critical thinking note taking

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A Critical Thinking Strategy for Student Note-Taking

This graphic organizer guides students to categorize information while they’re taking notes, leading to deeper engagement.

Close your eyes and imagine a classroom of students deeply engaged in critical thinking. My bet is that you are not imagining a lecture or anything that resembles a traditional sit-and-get learning environment.

This is unsurprising. As I travel across the country with thinkLaw , supporting teachers with strategies to integrate critical thinking into their daily instruction, I find that teachers are always eager for practical opportunities to get students collaborating, thinking deeply, and engaging in critical thinking.

It is less popular to admit an important reality about instruction: Teachers must plan for and ensure student learning of key vocabulary, procedures, algorithms, and other content-specific and context-specific topics. Even if the idea of the permanent  sage on the stage has rightfully been largely discarded, the temporary sage on the stage still has an important place in the classroom. The quadratic formula is still the quadratic formula. The structure of a five-paragraph essay is still the structure of a five-paragraph essay.

Whether you are guiding students through content yourself or having students read, research, or watch a video, the WICK charting process gives students an easy-to-implement method to deepen their engagement during this portion of your lesson. Instead of being stuck in sit-and-get mode, they will shift into sit-and-get-and-scrutinize-and-discuss mode as they process the lesson.

Step 1: Creating your WICK

Have your students divide their notes into a graphic organizer with four quadrants labeled as follows: Weird, Interesting, Confusing, and Knew This Already/Kinda Like. Here is a completed sample WICK on the (not-so-exhilarating) topic of corn prevalence in the United States. The instructions for what goes into each box are straightforward.

Weird: List any facts or details that stand out as weird, strange, or out of the ordinary. This is where students place shocking statistics, surprising scientific phenomena, or “can’t believe that works” shortcuts that simplify problems. Students should include anything they might want to fact-check here.

For example, students learning about the metamorphosis of a caterpillar to a butterfly may find it weird that the eggs caterpillars hatched from end up being food for the same caterpillar. It would be like chickens eating their own eggshell.

Interesting: Students should list any facts or details that intrigue them here. This includes information that speaks to their passions, interests, and curiosity. Information in this area of the WICK chart should include topics students want to explore for further research.

For instance, a student studying Shakespeare might find it interesting how dedicated this playwright was to iambic pentameter. Ten syllables in nearly every sentence? That’s real commitment!

Confusing: Any facts or details that do not quite add up go in this area of the WICK chart. Include anything that seems contradictory, arguments that are not well reasoned, and ideas that feel flat-out wrong.

Students in racially homogenous schools learning about the Brown v. Board of Education case may find it confusing that their school is so deeply segregated decades after this decision ruled segregation unconstitutional.

Knew This Already/Kinda Like: Students can list any facts here that they knew already or that remind them of a fact, detail, or piece of information they previously learned. Any information that is “kinda like” other things they have learned in the past and can make a connection to goes here.

Discussing The Scarlet Letter in English? Here is where students might note that the protagonist’s treatment reminds them of the Salem witch trials or the McCarthy-era hearings on communism. These kinds of connections are a personal way for students to engage in critical thinking.

Step 2: Discussing your WICK

After students have completed their individual WICKs, have them engage in discussion. Talking is simply thinking out loud, so the discussion part of the WICK process allows students to simultaneously integrate critical thinking and transform passive content.

When students discuss their WICKs, a one- or two-minute conversation is often enough to share some deep reflections. Depending on the context, students may not have every quadrant completed. One student’s “interesting” could easily be another student’s “kinda like,” which generates even more opportunities for students to push each other’s thinking.

You can also use WICKs to break up the typical “I do, we do, you do” pattern of instruction. If your direct instruction is set to last 10 minutes, consider pausing at the halfway mark to have students share their WICK responses so far. This way, the WICK serves as a helpful classroom management tool during the part of lessons that often leads to off-task behaviors.

In sum, the WICK process helps students critically analyze information as they learn it. Students will actually enjoy taking notes, and gain a deeper mastery of the content in the process.

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An overview of the different approaches to note-making. Experiment to find the best way for you.

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Whether you’re taking notes from lectures or from your reading, there are a number of possible approaches to explore.

Choosing your tools

Once you’ve identified why you’re taking notes and what you need to take notes of, think about what tool would best help you achieve your purpose. You might not use the same tool every time: some are better than others depending on the job you want them to do. As you experiment with different ones, think about their pros and cons: what are they really good for and what are they not so good for?

Paper versus digital 

When it comes to tools, you have a decision between paper or digital. Think about your own personal preferences and needs here, as well as how you will store and use your notes. Whatever medium you choose, be wary of perfectionist tendencies. It can be counter-productive to spend ages painstakingingly producing a polished set of notes.  

Paper may be better if: 

• You want to prompt your critical and creative thinking by capturing your initial thoughts about your reading either in very rough prose or by doodling or freewriting
• Avoid the distractions of social media etc. when you are readingor listening to a lecture or video
• You sometimes confuse your own notes with someone else’s words or ideas when copying and pasting between the original and your own document

Consider what size paper would serve you best, lined or unlined, which orientation and whether bound in a note-book or looseleaf

Digital may be better if: 

• You feel you need to produce a very neat, ordered set of notes  
• You would like to take advantage of software to aid the notetaking process, like the speech to text function, more flexible organisation or searchability
• You want to have easy access to all of your notes on a portable device wherever you choose to study

There are too many note-taking apps available for us to review and recommend them here, but do explore and ask your peers for suggestions.

It may be that you don’t decide to use either one or the other but a blend of the two. For instance, you might find it useful to use digital tools and software to record, store and re-play key facts and possibly points of action. You may then use paper and pens to jot down your thinking about these initial notes and how you may use them in your assignments. 

Organising your notes

Whether you prefer to use the format of paper and pencil or digital, or both, the strategies below can be adapted to suit your own style and preferences:

• Colour : the use of colour might be helpful to not only categorise, but also draw your attention to different aspects of your notes if/when you revisit them at a later date.  
• Symbols and/or images : the use of symbols or images might be used to represent information, ideas, connections or questions in a different way.   Highlighting aspects of your notes in different ways may provide an aid to more easily recalling or locating this information or may provide a way of creatively engaging with the literature you have read. 
• Space : leaving space in or around your notes might be useful if you revisit them so you amend information and/or thinking.  

Choosing your strategy

The next step is to choose  how  you will take notes. There are several strategies to explore. As always, think about what would best help you achieve your purpose and what you will be using your notes for. Again, you may switch between different strategies depending on your purpose. 

Standard Linear Notes 

Linear notes are written in a list-like format down the page and organised according to numbered points or headings and subheadings.

Useful for:

• Analytical tasks : arguments and processes can be broken down into subsections with further definitions and explanations.
• Processing your learning : your memory finds it easier to recall structures, which can then act as a prompt to recall further detail (especially if you use punchy words for key headings or ideas).
• Keeping track : this strategy can help you follow the order of the lecture or text you’re reading so you can see how arguments are built and developed, or note the key points from each section of a paper. This may be useful if you are summarising a text or lecture. 

Diagram / non-linear notes

These notes typically start from a main idea to which you can add related information or concepts, using lines to show relationships between them. Turning your page to landscape may help to maximise space although page orientation may depend on the style of notes and/or personal preferences.

There are several versions of these notetaking techniques: 

• Mind maps  (also called spider diagrams) contain key words or phrases in bubbles at the end of lines or on a line itself which can then lead to further lines or sub-branches.
• Pattern notes  look like mind maps, but build in mnemonic (memory) triggers, such as doodles, cartoons and symbols, around key points.
• Nuclear notes  combine the structured aspect of linear notetaking with the visual representation of mind maps by connecting several lists to the central idea. Sketchnoting uses a much freer layout more like a graphic novel and greater use of doodles, graphics and hand drawn images and scenes to capture ideas and structures.
• Concept maps  appear like a hierarchical family tree, showing ideas branching down from a central idea at the top of the page. The lines between the ideas might have a phrase explaining the connection.   

Useful for: 

• Getting analytical : this strategy can help you move beyond the original structure  towards creating your own order and connections between ideas. Additionally, because of the way these notes are spatially organised, they can help you think through or explain the causal connections between ideas. 
• Processing your learning : good for getting an overview of lots of information and how it all links together. Visualising notes and how ideas are connected can act as an aide memoire for what you have learnt. The process of rearranging linear notes into non-linear helps commit the ideas you are dealing with into the long-term memory. Rather than passively rewriting notes, you are reformulating them meaning that you are actively engaging with the information. 

SQ3R (or SQRRR)

SQ3R stands for: suvey, question, read, retrieve, review. It is a technique for note-making when reading, but could also work well for videoed lectures. It involves the following steps:

• Survey:  skim the text (or watch the video) to get an outline/overview and develop a sense of which parts or sections might be useful. Note any headings and subheadings, along with things like figures, tables and summaries.
• Question:  now that you have a sense of what content the text covers, what questions do you have to help lead you to do a deeper understanding? Your question could be “what does that particular term mean?” or “how might I use that information?”
• Read : now you have specific questions in mind, you will be able to read (or watch the video) actively in order to find the answers.
• Retrieve:  begin processing and understanding the material by recalling the main points as if you were explaining them to someone else. You could do this verbally or in writing
• Review:  review the material by repeating the key points back to yourself in your own words.
• Keeping on track : by prompting you to formulate specific questions you’d like your reading to address or to engage with in the lecture, this strategy encourages you to read strategically and actively, and can help you stay focused. 
• Processing your learning : putting what you’ve read into your own words is a good way of developing and checking your understanding. This can help you move away from mere recall towards a deeper conceptual understanding.

Cornell method / pplit page format

This method involves splitting the page into two columns, with the right column roughly twice the width of the left (this can also be done digitally). Detailed notes are written in the right column, and afterwards, key points, reflections, cues or questions can be noted in the left column. Space at the bottom of the page can be used to add a final summary.

• Developing your own thinking: having a response column alongside a column for detail and quotes allows your thoughts and reflections to be clearly separated from the reading or lecture. 
• Processing your learning : using paper to cover the right (notetaking) column, you canuse the information in the left column as prompts to help you remember the detail or answers to the questions. Or cover both right and left column and use the summary as a prompt to jog your memory. 

Critical notetaking: talking back to the text

Building an argument of your own means reading not just for information, but for your own response to that information. That means that successful notetaking has an element of critical thinking.

When you’re making notes from reading, try to record not just what the text says, but your own reaction to it.

