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

Abstract

In South Africa there is mounting concern surrounding the throughput of undergraduates. The preparation of school-learners for the challenges presented in the academic environment at university has come into question. First-years are expected to construct notes in biology; these notes act as an interface between the lecturer and students when the latter prepare for assessments. The literature highlights that the quality of notes that students make is related to their grades. This study investigates the influence of the students' note-making practice at school on the quality of notes that first-years construct during an Introductory Biology course at university. Sixty first-year students who registered for the course, over a three-year period, participated in this study. Data collection entailed the completion of a questionnaire, participation in individual face-to-face interviews at the beginning of each semester in the first year and the beginning of the second year, and the analysis of the students' notes. The findings show that students' school experience in note-making influences the quality of their notes when they enter university. This finding is significant since biology is content heavy, and with limited guidance at university the students rely on the school experience to guide them in compiling their notes. A model for improving note-making practice is presented in this paper, and shows how the students' construction of their notes may act as a means to improve their learning.

The Influence of Lecturers’ Expectations of Students’ Role in Meaning Making on the Nature of their Powerpoint slides and the Quality of Students’ Note-making: A First-year Biology Class Context

“…Additionally, Apperson, Laws and Scepansky (2008) explain that the students' preferences of the way in which PowerPoint presentation slides are constructed will influence the type of notes that are produced by the students. Similarly, students' earlier experiences with note-making, for instance at school, are likely to determine their note-making practice at university (Dukhan, 2018).…”

Adding Voices to Physical Sciences Preservice Teachers’ Approaches to Learning

“…Some scholars with an interest in South African preservice science teachers have preferred to focus on aspects that might impact on approaches to learning, such as learning strategies (Dukhan, 2018), knowledge and teaching strategies (Vhurumuku & Chikochi, 2017) and professional learning experiences (Nkambule & Mukeredzi, 2017). While focusing on university first year students' note-making in Biology, Dukhan (2018) found out that high school experiences strongly influenced the quality of their notes, which in turn impacted on their performance. Although there was no direct focus on approaches to learning, it can be inferred that poor note-taking might be symptomatic of a surface approach to learning, hence the observed poor performance.…”

Students' prior knowledge and threshold concepts in a first-year biology course: The lecturer as middleman

“…In South Africa there are differing levels of student preparedness for university, and factors external to the student can influence preparedness (Sobuwa and McKenna, 2019). First-year cohorts come from a range of school backgrounds and thus learning experiences, and this background experience is one external factor that could impact on preparedness (Dukhan, 2018).…”

“…Biggs's (2003) constructive alignment theory explains that within any given course there needs to be coherence across the curriculum, teaching practices, learning outcomes, and assessments. When first-year biology classes are large and diverse (Moravec, et al, 2010), as is often the case with public higher education institutions in South Africa (Dukhan, 2018), lecturers could experience difficulty in gaining insight into students' relevant prior knowledge of threshold concepts that need to be built on during teaching (Kelly-Laubscher and Van Der Merwe, 2015).…”