = 30)	17	3	20	3	37	20

Table 3. The lecturers' use of slides in the classroom

	Lecturer 1	Lecturer 2	Lecturer 3	Lecturer 4
Average number of facts provided during class	112	216	188	174
Average number of facts on slides	50	124	133	34
Average number of facts only in verbal elaboration	62	92	55	140
Percentage of facts only in verbal elaboration	55%	43%	29%	80%

Table 4. Percentage of students’ strategies when note-making in first-year biology (not mutually exclusive)

	Linking to other content (%)	Importance to my understanding (%)	Difficulty of concepts (%)	Write logically (%)	Linking class notes and textbook (%)	Highlighting examinable material (%)	Highlighting new content (%)	Keeping focused and attentive (%)	Selecting all visual lecture content (%)	Selecting all lecturer explanations (%)	Selecting all content from lecture (%)
Self-regulated students (n = 30)	10	53	10	17	44	25	10	10	10	37	23
Underprepared students (n = 30)	0	51	5	3	37	48	10	0	13	20	10

Table 5. Average number of facts in students’ notes

	Average number of facts
	Lecturer 1	Lecturer 2	Lecturer 3	Lecturer 4	First year
Self-regulated	57	57	129	51	74
Underprepared	56	69	109	41	69

Table 6. Average additional content present in notes from resources other than the lecture

	Average additional content
	Lecturer 1	Lecturer 2	Lecturer 3	Lecturer 4	First year
Self-regulated	13	2	5	2	6
Underprepared	12	5	2	1	5

Table 7. Average ‘notes score’ representing quality of notes

	Average note score
	Lecturer 1	Lecturer 2	Lecturer 3	Lecturer 4	First year
Self-regulated	20	21	15	15	18
Underprepared	15	16	11	11	13

Table 8. Model for analysis of students’ notes

	Cognitive level
Analysis of notes	1. Surface note-making approach	2. Emergent note-making approach	3. Developing note-making approach	4. Experienced note-making approach
Development of ideas	Replica of lecturer’s visuals	1 + verbatim copy of verbal lecture	Paraphrased notes from lecture content	3 + Own thoughts added into notes, shows connections to prior knowledge/other concepts
Accuracy and structure	Direct copy of slides	Lecturer explanation is noted as a continuous ‘story’	Shows clear sequence of topics, includes examples provided by lecturer	3 + links to examples or elaborations that lecturer did not mention in class
Flow of writing	Only keywords/ideas from lecturer’s slides	Includes some short sentences or quotes from the lecturer’s explanations	Examples the lecturer mentioned are provided	3 + evidence of information added in from other sources. Clear connections and narrative
Writing conventions	Fills the entire page with only writing (as a direct copy of the slides)	Adds in supplementary notes from the lecturer’s explanations only	Adds in supplementary notes and or pictures from lecture content	Adds in information and diagrams from other sources. Creates summaries or mind-maps for purposes of overview
Add ons	None	Distinguish between how much is highlighted (the more are highlighted, the fewer distinctions are made of key concepts), summaries (concept maps, bulleted points), references to figures/tables made by the lecturer
Handouts from lecturer	No additional notes on handouts	Additional information added onto handouts		3+ integrated information on notes and handout, reflection of the use of the handout in relation to written set of notes