• Is it relevant for your purpose? How and where might you use it in your own essay?
• What do you think of it? Is the point convincingly argued and well evidenced?
• Do you agree or disagree with it?
• How does it relate to other things you’ve read? Does it support, add to, contradict or show a different perspective to other texts?
• Is there anything you don’t understand or need to know more about?

Critical note-making means talking back to the text, having a dialogue with it. You could annotate it with your own questions and comments in the margin or in your own notes as you go, to record your response to it.

• Getting analytical:  this method encourages you to think critically about a text, instead of merely mining it for information
• Processing your learning:  talking back to the text encourages you to read actively rather than passively, thus helping you process and apply your learning as well as develop your critical thinking skills. 

Other strategies

You may also come across other strategies, which are useful for particular purposes rather than an overall approach:

Matrix Notes  This is a tabular notetaking method where columns and rows are organised according to ideas or themes. Information is added in the cells where the rows and columns intersect. This is a handy method of recording different approaches to an issue and encouraging analysis of similarity and difference.  

Herringbone Maps  These notes are structured like a fish skeleton and are a useful way for noting two sides of an argument. The main idea can be written on the ‘spine’ with different points written on either side on the bones which connect to the spine.  

Flowcharts and Timeline Notes  These techniques are an effective way to indicate processes or sequence of events.

Reflecting on your chosen approach

Whichever tool or strategy you use, you could do a SWOT analysis of its “affordances” (what functions it has and what they enable you to do) to see how well it serves your needs:

Whatever format of making and taking notes you use, consider the reasons and purposes for your approach.  Is your current approach enabling you to effectively record what you need to help you construct your assignment or revise for exams, for instance?  Are there aspects of your current approach which you think could be further developed?  Are there other approaches you might like to try? 

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Note-taking strategies.

An overview of the different approaches to note-making. Experiment to find the best way for you. **PDF Download**

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3 – Notes and Annotation

Engaging actively with a text.

Note-taking is perhaps one of the most under-valued steps in the writing process.  You may, as many writers before you, be tempted to skip note-taking entirely!  In our world today, speed and convenience are prioritized more often than not.  However, quality writing assignments typically start with a humble beginning.  Taking high-quality notes based on your reading material will save time later on in the writing process.

Activity 1:  The Benefit of Notes

Read the following paragraph, which is an excerpt from The Fallacy of Success by British writer, philosopher, and literary/art critic, G.K. Chesterton, who is often considered one of the greatest minds of the 20th century.

When finished, see how many ideas you can remember without looking at the text after one minute.

From The Fallacy of Success by G.K. Chesterton

“There has appeared in our time a particular class of books and articles which I sincerely and solemnly think may be called the silliest ever known among men. They are much more wild than the wildest romances of chivalry and much more dull than the dullest religious tract. Moreover, the romances of chivalry were at least about chivalry; the religious tracts are about religion. But these things are about nothing; they are about what is called Success.

On every bookstall, in every magazine, you may find works telling people how to succeed. They are books showing men how to succeed in everything; they are written by men who cannot even succeed in writing books. To begin with, of course, there is no such thing as Success. Or, if you like to put it so, there is nothing that is not successful. That a thing is successful merely means that it is; a millionaire is successful in being a millionaire and a donkey in being a donkey. Any live man has succeeded in living; any dead man may have succeeded in committing suicide.

But, passing over the bad logic and bad philosophy in the phrase, we may take it, as these writers do, in the ordinary sense of success in obtaining money or worldly position. These writers profess to tell the ordinary man how he may succeed in his trade or speculation – how, if he is a builder, he may succeed as a builder; how, if he is a stockbroker, he may succeed as a stockbroker. They profess to show him how, if he is a grocer, he may become a sporting yachtsman; how, if he is a tenth-rate journalist, he may become a peer; and how, if he is a German Jew, he may become an Anglo-Saxon.

This is a definite and business-like proposal, and I really think that the people who buy these books (if any people do buy them) have a moral, if not a legal, right to ask for their money back. Nobody would dare to publish a book about electricity which literally told one nothing about electricity; no one would dare publish an article on botany which showed that the writer did not know which end of a plant grew in the earth. Yet our modern world is full of books about Success and successful people which literally contain no kind of idea, and scarcely any kind of verbal sense.”

Ideas you remember from the text (without taking notes):

Now, read the paragraph again. This time take a few notes as you read on a separate sheet of paper about the main ideas. Then, after one minute, write down what you remember.

Ideas you remember from the text (after taking notes):

How did you do? Were you able to remember more after taking some notes?  Chances are that you did!

This quote from How to Read a Book might give you a better understanding of why note-taking is a crucial part of the writing process:

“Why is marking a book indispensable to reading it? First, it keeps you awake—not merely conscious, but wide awake. Second, reading, if active, is thinking, and thinking tends to express itself in words, spoken or written. The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks. Third, writing your reactions down helps you r emember the thoughts of the author” (Adler and Van Doren, p. 49).

As the authors state, note-taking is an active process that helps the reader engage with the text and think critically. By taking notes, one is able to form thoughts and opinions rather than simply passively reading or listening to information.

Annotation vs. Notes

In past English or literature classes, you may have heard an instructor mention “annotate” or “annotation” before.  What is the difference between annotating a text and taking notes? According to the Online Etymology Dictionary , annotate comes from the Latin word annotatus which means to “observe, remark, note down.” Someone who annotates a text is thinking critically about the ideas presented in the text, asking questions, and making comments.

To put it simply, annotation is a process that helps a reader make sense of information in the text and form their own ideas and responses. Instead of just passively highlighting ideas or writing a few words, the reader is also commenting on the information.

Take a look at the sample page below to understand the idea of annotating.

A Student’s Annotations of Henry Petroski’s The Evolution of Useful Things

Source:     Shivers, J. (n.d.). Annotations: A Visual Record of the Reading Experience.

Key Point: What should I write in my notes and annotations?

• Important ideas from the text
• Questions about the content
• Your own opinions/response to the text
• Anything else you want to remember or come back to later

Note: Don’t forget to label or separate the author’s ideas and your own ideas! Doing so will save you a lot of time later on.

Activity 2:  Engaging with a Text

One way to annotate is to create a T chart. Start by writing down the main ideas and other important bits of information from the text on the left-hand side of a piece of paper. On the right-hand side, write down your own ideas and opinions based on the text. This will help you separate out the author’s ideas and your own for future steps of the writing process.

One online tool you can use for T-charts and other note-taking organizers is Visual Paradigm Online . Organizing your notes is an important step in helping you use them later for tests, assignments, and papers you may write.

Read this article entitled “ How Reading Science Fiction and Fantasy Can Build Resilience in Kids ” from Greater Good Magazine . Once finished, create a T-chart for your annotations using the online tool or a simple pen and paper.

What do I do with my annotations?

Once you have written down some annotations for a text, you may wonder what you will do with these notes later.  Here are a few ways annotations can help you:

• Organize your thoughts and questions from reading
• Contribute to class discussions on the text
• Help to build connections and realize patterns
• A starting point for an initial written draft

This section adapted from Advanced English by Allison Kilgannon

Activity 3:  Forming Your Own Opinions Using Annotation

Use the following article on the debate about electric vehicles. This article could be used for in-class debate or the start of an opinion-based paper.

“ EVs Are the Future, but Are They Really All That Eco-Friendly? ” by Jason H. Harper from Robb Report

Annotate the article as practice. Be sure to ask questions about facts and ideas presented. What are your thoughts and opinions about the article? Do you agree? Disagree?

Other Possible Note-Taking Techniques:

• Mind Maps – visual layout of connected ideas
• Outlining – Creating headings, subheadings, and details to organize ideas
• Tables – Divide important sections or concepts into different areas of a page
• Recording notes – great for reviewing and writing down important ideas later

————————————————

References:

Adler, M. J., & Van, C. (2006). How to read a book: the art of getting a liberal education . Simon & Schuster.

Annotate .  (n.d.). Search Online Etymology Dictionary . Etymonline.com.

Chesterton, G.K. The Fallacy of Success. (1909). In americanliterature.com .

Harper, J. H. (2021). EVs Are the Future, but Are They Really All That Eco-Friendly? Robb Report. https://robbreport.com/motors/cars/electric-vehicle-sustainability-1234642424/

Jones, E. (2020) How Reading Science Fiction Can Build Resilience in Kids. Greater Good . https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_reading_science_fiction_can_build_resilience_in_kids

Kilgannon, A. (2021). Advanced English. In opentextbc.ca . BCcampus. https://opentextbc.ca/advancedenglish/

Shivers, J. (n.d.). Annotations: A Visual Record of the Reading Experience.

Critical Reading, Writing, and Thinking Copyright © 2022 by Zhenjie Weng, Josh Burlile, Karen Macbeth is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Note Taking and Paraphrasing - Skills Guide

Note taking.

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What is note taking?

Note taking is when you create your own version of someone else's work to help you in your studies.  It can take lots of different forms - you might paraphrase what someone else has said, write a list of bullet points, or create a mind map.

Why do I need to learn how to take notes?

Note taking is a skill that you will use again and again during your studies.  Taking good notes is important whenever you encounter something in your studies that you need to remember or refer back to.  You will use your note taking skills when you are reading, attending lectures, and when watching pre-recorded content.  Each of these scenarios will require slightly different note taking techniques and as you progress with your studies you will learn what works best for you.  Good note taking will allow you to easily find your notes again and understand what they relate to.

How do I take notes?

When you are reading, you should finish each sentence or paragraph before taking notes. This will help you to better understand the point being made. This method is useful as it enables you to paraphrase the reading where appropriate and to better refine the notes that you take.

If, when note taking, you spot a word that you don't understand, define the word using an online dictionary and write out the word and its definition into your notes. Students at the University of Derby have access to the Oxford English Dictionary online database .

Note taking gets better the more you do it. You will develop your own system over time but remember to make sure you know what your notes are about (for example, if you take notes in a lecture, make sure you add the date, lecture title and lecturer name). And if you take notes on material you are reading, for example a book or Journal article, add a citation so you know where you read it. This will help translating your notes into academic writing.

Here are two examples of note taking methods that you can try:

• Use a table with four columns headed: Date, Subject, Note, Citation.  This will help you to keep your notes in context, to organise them efficiently and to find the original source easily if you need to.  You can find a blank template table and a completed example in the Resources section of this page.
• Create a mind map by writing the subject of your notes in the middle of a blank piece of paper.  Then start adding words around it using dotted lines to connect words that link to other words.  Then re-do your mind map on a fresh piece of paper, this time putting the words that link to each other close together.   Put 'bigger' subject headings closer to the middle.  So, for example, a calculator, pens, pencils are stationery. So, the word closest to the middle is stationery and the other words follow on from that.  You can find an example mindmap in the Resources section of this page.

