The effect of guided note taking during lectures on Thai university students’ understanding of electromagnetism

Abstract

This paper reports on the implementation of a guided note taking strategy to promote Thai students' understanding of electromagnetism during a lecture course. The aim of the study was to enhance student learning of electromagnetism concepts. The developed guided notes contain quotations, diagrams, pictures, problems, and blank spaces to encourage student interactive engagement with the lectures. The guided note templates were critiqued by a group of experienced university physics lecturers and piloted with graduate physics education students to check the content validity. Over 300 first year university students (aged about 18-19 years) attended lectures that did not involve guided note taking. Six hundred students participated in the guided note taking approach. Students' understanding of electromagnetism was investigated using a conceptual test. Comparison of the pre-and post-test results of the two groups of students indicated that students who were involved in the guided note taking approach performed better on the conceptual test than students who were not involved in this approach. From interviews, it was found that students viewed the guided note taking approach as a supportive tool that helped them concentrate on the lecture. Promoting student involvement in the lecture class through the process of guided note taking was shown to be a meaningful learning strategy for first year university physics classes.

Student effort expectations and their learning in first-year introductory physics: A case study in Thailand

“…The two lecturers have their own roles during the lectures: one explains and the other one writes down the concepts on transparencies and also gives further important information. In class, students were supplied with guided worksheets [21]. The worksheets were carefully designed to enhance interactive learning between the lecturers and students.…”

Self-Regulated Learning Strategies of Engineering College Students While Learning Electric Circuit Concepts with Enhanced Guided Notes

“…Students who record notes during lectures generally demonstrate a better learning performance than those who only listen to the lectures (Kiewra, 1985). Although the note-taking process is believed to positively impact learning performance (Narjaikaew, Emarat, & Cowie, 2009), other studies have found that students lack the note-taking skills to record relevant information, a situation that may create problems for students in later experiences (Austin, Lee, & Carr, 2004;Kiewra, 1985;van der Meer, 2012). …”

“…Standard guided notes, which also called semi-notes or skeleton-notes, have been used in undergraduate teaching for quite some time. Unlike the guided notes introduced in many studies (e.g., Hohn, Gallagher, & Byrne, 1990;Hosain, 1994;Narjaikaew, Emarat, & Cowie, 2009), the enhanced-guided notes (EGN) developed in this study include questions that prompt students to assess their self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies. This component is not present in the standard guided notes.…”

Note-Taking Instruction for College Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…As in our study, previous research on note-taking interventions at the college level has relied on special instructors (Narjaikaew et al, 2009;Spires, 1992), and other studies have changed the practices of the designated course instructor (Austin et al, 2002;Cohen, Kim, Tan, & Winkelmes, 2013;Rahmani & Sadeghi, 2011;Robinson et al, 2006;Tsai & Wu, 2010). It is unknown whether instruction delivered by hourly tutors would be equally effective, particularly with a problem-solving model rather than a standardized protocol.…”

“…College students who received partially completed notes from the instructor have performed better on tests of content than those who received completed notes (Robinson et al, 2006), an outline of the lecture (Austin, Gilbert, Thibeault, Carr, & Bailey, 2002), or no handout of lecture content (Narjaikaew, Emarat, & Cowie, 2009). Guided notes may be offered in different formats such as a linear outline with blanks to complete, a list of questions to answer, or a graphic organizer (depicting the spatial or relational, rather than linear, arrangement of ideas) with some or all of the content missing.…”