If you would like to practice taking notes, why not try reading one of our Skills Guides and taking notes on the information there.  You'll find links to other resources like videos and podcasts on all of our guides which you can also use for note taking practice.  If you want to practice taking notes on published academic work, you can explore freely available  Open Access resources.

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Writing Across the Curriculum

Supporting writing in and across the disciplines at City Tech

Note Taking, Active Learning, and the Writing Process

Note taking is a crucial aspect of the writing process, and yet it is a skill that is often under-emphasized in pedagogical practice. Aside from exhortations to “take notes,” it is rare that instructors take time to assist their students in understanding the functions note taking serves or in acquiring concrete strategies for developing their own note taking habits. Generally speaking, note taking serves as a means of both recording information and facilitating reflection. The former is often taken for granted, obscuring the many different approaches that can be taken. The latter is often under-appreciated, and as a consequence, note taking is construed as being prior to the writing process rather than constitutive of it.

There is nothing passive about note taking. Rather, it is an active engagement with the material that has concrete benefits in its own right. Whether listening to a lecture, participating in a discussion, or reading a text, taking notes requires an attentiveness to the situation at hand, thereby unconsciously improving engagement with the material (Piolat, Olive, and Kellogg 2004). Writing notes also produces a “generational effect” (Foos, Mora, and Tkacz 1994). The cognitive tasks of sorting, coding, and arranging new information leads to stronger connections between newly received information and that which has previously been encoded in long-term memory. Note taking also facilitates the construction of more complex analyses, as notes themselves can serve as external storage, enabling students to hold more elements in mind at once than would be possible from rote memory (Cary and Carlson 1999).

These cognitive benefits suggest that a better incorporation of note taking within the writing process, might lead to more developed written analysis. Writing Across the Curriculum pedagogy is grounded in a view of knowledge that is dialogic, a view of learning that is focused on developing the capacity for critical thinking, and an understanding that writing is a fundamental tool in that development. Not taking, I would suggest, is central to the dialogic aspects of knowledge production, since it places students in a position of active engagement with the material. Not all notes are equal, but when implemented as an active learning strategy, note taking can encourage students to think critically about the information they are engaging with.

Taking notes can strengthen the analysis and organization of student writing in at least three ways.

First, many of the challenges students face when writing stem from difficulties with reading, and note taking can strengthen students’ facility with understanding the texts they are being asked to engage with. Reading notes serve as the first opportunity for students to grapple with, unpack, and understand the key concepts that they will need to conduct written analysis. There are several ways to encourage students to develop their note taking skills while reading:

• Annotations: Incorporate reading annotation into course requirements. This can be done by asking students to make a minimum number of annotations per page, asking students to write out in their own words any sentence or concept that they underline/highlight, and asking for different kinds of annotations. For example, an English professor I worked with at a community college asked students to include one personal reaction, one summarizing annotation, and one question on each page of the reading.
• Dictionaries: Another way to encourage close reading of texts is to ask students to find definitions for words or key concepts that they do not understand. The act of finding and writing out the definitions encourages students to pause and reflect on difficult aspects of the reading rather than skimming over them.
• What It Says/What It Does: For each paragraph in a reading, ask students to write a sentence summarizing what is said and a sentence explaining what the purpose the paragraph serves in the context of the whole reading (Bean 2011: 170). This type of assignment encourages students to do the metacognitive work not only of understanding the text, but of understanding how analysis is structured.
• Outlines: By reconstructing the structure of the reading in the form of an outline, students learn to recognize the hierarchical nature of analytical writing. Asking students to identify the research question, the argument, the literature review, the evidence, and the findings can also familiarize students with practices for organizing their own writing.

Second, note taking can serve as the basis for more formal, written assignments. When students have engaged in note taking that promotes active thinking, they will already have done aspects of the analytical work required of the assignment. There are several ways to encourage students to take notes that prefigure the analytical work they will be expected to do in their formal writing assignments.

• Thesis statements: Ask students to write, in their own words, the thesis for each of the readings you assign. Doing so encourages students to view readings as arguments in their own right rather than merely as sources of information.
• Author’s Frame: Ask students to reflect on the author’s reasons for writing, and to consider how the author’s own positionality may be informing the analysis itself, making note of places in the text that provide support for the student’s claims. As with the thesis statement, this kind of note taking/mini-analysis fosters an awareness of the dialogic aspects of knowledge production by situating the reading within an intersubjective context.
• Before/After: Help students understand that texts are attempting to persuade them of a particular view by asking them to respond to the following questions. “Before I read this text, the author assumed that I believed…; After I read this, the author wanted me to believe…; The author was (not) successful in changing my view because…” (Bean 2011:174).
• Summaries: Asking students to write brief summaries of the readings, in which they simply restate the essential argument and ideas of a text without quotations, both helps students to internalize the information and can serve as the basis for future analysis.
• Diagrams: Ask students to find ways of visually representing the arguments of different texts or illustrating how different texts can be situated relative to each other.

Third, many of these note taking strategies can be employed as tools for self-reflection during the process of revising one’s own work. Ask students to take notes on drafts of their own papers using some of the above assignments. Engaging with their own text as a reader can help them to identify areas in need of stronger analysis as well as strengthen the structure and organization of their writing. Similar note-taking tasks can be incorporated into peer-review, to guides students towards providing feedback on higher order issues of analysis, structure, and organization.

In short, treating note taking as a serious analytical task offers a window into some of the ways writing and learning are mutually entangled. Focusing on the activity of taking notes helps to illustrate the linkages between reading, drafting, and revising, and throws into relief the iterative nature of writing. In doing so, we undertake the difficult work of reorienting our expectations away from products and towards process. From a student perspective, note taking offers an opportunity to learn to treat texts as vibrant interlocutors rather than dead documents to be harvested for facts. In this sense, spending time teaching note taking not only helps students develop their reading, writing capacities; it helps empower them as producers of knowledge in their own right.

Bean, John C. 2011. Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom . San Francisco: John Wiley and Sons Inc.

Cary, Melanie, and Richard A. Carlson. 1999. “External support and the development of problem-solving routines.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 25(4): 1053-1070.

Foos, Paul W., Joseph J. Mora, and Sharon Tkacz. 1994. “Student Study Techniques and the Generation Effect.” Journal of Educational Psychology 86(4): 567-576.

Piolat, Annie, Thierry Olive, and Ronald T. Kellogg. 2005. “Cognitive Effort During Note Taking.” Applied Cognitive Psychology 19(3): 291-312.

One Reply to “Note Taking, Active Learning, and the Writing Process”

I really appreciated this post Osha. I am, admittedly, an instructor who has not probably not placed quite as much emphasis on note-taking skills as I should. While I always speak with my students about close reading and annotation, repeatedly encourage them to take notes, and offer demonstrations of the way I personally annotate, I haven’t devoted all that much time to teaching the actual mechanics of note-taking in a rigorous sense. I think many instructors (myself included) tend to think that if we focus on helping our students form good insights of class material, useful notes will naturally follow. Your post has inspired me to think about how I can place more weight on the rudiments of note-taking in my instruction.

I also really liked your phrase “not all notes are equal.” It brought to mind some of my own experiences in school. Without wishing to insult anyone (on the severely unlikely chance the person I’m going to talk about somehow comes to read this obscure comment on this blog post), but I had a history teacher in my small-town high school who presents a prime example of how note-taking *should not* be conducted. To learn the material, he had us copy down slide after slide of his own handwritten notes, which I suspect had probably not changed in 20 years. He would pick a student to switch out the slides on the projector for the day, tell us to start writing, and then take a leisurely nap in the chair at his desk. We would always have a test the following week to see how well we had memorized his notes.

I don’t remember much from those classes. Actually, what I remember most were my various techniques I devised for memorizing historical material rather than the actual material itself. Clearly, an approach based on a “memorization” model of note-taking is deficient. And while I do find the idea of an instructor sharing their lecture notes with the class appealing, and potentially helpful in many ways, in this situation the teacher’s notes discouraged, rather than encouraged, our own proper note-taking skills. I think the variety of note-taking methods you’ve outlined to prefigure analytical work would’ve been an enormous help in fostering actual learning in that class.

In a slightly different vein, I do wonder how the shift to online learning has affected the note-taking practices of students at CUNY. With classes living entirely online, it is probable that many of our students’ notes are living entirely digitally as well. But juggling multiple windows on a screen during a Zoom meeting while trying to stay engaged with the class is not exactly easy. I think this provokes some interesting phenomenological questions: How does the note-taking process (and its cognitive benefits) differ when conducted by hand or by word processor? How, additionally, is this complicated by the many differences between the in-person and online learning environments? Should we encourage a mixture of note-taking mediums (e.g., annotations and highlights on a pdf + additional handwritten notes in a physical notebook) or encourage students to keep things “all in one place” or format? How can we make sure we are allowing students enough time and space to take notes in our Zoom classes (e.g., should we include more pauses, provide more overt verbal cues)? If personal computers are increasingly going to be used for professional and educational video conferencing purposes (even post-pandemic), should we design note-taking software with this specifically in mind?

In any case, my first inclination as an instructor is to be wary of too much standardization/systematization of note-taking as an activity. As instructors we should focus on best practices while still allowing our students freedom to experiment. Certainly, every individual crafts their own method of taking notes. In many cases I think this personal idiosyncrasy is beginning to erode a bit, as most digital tools, with their automatic formatting, tend to homogenize the structure of note-taking (usually all text, moving left to right straight across the page, probably some bullet points, some lists, maybe an arrow shape or two if you’re lucky). In other words, in many cases I think digital note-taking can lead to a depersonalized experience of what should often be a deeply personal activity. If pressed, I would likely argue that the doodles in the margins of my old undergrad notebooks are just as important as the notes themselves. There are, of course, many tools out there which attempt to imitate the more “freeform” tendencies of note-taking on paper; for instance, I have used draw.io (which gives you a blank page and a bunch of tools with which you can diagram things) to work out ideas for a paper on Proust, but often my manic desire for getting things to “look right” on the screen overrides the actual working out of ideas. Unless you have a tablet and a good digital pen, much of this work simply isn’t worth the time and effort. In any case, I’m not trying to sound like a sentimental handwriting apologist here, but I am skeptical of the idea that we can always overcome technological limitations with more technology. If we as teachers want to promote note-taking in our classrooms, I think these considerations regarding the way it is actually conducted are not trivial.

I have quite a few more ideas about all of this but I think this comment is already getting too long and tangential. All in all, I very much agree that we need to encourage our students to view note-taking as an important part of the learning process. As you point out, like the act of writing more generally, note-taking creates learning through its very implementation. We just have to make sure we are not implicitly promoting the idea that knowledge is something one can simply “look up” or “save for later.” Note-taking is, as you say, a process that facilitates reflection and critical thinking, and this is what we should emphasize (and say directly) to our students. Thanks again for this post Osha, it has certainly given me a lot to think about!

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Weave the Information Together: Step 4 of the Searching for ANSWERS Inquiry Process

Learn how to help students apply critical thinking, note-taking, and organizational skills as they weave information together during the fourth step in the ANSWERS inquiry process.

Up to this point in the process, students have done a lot of thinking, planning, exploring, and gathering. These first steps in the ANSWERS inquiry learning process have provided them with a solid foundation upon which to build. So far, they have asked questions , noted the possibilities , and sought out information to help answer their driving inquiry questions.

These first three steps are not truly finished until their project is complete, and students will continue to revisit them throughout the process, but they should now be adequately prepared to dig in more deeply and move on to the next step of the inquiry process.

As they proceed, students will continue to learn, and they will use their deepening understanding to begin weaving information and new learning together in a meaningful way. To do this, they will need to apply critical thinking skills while they read, view, listen, and observe the information they have gathered. As they process this new learning, they will record their findings, take notes, and organize their learning in a meaningful way.

This step can feel very messy. Students may be unsure if their new learning is relevant or how it fits into their overall inquiry goals. In some cases, the information might not fit together as they had anticipated, and it will need to be set aside. In other cases, new learning might inspire them to loop back to one of their earlier steps. Perhaps, something they learn will raise a new question, highlight a new possibility, or prompt them to do some more research. This is all very acceptable—and in many ways, ideal—since we often “don’t know what we don’t know” until we start learning. Whenever possible, new learning should continue to inform the process and help guide them toward finding the best answers to the questions they ask.

As they weave information together, they will be applying several key inquiry strategies and skills. It’s important to note that not every strategy will apply equally well to every inquiry scenario or to every learner. Each inquiry is unique and some strategies will be more beneficial than others. That being said, it is critical that students know what these skills and strategies are so that they can choose those that will best meet their needs.

Think of this process as filling an ever-expanding toolbox. The more tools and skills that students have at their disposal, the more likely they can find one to meet their needs. It is sort of like building a house. Having a hammer in the toolbox is important, but it is hard to build an entire house with just a hammer. Most projects, including the inquiry process, will require a wide collection of tools and skills. Therefore, you will find a broad menu of options below that can be used during each step of this weaving process to help make the inquiry process more efficient and effective. It is important to guide students in determining what will work best for their own unique learning styles and inquiry needs.

To help guide your students through this step of the ANSWERS inquiry process , you can use this Weave the Information Together study guide and Think Critically and Comprehend Information bookmark template . Feel free to make copies of these templates and refine them as needed to best meet your students’ needs.

Critically read, listen, and/or view/observe.

One key skill in this part of the process is critical reading, listening, viewing, and observing. AVID’s critical reading process can be a helpful model to guide you and your students through this step. Although it is technically a reading process, these six steps can be effectively applied to any type of media. As you review the steps, simply swap out the word “text” with “resource” and exchange “read” with “read, view, listen, and observe.” This will help you apply the process to nearly any context. While the formats may change, the core skills remain the same. Like with our overall ANSWERS process, the critical reading process will likely need to be adjusted and adapted to each unique situation, but it can be a very helpful guiding framework.

AVID’s critical reading process is composed of six components that help to increase comprehension and retention:

• Planning for reading (viewing, listening, and observing)
• Selecting the text (or resource)
• Pre-reading (listening, viewing, and observing)
• Building vocabulary (both academic and subject-specific)
• Interacting with the text (or resource)
• Extending beyond the text (or resource)

During the weaving step of the ANSWERS inquiry process, you will probably spend most of your time on Steps 3–5. The first two steps were largely completed when you asked questions, noted possibilities, and found resources. Step 6 is the application stage of this process, and while this should be guiding your work throughout the process, it will be a more specific focus later on in the ANSWERS process. For Steps 3–5, consider how these more specific strategies can be incorporated into your lessons:

• Scan and identify the organization and structure.
• Build vocabulary and define unfamiliar words.
• Annotate the material (mark the text, write in the margins, take notes, etc.).
• Ask questions and make connections to prior knowledge.
• Connect the material to other texts or content.

This Think Critically and Comprehend Information bookmark template can be printed back-to-back and distributed to students as a handy way to remind them of key strategies to digitally mark up their resources. To learn more about this six-step process, review the AVID Open Access collection, Explore Critical Reading and Viewing in a Digital Age . As you explore the resources, consider how these skills and strategies apply to your specific inquiry context.

In addition, consider the tools and strategies listed below. These can be used to help students annotate various types of resources.

• Students can copy and paste information into an editable Microsoft Word document or Google Doc, so they can then annotate it.
• The digital formatting tools in Google Docs or Microsoft Word —like underlining, italics, bold, font colors, and highlighters—can be used to highlight main ideas and supporting details.
• The comment features in Google Docs or Microsoft Word can be used to “write in the margins.” Students can summarize ideas, ask questions that they want to further research, and make connections between other ideas or prior knowledge.
• The Highlight Tool Google Docs add-on can be used to create custom highlighter sets. Students can select a different highlighter color for each of the main topics related to their inquiry, and then quickly export their highlighted notes so that they are organized by those topics.
• Print Friendly & PDF is a Google Chrome extension that can be used to create PDF files of websites.
• Students can then mark up those PDFs using PDF annotators, such as Kami , DocHub , or PDFescape .
• For Chromebooks or when using the Google Chrome browser, students can take a screenshot and annotate the image using Chrome extensions, such as Nimbus Screenshot ( Tips ) or Awesome Screenshot .
• For Windows computers, students can also use the native Snipping Tool or download the Snip & Sketch tool for free from the Microsoft Store.
• For Mac computers, students can use the native Markup Toolbar .
• These Google Chrome extensions can also be used to annotate and/or add notes to web pages:  Hypothesis , Sticky Notes , Page Marker , and Scrible Toolbar .
• InsertLearning ( Tips ) is a Google Chrome extension that enables students to add comments and highlight text on websites. As a teacher, you can also use this tool to assign students specific website readings in which you include notes, questions, discussions, and even formative quizzes. The free version supports creating up to five lessons for an unlimited number of students. You can also delete lessons to add additional ones.
• Google Chrome extensions, like ReClipped or YiNote , can be used to create time-stamped notes as students watch videos. These notes are saved and can be accessed later.
• If students are recording their observations, they can use video editing tools, like WeVideo ( Tips ), Clipchamp ( Tips ), or iMovie , to mark up their video.

Digital Tools to Support Comprehension and Online Reading

• As students encounter new vocabulary, they can use online dictionaries, such as Merriam-Webster or Learner’s Dictionary . They can also use the built-in dictionaries within Google Docs or Microsoft Word to define new words.
• Postlight Reader , Text Mode , Read Mode , and Just Read are chrome extensions that remove distractions while reading online.
• Visor and Reading Ruler are Google Chrome extensions that aid reading and reduce eye strain.
• Rewordify.com is a website where you copy and paste text, and it “rewordifies” by producing a simplified version. The reworded words are highlighted, and you can click them to hear and learn the original, harder word.

Accessibility Tools

• Text-to-speech tools, often called screen readers, convert the text on a computer screen into audio. Some popular screen readers include Read Aloud ( Tips ), NaturalReader , and Use Immersive Reader on Websites [unofficial] .
• Closed captioning is the text that appears on the bottom of a video screen. If needed, students can turn captions on and off on YouTube .
• Translation tools can help to reduce language barriers by converting text into a different language. ImTranslator and Google Translate are two Google Chrome extensions that can be used to translate resources.
• Many research databases and programs have accessibility services built into their tools. Be sure to ask your library media specialist for assistance in leveraging options that are available in these platforms.
• Review the AVID Open Access article, Empower Students With Accessibility Tools , for even more options.

Take Notes. Record Findings. Organize The Information.

As students are learning and collecting ideas, they will need to record their findings in a meaningful way. This includes taking notes and organizing the information, and it is a key part of the sense-making process. By categorizing and organizing, students will begin to make connections between ideas and structure them in a way that makes sense holistically.

Like most of this process, it can be messy, complicated, and sometimes confusing. This is normal. After all, learning is a messy process, but part of what makes inquiry so powerful is that students engage in productive struggle, which can ultimately lead to deeper and more complete understanding. It’s also very engaging and forces them to use their critical thinking skills to the fullest.

Like with critical reading, AVID has developed a powerful focused note-taking process , which includes five phases. Once again, this process can be adapted and revised to meet your specific needs, but by following the overall flow of the process, students can better document, organize, and make sense of their new learning. These five steps include:

• Taking notes
• Processing notes
• Connecting thinking
• Summarizing and reflecting on learning
• Applying learning

During this phase of the ANSWERS inquiry process, students focus on Steps 1–3 of focused note-taking. As they critically review their sources and gather information, they will record their key learning, process and organize their notes, and begin connecting the ideas together. Through this process, they will gradually make sense of the disparate pieces of information and synthesize new learning into a more meaningful whole. Of course, students need to remember that all of this work is ultimately driving them toward the final application and sharing of their learning. To learn more about the focused note-taking process, review the AVID Open Access collection, Develop Your Students’ Focused Note-Taking Skills .

As with the critical reading process, you may want to review and take advantage of the wide range of digital tools that can help to make this process more effective and efficient.

Note-Taking Formats

The format for taking notes will be dependent upon the nature of the inquiry, how students can most effectively process their new learning, and how students will ultimately use their notes to demonstrate their learning. The following list provides examples of note-taking formats and tools.

• Column Format: Use columns or tables to identify important ideas, as well as note responses and reflections, in Google Docs , Microsoft Word , or PDF .
• Mind Maps: Show connections between ideas by using mind mapping tools, like MindMeister , Popplet , Mindomo ( Tips ), Bubbl.us , Creately , Draw.io , Canva , MindMup , or Coggle .
• Graphic Organizers: Organize the information using the draw features in Microsoft OneNote , Google Drawings ( Tips ), Google Slides , or Microsoft PowerPoint .
• Sketchnotes: Combine handwriting and drawings by using tools such as Sketchboard , Explain Everything , Drawing Pad , Google Jamboard ( Tips ), or Autodesk SketchBook .
• Audio Notes: Record your notes by using the audio recording tools in Google Docs , Microsoft OneNote , or a website like online-voice-recorder.com .

Notebook and eBinder Tools

There are many digital tools available that can be used to both collect and organize notes.

• Notebook tools include Evernote , Notability , Google Keep , Zoho Notebook , and Microsoft OneNote .
• eBinder tools include Google Sites ( Tips ), Microsoft OneNote , Google Slides , Microsoft PowerPoint , Google Keep , and Seesaw .
• Use a template to save setup time. Here are some templates to get you started: AVID eBinder templates and SlidesMania’s Slides and PowerPoint templates .

Organize Information and Resources

As students collect information, they will need to organize it.

• Use the bullet and outline tools in Google Docs , Microsoft OneNote , or Microsoft Word to outline main ideas and supporting details.
• Use Microsoft Teams or Google Drive to organize digital resources. See the Organize Your Materials: eFiles poster for suggestions.
• Set up an organizational system for notebooks and/or eBinders. See the Organize Your Materials: eBinders poster for suggestions.
• Use bookmarks to manage web resources. Browsers include bookmarking features, including Google Chrome bookmarks , Safari bookmarks , and Microsoft Edge favorites . Save to Pocket is a Google Chrome extension to tag and bookmark online resources.
• For even more ideas, review the AVID Open Access article, Develop Your Students’ Digital Organization Skills: eFiles, eBinders, and ePortfolios .

Plagiarism Checkers

As students take notes, they will need guidance on how to properly paraphrase and give credit to the information. The following tools can help students know if they are paraphrasing well or plagiarizing.

• QuillBot can be used to help rephrase text and suggest alternative synonyms.
• Plagium ( Google Docs add-on ), Plagiarism Checker by Grammarly , and Citation Machine are “freemium” checkers, where you can copy and paste text to check for possible plagiarism.
• Google for Education provides “freemium” originality checkers in both Google Classroom and Google Assignments.
• Turnitin is a premium plagiarism checker that includes grading and feedback features.
• Interesting fact to share with students from Merriam-Webster : “Plagiarize (and plagiarism) comes from the Latin plagiarius ‘kidnapper.’ This word, derived from the Latin plaga (‘a net used by hunters to catch game’), extended its meaning in Latin to include a person who stole the words, rather than the children, of another.”

Citations Generators

As students use sources, it is important that they learn how to give proper credit to the authors and/or publishers of the information. Fortunately, there are many tools now available to help automate this process so that students can focus more on their writing and less on the technical aspects of giving credit to a source.

• Google Docs Citations and Bibliography and Microsoft’s Citations & Bibliography tools can be used to add, manage, and format citations in MLA, APA, or Chicago style for books, websites, and articles.
• Citation Machine , EasyBib , and CiteMaker are online tools that can be used to create citations.
• OWL is maintained by the Purdue Online Writing Lab and includes research and other citation resources to guide students.
• Many research databases and programs have citation generators built into their tools. Be sure to ask your library media specialist for assistance in leveraging options that are available in these platforms.

Extend Your Learning

• Note Taking With Technology (Edutopia)
• Digital Note Taking Strategies That Deepen Student Thinking (KQED)
• Strategies to Help Students ‘Go Deep’ When Reading Digitally (KQED)

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Thinking Notes

During reading

Thinking notes help develop students’ meta-cognitive skills. Meta-cognition has been defined as self-knowledge of and control over one’s own thinking and learning activities.   Students who monitor their thinking are more effective readers and learners. Not only do thinking notes aid comprehension, they also illustrate that reading is a process with a purpose. Students must comprehend what they read before they can answer text-dependent questions and integrate textual evidence into their writing. Referring back to thinking notes also aids meta-cognition by prompting students to reflect on textual elements that challenged, troubled or stood out to them. Thinking notes also offer clues about which parts of the text perplexed or resonated with your students. Take note of what students mark up and why; these observations can generate ideas for discussion and provide insight about supports students may need.

Thinking notes can be used in a number of ways, incorporated into other strategies, and implemented during shared or independent reading. This approach always includes these steps:

• Choose the central text . Provide students a copy of the text they can write on. (Sticky notes can substitute when this is not possible.)
• Establish a system of symbols or cues before reading. Students should go beyond merely highlighting and underlining. Thinking notes are evidence that students have interacted with the text. For example, a question mark can mean, “This would make a good discussion question.” "MI" might stand for “main idea” and "TT" could mean “text-to-text connection.” See the sample symbols for more ideas. Make calculated decisions about how many symbols to use with a given text based on the text itself, your purpose for reading and your students’ abilities.
• Instruct students to make thinking notes during a second read of the text. The second read may be done independently, as a whole class, in pairs or in other groupings. This is the time when students begin to think about the text more deeply and can use these thinking notes in subsequent class discussions and writing assignments. Note: The first read-through of a text should be done aloud by the teacher or a skilled reader while other students follow along. Students should not be required to make notes or answer questions during this initial read-through. Listening to the text being read aloud ensures that all students have access to the text, improves fluency and allows students to focus on getting the gist of the text.

To see the thinking notes strategy in action, see this Learning Channel video .

English language learners

Thinking notes and visual symbols heighten meta-cognitive awareness in English language learners. Model the practice on a Smart board or by placing a clear transparency over the text and marking thinking notes together as you read.

Connection to anti-bias education

Thinking notes invite students to engage with the author and text in a non-threatening and accessible way. The task solicits analysis and critical thinking without setting up the barriers that some students encounter when assigned formal writing and speaking tasks. Marking the text empowers students to say, “I was here and this is what I think or feel about what I’m reading.” Most important are the many ways thinking notes can focus the reader on social justice and anti-bias questions. 

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Focused Note Taking: How to Take Notes That Will Help You Learn Better

Taking notes is an essential skill that helps us learn and retain information. However, many students and professionals struggle with taking notes effectively, which can lead to poor performance and decreased productivity. In this article, we will discuss the benefits of focused note-taking and provide you with tips on how to improve your note-taking skills.

Taking notes is an important skill that can help you retain information better, understand concepts more deeply, and improve your overall learning experience. However, note taking is not just about jotting down everything you hear or read. To take effective notes, you need to learn how to focus on the most important information and organize it in a meaningful way. In this article, we will discuss how to take focused notes that will help you learn better.

What is Focused Note Taking?

Focused note taking is the process of capturing key information during a lecture, discussion, or reading, while ignoring the less important details. It involves paying close attention to the main ideas, themes, and concepts, and organizing them in a structured and coherent way. The goal of focused note taking is to create a set of notes that are clear, concise, and easy to understand.

Why is Focused Note Taking Important?

There are several benefits of taking focused notes, including:

• Improved retention of information: When you focus on the most important information, you are more likely to remember it later.
• Better understanding of concepts: Focusing on key ideas and themes can help you connect the dots and see the bigger picture.
• More efficient studying: Well-organized notes can save you time when reviewing and studying for exams or assignments.
• Improved critical thinking skills: Focused note taking requires you to analyze and evaluate information, which can help you develop critical thinking skills.

Tips for Focused Note Taking

Here are some tips for taking focused notes:

1. Use a consistent format

Using a consistent format for your notes can help you stay organized and make it easier to review them later. You could use bullet points, numbered lists, mind maps, or any other format that works for you. The key is to choose a format that is easy to read and understand.

2. Listen actively

When taking notes during a lecture or discussion, it's important to listen actively. This means paying attention to the speaker, asking questions, and engaging with the material. Actively listening can help you identify the most important information and make connections between different concepts.

3. Focus on key ideas and themes

Rather than trying to capture everything that is said or read, focus on the key ideas and themes. Look for the main points and supporting details, and ignore the irrelevant information. This will help you create notes that are more concise and easier to understand.

4. Use abbreviations and symbols

Using abbreviations and symbols can help you take notes more quickly and efficiently. For example, you could use an arrow to indicate a cause-and-effect relationship, or an exclamation point to highlight an important point. Just make sure that your abbreviations and symbols are easy to understand and consistent.

5. Review and revise your notes

After taking notes, take some time to review and revise them. This could involve adding more detail, clarifying unclear points, or organizing the information in a more logical way. Reviewing and revising your notes can help you solidify your understanding of the material and prepare for exams or assignments.

Focused note taking is an essential skill for anyone who wants to learn effectively. By paying attention to the most important information, organizing it in a meaningful way, and reviewing and revising your notes, you can improve your retention of information, understand concepts more deeply, and become a more efficient learner.

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Effective note-taking in lectures, why take lecture notes.

Most students take notes during lectures, but why? What is the purpose of taking notes, and how can lecture notes help students learn better and improve their performance on graded assignments?

Note-taking can serve two related purposes: external storage and encoding . The first function, external storage, is probably what most students have in mind when taking notes: to ensure they won’t forget essential information and create a repository they can consult when studying for exams or otherwise reviewing the course material in the future. However, the process of taking notes can also facilitate encoding, or learning the course material in the first place. This can be done by encouraging increased attention and focus during lecture, promoting active engagement with the course material, and/or structuring key concepts and facts. The challenge is to take lecture notes that both facilitate learning and can serve as a useful resource for future review.

Methods of Note-Taking

There are many different methods or formats for taking notes during lectures. One of the most popular is the Cornell Method , while other methods include traditional outlining , mapping , and the “CUES+” Method . Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages and may work better for some students or in certain courses. There is ultimately no right or wrong method to take notes, and many students employ some combination of these methods, implicitly or explicitly. However, there are certain strategies students can follow, regardless of their particular note-taking method, to take notes that will help them both learn and remember the course material.

Sentence Method

Traditional Outline

Cornell Method

The key to taking notes that will simultaneously facilitate learning and be useful for review is identifying and recording the most important ideas, concepts, and facts from the lecture in relation to the overall course. Identifying what is most important helps facilitate learning by forcing students to organize and contextualize the material, while also enabling efficient review by generating a repository of ideas and information that is likely most relevant for exams and future recall. Focusing on what is important means that you should resist the temptation to attempt to transcribe everything the professor says; while you might be worried you will miss something important, attempting to produce a transcription of the lecture undermines the encoding purpose of note-taking because it requires minimal active engagement and critical thinking.

Of course, identifying what is most important is often easier said than done. During lectures, students are bombarded with information, frequently at a rapid pace, and few professors self-consciously include information they do not deem important for some reason or another. Identifying what is most important is therefore somewhat of an inexact science and also a skill that must be developed over time; good note-takers are therefore not “born,” but rather “made” through continuous learning and practice, even if note-taking skills come more naturally to some students. The good news, however, is that almost every lecture provides students with an opportunity to build these skills, and there are some evidence-based strategies that students can employ to be identify important ideas and information and improve their note-taking skills, including:  

• Prepare before the lecture by completing any assigned readings or problems (unless advised otherwise by the professor), reviewing your notes from previous lectures, and any slides or notes provided in advance by the professor. This will help you anticipate information that might be important, draw connections with earlier course material, and identify gaps in your understanding.
• Direct statements by the professor such as, “This is an important point”
• Writing on the board
• Changes in the professor’s tone of voice
• Pauses by the professor
• Pointing or other gestures
• Repeated terms or phrases
• Terms such as “In conclusion”, “to sum things up,” etc.
• Ideas or concepts referenced in the reading or in previous lectures
• Terms in larger font, bold, italics, underlined, or highlighted in slides or notes
• In addition to these cues, anything that you don’t understand is important to record in your notes, preferably with a clear reminder to ask the professor, teaching assistant, or another student. If you don’t understand an idea or concept, it is difficult to determine its relative importance for the course, so you should always record things you don’t understand.
• Think carefully about whether to use a laptop to take notes. Laptops can be useful tools for note-taking, but recent research suggests (perhaps unsurprisingly) they can be distracting, both to you and other students. Furthermore, because most students can type significantly faster than they can write, taking notes by laptop tends to encourage transcribing the lecture word-for-word, rather than critically thinking about what is important—even if students have been advised against transcription .

Using Your Lecture Notes

You diligently prepared for lecture, listened carefully, and produced a set of notes identifying the most important concepts and what you didn’t understand. Now what? How can you use your lecture notes to further your understanding of the material and prepare for exams and other assignments?

• First and foremost, actively review your notes after the lecture, preferably within 24 hour to maximize future recall. Even if you take good notes, you will generally forget around 50 percent  of what you learn without review within 24 hours. You should therefore try to make a habit of reviewing your notes as soon as possible after the lecture.  Some students recopy their notes, and while this can be useful in some cases, it is often time-consuming and may not contribute to your understanding of the material if done in a purely rote manner. As an alternative, you might focus on rephrasing your notes and/or identifying links between important concepts in your notes; it could also be useful to review your lecture notes in conjunction with any reading notes or the readings themselves in order to draw connections between material in the lectures and readings.
• After reviewing your notes, seek out your professor, teaching assistant, and/or other students about anything you still don’t understand.
• Consult with other students and compare lecture notes, not as a substitute for attending lecture and taking your own notes, but in order to identify what other students thought was important, interesting, or unclear.

Kiewra, Kenneth A. “A Review of Note-Taking: The Encoding-Storage Paradigm and Beyond,” Educational Psychology Review 1, no. 2 (1989), 147-172.

Mueller, Pam A. and Daniel M. Oppenheimer. “The Pen is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking,” Psychological Science 25, no. 6 (2014), 1159-1168.

Sana, Faria, Tina Weston, and Melody Wiseheart. “Laptops hinder classroom learning for both users and nearby peers,” Computers & Education 62 (2013), 24-31.

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• What Is Critical Thinking? | Definition & Examples

What Is Critical Thinking? | Definition & Examples

Published on May 30, 2022 by Eoghan Ryan . Revised on May 31, 2023.

Critical thinking is the ability to effectively analyze information and form a judgment .

To think critically, you must be aware of your own biases and assumptions when encountering information, and apply consistent standards when evaluating sources .

Critical thinking skills help you to:

• Identify credible sources
• Evaluate and respond to arguments
• Assess alternative viewpoints
• Test hypotheses against relevant criteria

Table of contents

Why is critical thinking important, critical thinking examples, how to think critically, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about critical thinking.

Critical thinking is important for making judgments about sources of information and forming your own arguments. It emphasizes a rational, objective, and self-aware approach that can help you to identify credible sources and strengthen your conclusions.

Critical thinking is important in all disciplines and throughout all stages of the research process . The types of evidence used in the sciences and in the humanities may differ, but critical thinking skills are relevant to both.

In academic writing , critical thinking can help you to determine whether a source:

• Is free from research bias
• Provides evidence to support its research findings
• Considers alternative viewpoints

Outside of academia, critical thinking goes hand in hand with information literacy to help you form opinions rationally and engage independently and critically with popular media.

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Critical thinking can help you to identify reliable sources of information that you can cite in your research paper . It can also guide your own research methods and inform your own arguments.

Outside of academia, critical thinking can help you to be aware of both your own and others’ biases and assumptions.

Academic examples

However, when you compare the findings of the study with other current research, you determine that the results seem improbable. You analyze the paper again, consulting the sources it cites.

You notice that the research was funded by the pharmaceutical company that created the treatment. Because of this, you view its results skeptically and determine that more independent research is necessary to confirm or refute them. Example: Poor critical thinking in an academic context You’re researching a paper on the impact wireless technology has had on developing countries that previously did not have large-scale communications infrastructure. You read an article that seems to confirm your hypothesis: the impact is mainly positive. Rather than evaluating the research methodology, you accept the findings uncritically.

Nonacademic examples

However, you decide to compare this review article with consumer reviews on a different site. You find that these reviews are not as positive. Some customers have had problems installing the alarm, and some have noted that it activates for no apparent reason.

You revisit the original review article. You notice that the words “sponsored content” appear in small print under the article title. Based on this, you conclude that the review is advertising and is therefore not an unbiased source. Example: Poor critical thinking in a nonacademic context You support a candidate in an upcoming election. You visit an online news site affiliated with their political party and read an article that criticizes their opponent. The article claims that the opponent is inexperienced in politics. You accept this without evidence, because it fits your preconceptions about the opponent.

There is no single way to think critically. How you engage with information will depend on the type of source you’re using and the information you need.

However, you can engage with sources in a systematic and critical way by asking certain questions when you encounter information. Like the CRAAP test , these questions focus on the currency , relevance , authority , accuracy , and purpose of a source of information.

When encountering information, ask:

• Who is the author? Are they an expert in their field?
• What do they say? Is their argument clear? Can you summarize it?
• When did they say this? Is the source current?
• Where is the information published? Is it an academic article? Is it peer-reviewed ?
• Why did the author publish it? What is their motivation?
• How do they make their argument? Is it backed up by evidence? Does it rely on opinion, speculation, or appeals to emotion ? Do they address alternative arguments?

Critical thinking also involves being aware of your own biases, not only those of others. When you make an argument or draw your own conclusions, you can ask similar questions about your own writing:

• Am I only considering evidence that supports my preconceptions?
• Is my argument expressed clearly and backed up with credible sources?
• Would I be convinced by this argument coming from someone else?

If you want to know more about ChatGPT, AI tools , citation , and plagiarism , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• ChatGPT vs human editor
• ChatGPT citations
• Is ChatGPT trustworthy?
• Using ChatGPT for your studies
• What is ChatGPT?
• Chicago style
• Paraphrasing

 Plagiarism

• Types of plagiarism
• Self-plagiarism
• Avoiding plagiarism
• Academic integrity
• Consequences of plagiarism
• Common knowledge

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Critical thinking refers to the ability to evaluate information and to be aware of biases or assumptions, including your own.

Like information literacy , it involves evaluating arguments, identifying and solving problems in an objective and systematic way, and clearly communicating your ideas.

Critical thinking skills include the ability to:

You can assess information and arguments critically by asking certain questions about the source. You can use the CRAAP test , focusing on the currency , relevance , authority , accuracy , and purpose of a source of information.

Ask questions such as:

• Who is the author? Are they an expert?
• How do they make their argument? Is it backed up by evidence?

A credible source should pass the CRAAP test  and follow these guidelines:

• The information should be up to date and current.
• The author and publication should be a trusted authority on the subject you are researching.
• The sources the author cited should be easy to find, clear, and unbiased.
• For a web source, the URL and layout should signify that it is trustworthy.

Information literacy refers to a broad range of skills, including the ability to find, evaluate, and use sources of information effectively.

Being information literate means that you:

• Know how to find credible sources
• Use relevant sources to inform your research
• Understand what constitutes plagiarism
• Know how to cite your sources correctly

Confirmation bias is the tendency to search, interpret, and recall information in a way that aligns with our pre-existing values, opinions, or beliefs. It refers to the ability to recollect information best when it amplifies what we already believe. Relatedly, we tend to forget information that contradicts our opinions.

Although selective recall is a component of confirmation bias, it should not be confused with recall bias.

On the other hand, recall bias refers to the differences in the ability between study participants to recall past events when self-reporting is used. This difference in accuracy or completeness of recollection is not related to beliefs or opinions. Rather, recall bias relates to other factors, such as the length of the recall period, age, and the characteristics of the disease under investigation.

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Ryan, E. (2023, May 31). What Is Critical Thinking? | Definition & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved April 9, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/working-with-sources/critical-thinking/

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A Critical Thinking Strategy for Student Note-Taking

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Close your eyes and imagine a classroom of students deeply engaged in critical thinking. My bet is that you are not imagining a lecture or anything that resembles a traditional sit-and-get learning environment.

This is unsurprising. As I travel across the country with thinkLaw, supporting teachers with strategies to integrate critical thinking into their daily instruction, I find that teachers are always eager for practical opportunities to get students collaborating, thinking deeply, and engaging in critical thinking.

It is less popular to admit an important reality about instruction: Teachers must plan for and ensure student learning of key vocabulary, procedures, algorithms, and other content-specific and context-specific topics. Even if the idea of the permanent sage on the stage has rightfully been largely discarded, the temporary sage on the stage still has an important place in the classroom. The quadratic formula is still the quadratic formula. The structure of a five-paragraph essay is still the structure of a five-paragraph essay.

Whether you are guiding students through content yourself or having students read, research, or watch a video, the WICK charting process gives students an easy-to-implement method to deepen their engagement during this portion of your lesson. Instead of being stuck in sit-and-get mode, they will shift into sit-and-get-and-scrutinize-and-discuss mode as they process the lesson.

STEP 1: CREATING YOUR WICK

Have your students divide their notes into a graphic organizer with four quadrants labeled as follows: Weird, Interesting, Confusing, and Knew This Already/Kinda Like. Here is a completed sample WICK on the (not-so-exhilarating) topic of corn prevalence in the United States. The instructions for what goes into each box are straightforward.

Weird: List any facts or details that stand out as weird, strange, or out of the ordinary. This is where students place shocking statistics, surprising scientific phenomena, or “can’t believe that works” shortcuts that simplify problems. Students should include anything they might want to fact-check here.

For example, students learning about the metamorphosis of a caterpillar to a butterfly may find it weird that the eggs caterpillars hatched from end up being food for the same caterpillar. It would be like chickens eating their own eggshell.

Interesting: Students should list any facts or details that intrigue them here. This includes information that speaks to their passions, interests, and curiosity. Information in this area of the WICK chart should include topics students want to explore for further research.

For instance, a student studying Shakespeare might find it interesting how dedicated this playwright was to iambic pentameter. Ten syllables in nearly every sentence? That’s real commitment!

Confusing: Any facts or details that do not quite add up go in this area of the WICK chart. Include anything that seems contradictory, arguments that are not well reasoned, and ideas that feel flat-out wrong.

Students in racially homogenous schools learning about the Brown v. Board of Education case may find it confusing that their school is so deeply segregated decades after this decision ruled segregation unconstitutional.

Knew This Already/Kinda Like: Students can list any facts here that they knew already or that remind them of a fact, detail, or piece of information they previously learned. Any information that is “kinda like” other things they have learned in the past and can make a connection to goes here.

Discussing The Scarlet Letter in English? Here is where students might note that the protagonist’s treatment reminds them of the Salem witch trials or the McCarthy-era hearings on communism. These kinds of connections are a personal way for students to engage in critical thinking.

STEP 2: DISCUSSING YOUR WICK

After students have completed their individual WICKs, have them engage in discussion. Talking is simply thinking out loud, so the discussion part of the WICK process allows students to simultaneously integrate critical thinking and transform passive content.

When students discuss their WICKs, a one- or two-minute conversation is often enough to share some deep reflections. Depending on the context, students may not have every quadrant completed. One student’s “interesting” could easily be another student’s “kinda like,” which generates even more opportunities for students to push each other’s thinking.

You can also use WICKs to break up the typical “I do, we do, you do” pattern of instruction. If your direct instruction is set to last 10 minutes, consider pausing at the halfway mark to have students share their WICK responses so far. This way, the WICK serves as a helpful classroom management tool during the part of lessons that often leads to off-task behaviors.

In sum, the WICK process helps students critically analyze information as they learn it. Students will actually enjoy taking notes, and gain a deeper mastery of the content in the process.

Original article posted via Edutopia

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The 13 Most Effective Note-Taking Methods

These are efficient note-taking methods that anyone can pick up and use to take better notes.

• By Sander Tamm
• Mar 19, 2024

E-student.org is supported by our community of learners. When you visit links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

“Genius is 1% talent and 99% percent hard work.” Albert Einstein

When you’re first learning a new concept, you’re taking in further information that has to go through the process of memorization.

The human brain, however, is inefficient at remembering things. 

Within  24 hours  of leaving class, your brain will have forgotten more than half of what it remembered at the end of the class.

This phenomenon is described by the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve , which perfectly illustrates the need for note-taking .

Compare the right-side green line with the left-side red line. 

Someone who takes notes and reviews them three times (green line) remembers nearly everything after a week. On the other hand, a person who doesn’t review their notes at all (red line) forgets everything within a week.

Don’t be the red line – make sure you’re one of the green lines instead! To do so, you’ll need to learn how to take  effective , visually interesting , and/or aesthetical notes .

To help you do so, these are the best note-taking methods:

Best Note-Taking Methods

Outline note-taking method.

Best for:  Most subjects except science classes such as physics or math

Difficulty level:  Medium

The  outline method of note-taking  uses indentation to store information in a clear hierarchy. When applicable, the outline method is one of the most efficient note-taking formats as it creates meticulously well-organized notes. The method can also be used in both  deductive and inductive  order.

Outlined notes are some of the easiest to review, as it’s one of the few systems that allow you to see space relationships between topics. However, the method is not always suitable for taking notes during a live lecture, and outlining requires a clear lesson structure. 

Advantages:

• Space relationships between topics are visible,
• Information is recorded in a logical, hierarchical manner,
• Outlined notes are quick and easy to review pre-exam,
• Special notepaper & preparation not required,
• Research on the outline method  has been positive,
• Usable during class (slow to medium-paced lectures).

Disadvantages:

• Unsuitable for some STEM subjects,
• Learning materials/lectures require a clear structure,
• Outlining notes requires intense concentration and thought.

Cornell Note-Taking Method

Best for:  Recording main concepts & forming study questions

Difficulty level:  Easy

The  Cornell note-taking method , developed over half a century ago, is a tried-and-true strategy for taking effective notes. It uses two top columns (the “cue” and “note” columns), together with a single bottom row (the summary section), to record notes. 

The method is versatile, usable for most subjects, and one of the simplest yet most effective note-taking methods. By mastering the Cornell system, you’ll always have at least one solid note-taking skill under your belt. The Cornell system is one of the most popular note-taking strategies in the world for a good reason.

• Organized and systematic for both recording and reviewing notes
• Time-efficient and requires little effort,
• Taking Cornell notes is very easy to learn,
• Suitable for most subjects (except equation-based subjects),
• Fulfills a  natural learning cycle  within one single page,
• Ideal for extracting major concepts and ideas.
• Requires creating or purchasing Cornell-style pages,
• Large quantities of Cornell notes can be challenging to organize,
• Not great at reducing the size of notes,
• Research on the Cornell method  is mixed.

The Cornell method is a variant of the split-page note-taking method  (also known as the two-column method). Try the split-page method if you are finding the Cornell method a bit too restrictive but you like the basic approach of cues or keywords combined with more detailed notes.

Boxing Note-Taking Method

Best for:  Digital note-taking with a stylus pen

The  boxing method of note-taking uses boxes to visually separate topics within a page. While the boxing method was designed for digital devices, it’s a technique that can be easily adapted to handwritten notes. 

Using the boxing strategy results in notes that are visually pleasing and easy to review. The method also takes full advantage of digital-only features such as lassoing, resizing, and moving notes after writing. Together with mind mapping, it’s one of the most effective note-taking strategies for visual learners.

• Takes advantage of digital note-taking tools,
• Great for learners with a visual learning style,
• Aesthetically pleasing notes,
• Notes reduce well.
• Slightly time-intensive,
• Not always practical for note-taking during lectures.

Charting Note-Taking Method

Best for:  Recording facts and statistics

Difficulty level:  Hard

The  charting method of note-taking , also known as “matrix note-taking,” uses charts to classify information within rows and columns. While the method is not usable for many subjects, it is a remarkable tool under the right circumstances. This method is best used with subjects with factual or statistical information that can be categorized into tables.

On the other hand, it’s not suitable for note-taking during live lectures, very detailed topics, and subjects where the space relationships between content are essential. It’s also not well-suited for subjects that have many equation-based problems.

• A compelling method for subjects with lots of facts and statistics,
• Easy comparisons between different topics,
• Reduces note sizes better than any other method,
• Charted notes are straightforward and efficient to review,
• Very efficient for studying comparisons.
• Unsuitable for most subjects,
• Requires a basic understanding of the topic,
• Very time-intensive.

Mapping Note-Taking Method

Best for:  Analyzing visual connections between key ideas and concepts

The mapping method of note-taking , also known as “concept mapping,” connects different thoughts, ideas, concepts, and facts through visualization. Both Leonardo Da Vinci’s and Albert Einstein’s notebooks reportedly contained mapping-style notes that connected drawings to words and notes.

The mapping method starts with a central topic in the middle of the page before branching into smaller subtopics, supporting topics, and more minor details. The method provides a one-of-a-kind graphical overview of lecture content that is irreplaceable for visual learners. 

Mapping is best used in content-rich college classes where the information is structured. However, taking notes in a live class with this method is very rarely possible due to its time-consuming nature.

 Advantages:

• An excellent method for visual learning styles,
• It gives a comprehensive overview of a large subject,
• It helps you understand the connections between small elements within a major topic,
• Maximizes active participation,
• Reviewing mapped notes is very efficient.

 Disadvantages:

• Requires a good understanding of the topic,
• Requires strong concentration,
• It cannot be used effectively during class,
• It can be difficult to correctly include all relationships ,
• Mapping is very time-consuming.

Sentence Note-Taking Method

Best for:  Quick, unstructured note-taking

Difficulty level:  Very easy

The  sentence method of note-taking uses sentences separated by lines to quickly transcribe as much information as possible from the information source. It requires quick handwriting or typing skills to be used effectively, and it’s likely the most commonly used note-taking method due to its simplicity. 

Using the sentence method results in oversized notes that are notoriously difficult to review afterward. However, the sentence method can sometimes be the only viable choice for fast-paced, unstructured lessons you’re unprepared for. It’s often a good idea to rewrite notes taken with the sentence method after class.

Try not to rely on this method when you have a choice, but keep it as a backup plan when you can’t use an alternative note-taking strategy.

• It can be used for any subject and type of class,
• Very easy to implement,
• Suitable for quick note-taking during class.
• Reviewing sentence method notes after class is difficult and time-consuming,
• No inter- and intra- relationships between notes are visible,
• The main points are indistinguishable from more minor details,
• Quick handwriting or typing speed required,
• No element of metacognitive note analysis during note-taking.

Blurting Note-Taking Method

Best for:  Studying and memorizing complex topics

Difficulty level: Medium

Unlike passively highlighting text or rereading notes, the Blurting Method is truly one of the most efficient ways to understand where you are at in your knowledge and do something about it at the same time.

The blurting method of note-taking is an  active recall  technique that can be used to help you learn and remember information. Active recall is basically a learning technique that involves testing yourself on the material that you’re trying to learn and has been shown to be a very effective way to make.

The blurting method, at its simplest, is reading a section of text or notes, then closing them and writing down as much of the information as you can remember. This makes your brain work harder to retain the information, making it really hammer the info down into your long-term memory.

• It can help you identify the areas where you need to focus in your study time, thus making sure that the gaps in your knowledge are covered.
• It gives you a better understanding of the material, as you are forced to put the information into your own words.
• Recall ensures information is retained longer.
• It’s a flexible method that can be modified to suit your needs.
• The method can be used on any type of written learning material – but also after listening to lectures and online course videos.
• This method is time-consuming, and some might find it tedious.
• It does not replace note-taking during on-going lectures.
• It is mentally taxing.
• It is not the most efficient method for memorizing a lot of facts – use flashcards or a similar method in this case

Q/E/C Note-Taking Method

Best for: Argumentative subjects (such as history, philosophy, and literature)

The Question/Evidence/Conclusion (Q/E/C) method of note-taking is a simple but powerful method for organizing and recording information from lectures. Focused on capturing the big ideas and how they relate to each other, the method is structured around concepts that require arguing and evidence to create a clear and concise summary. Each concept is divided up into three parts: question, evidence, and conclusion.

The Q/E/C is ideally suited for most subjects in the humanities, especially ones that tend to present in an argumentative form, such as history, philosophy, and literature. It is also a very useful method to include in your toolbox for other subjects, including technical ones, where it can be suited for certain classes.

The method is also an excellent way to outline or plan for your essays, as it helps you develop a clear structure and will likely help you identify additional questions and counterarguments along the way that you may need to consider.

• Helps you focus on the bigger picture
• Helps you keep track of the relationship between the overall topic and the arguments/evidence
• An excellent way to clearly record more argumentative presentations
• Clear way of presenting arguments and counterarguments
• Forces you to synthesize arguments and write a conclusion
• A good fit for the humanities and non-technical subjects
• Matches the way many lecturers present (and view the world)
• Useful method for outlining argumentative essays
• Less suitable for technical subjects or for concepts with more complex relationships
• Challenging to use during fast-paced or poorly structured lectures
• Requires concentration and reflection
• Can be difficult to use if you don’t yet have an overall grasp of a new subject

Morse Code Note-Taking Method

Best for: Quickly absorb large volumes of course material in argumentative subjects.

Difficulty level: Hard

A fairly recent addition to the realm of note-taking methods – but one that many academics swear by – is the Morse Code note-taking method , a variant of the Q/E/C method . Not to be confused with Morse Code itself, this note-taking method uses dots and dashes to mark up course literature while you are reading it . Importantly, it enables you to keep reading while taking notes rather than pausing to jot down your notes.

Dots are used to denote the main ideas, and dashes for supporting facts, arguments, and examples. After you have finished reading the entire text, you use your notes in the margin to type up notes and then condense them into a format that is useful for further review.

• As you do not stop reading, it is among the most efficient methods for covering larger quantities of text.
• It helps extract the main and supporting points from a text.
• It promotes active reading through the note-taking
• It facilitates reading comprehension and critical thinking through the decoding and condensing stages.
• It is not applicable to all types of reading material (in particular, material that is not structured in an argumentative academic style).
• Very little information is captured in your notes – if you wait too long to decode your notes, you may have forgotten the context.
• Less suitable for readers who tend to lose their focus when engaging in continuous reading (who may benefit from pausing and processing their notes paragraph by paragraph or page by page.

Flow Note-Taking Method

Best for: Understanding interrelationships between concepts at a higher level

While linear note-taking methods (such as the sentence and outline methods) have their place in your toolkit, you will want to complement these with non-linear methods that force you to actively engage with the topic at hand as a whole. Using such methods translate into a better understanding of an area and how its different component parts relate to each other. One of the main non-linear approaches that you should become familiar with is the flow method of note-taking .

It can look similar to the mapping method, but the focus of this method is on the higher-level concepts and ideas and how they relate to each other. Detailed descriptions and paraphernalia have to take a step back. The relationships are indicated using arrows and lines, in whichever way you find useful.

• The flow method aims to have you learn during class by having you engage actively with the content.
• Even though you are actively learning during class, you also get useful notes for revision – while the notes are not in the most useful format for revision, they tend not to be terrible
• It’s a flexible method that suits most subjects.
• It is a good choice for note-taking after having followed a class or after having read all material to solidify your understanding.
• The method can be personalized to suit individuals’ needs and preferences.
• The flow method is not well suited for topics of which you have no prior understanding, as it can be difficult to pick out what is more or less important and figure out how they relate to each other during the class.
• While engaging mainly with the bigger picture, you risk missing important details during lectures.
• Flow notes can easily turn out quite messy and are not ideal for revision (you can try to mitigate this by adding cue words to your notes to prompt you to describe relationships during revisions).
• It can be difficult to find the time to actively engage with a topic during fast-paced lectures, forcing you to take detailed notes and apply the flow method after class instead.
• Practice with the method is needed as you need to figure out how to best use it to suit your learning style.

REAP Method

Best for: Active reading to build deeper understanding of texts

The REAP method (Read, Encode, Annotate, Ponder) was developed by Marilyn Eanet and Anthony Manzo at the University of Missouri at Kansas City in 1976 as a response to what they saw as inadequate teaching methods for developing active reading. The method is designed to help students be able to understand the meaning of texts through reflecting and communicating on their content.

REAP consists of four stages:

• Reading:  Reading the text provided to identify the ideas expressed by the author.
• Encoding:  “Encoding” the main ideas identified in the text in your own words.
• Annotating:  Writing “annotations” of the ideas, quotes, etc., in the text.
• Pondering:  Reflecting on the content and writing comments or criticisms of the text, and discussing with others.

This will make you return to a text multiple times, each time from a different vantage point, and let you gradually analyze the text at a higher and higher level.

• A scientifically proven effective method for improving reading comprehension and recall
• Helps build capacity to engage critically with texts
• Provides a framework for re-engaging with a text from multiple vantage points
• Method that takes a lot of time, focus, and mental energy
• Not suitable for note-taking during lectures
• Less suitable for all texts (such as some college textbooks) or learning purposes (such as more detailed memorization)

Focused Question Clusters Method

Best for: Preparing for multiple-choice or other fact-based tests

Focused Question Clusters is a method, proposed by Cal Newport, to help students use their textbooks and existing lecture notes to prepare for MCQ-style exams by writing questions and then quizzing themselves. 

Focused Question Clusters involve the following main steps:

• Identify your main topic and the relevant subtopics.
• For each subtopic, write a series (or a “cluster”) of questions that relate to it, covering the main points. The questions should be clear and possible to answer with a few words.
• Write a few background topics to the topic as a whole.
• Use these questions to review (you might want to employ one of the relevant study methods for how you quiz yourself, such as active recall )

Although this kind of rapid-fire questions will help most with preparing for multiple-choice style exams, the engagement with the material will also help your brain to make the connections to get a deeper understanding of the topic.

• An effective way to gain and retain knowledge about a topic
• Particularly effective for MCQ-style exams
• A useful tool for studying in groups
• Question drafting can be divided up and the results shared as a resource between students studying together
• Drafting the questions takes a considerable amount of time and effort
• Not the best way to engage with more argumentative topics

Highlighting Method

Best for: Quickly marking up a text that you plan to review later on.

Difficulty level: Easy

Highlighting is a popular study technique that involves marking important passages in a text. The overall idea is to highlight important points in a text – common ones are key numbers, dates, names, and other key points – that can then be easily spotted when reviewing the whole material. In its pure form, it does not involve writing any notes, but in practice, it is often combined with   other note-taking methods .

This a useful method for students, researchers, and anyone else who needs to go through a lot of material as it allows them to quickly find the information they need later on. Note, however, that while this method is very commonly used, it has been the topic of scientific studies that have found it of questionable value for studying.

• Easy to get started with.
• Does not require writing.
• Provides you with a marked-up text that can help you revise more efficiently.
• It’s easy to go on autopilot with the method and become a passive reader rather than actively engaging with the text.
• Studies have found it to be of questionable value.

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5.7.2: Taking Notes in Class

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Dave Dillon

• Grossmont College

“He listens well who takes notes.”

– Dante Alighieri

Take Notes To Remember

If for no other reason, you should take notes during class so that you do not forget valuable and important information. Despite living with incredible search engines on computers and smart phones that give us a plethora of information 24 hours a day, seven days a week, students do not have the ability to access those during exams. Instructors want to know what you know not what Google knows. We’ve become accustomed to searching for information on demand to find what we need when we need it. The consequence is that we don’t often commit information to memory because we know it will be there tomorrow if we wish to search for it again. This causes challenges with preparation for exams as what we’re tested on is in our brain rather than information we can search for. Thus, there is an importance of taking notes. “Note-taking facilitates both recall of factual material and the synthesis and application of new knowledge, particularly when notes are reviewed prior to exams.” [1]

As you may recall from The Basics of Study Skills Chapter, Hermann Ebbinghaus studied the rate of forgetting and formulated his “forgetting curve” theory. Perform a web search for “Ebbinghaus forgetting curve.”

The curve shows that after one month, only 20 percent of information is retained after initial memorization. Without review, 47 percent of learned information is lost after only 20 minutes. After one day, 62 percent of learned information is lost without review.

In order to try to retain information long term, we must move it from our short-term memory to our long-term memory. One of the best ways to do that is through repetition. The more we review information, and the sooner we review once we initially learn it, the more reinforced that information is in our long-term memory.

The first step in being able to review is to take notes when you are originally learning the information. Students who do not take notes in class in the first place will not be able to recall all of the information covered in order to best review.

Taking notes during lectures is a skill, just like riding a bike. If you have never taken notes while someone else is speaking before, it’s important to know that you will not be an expert at it right away. It is challenging to listen to someone speak and then make a note about what they said, while at the same time continuing to listen to their next thought.

When learning to ride a bike, everyone is going to fall. With practice and concentration, we gain confidence and improve our skill. The more we practice, the better we get. In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell refers to the “10,000-hour rule.” Based on research by Anders Ericsson, the rule states that 10,000 hours of dedicated practice in your particular field will allow for the greatest potential of mastery. I do not expect you to practice taking notes for 10,000 hours, but the point is that practice, just like many things, is necessary to become more skilled [2] .

Some instructors will give you cues to let you know something is important. If you hear or see one of these cues, it’s something you should write down. This might include an instructor saying, “this is important,” or “this will be covered on the exam.” If you notice an instructor giving multiple examples, repeating information or spending a lot of time with one idea, these may be cues. Writing on the board or presenting a handout or visual information may also be a cue.

There are many different ways to take notes during lectures and I encourage you to find the way that works best for you. Different systems work best for different people. Experiment in different ways to find the most success.

Tips for Taking Notes During the Lecture

Arrive early and find a good seat. Seats in the front and center are best for being able to see and hear information. A seat at the 50-yard line for the Super Bowl is more expensive for a reason: it gives the spectator the greatest experience.

Do not try to write down everything the instructor talks about. It’s impossible and inefficient. Instead, try to distinguish between the most important topics and ideas and write those down. This is also a skill that students can improve upon. You may wish to ask your instructor during office hours if you have identified the main topics in your notes, or compare your notes to one of your classmates.

Use shorthand and/or abbreviations. So long as you will be able to decipher what you are writing, the least amount of pen or pencil strokes, the better. It will free you up so you can pay more attention to the lecture and help you be able to determine what is most important.

Write down what your instructor writes. Anything on a dry erase board, chalkboard, overhead projector and in some cases in presentations; these are cues for important information.

Leave space to add information to your notes. You can use this space during or after lectures to elaborate on ideas.

Do not write in complete sentences. Do not worry about spelling or punctuation. Getting the important information, concepts and main ideas is much more important. You can always revise your notes later and correct spelling.

Often, the most important information is delivered at the beginning and/or the end of a lecture. Many students arrive late or pack up their belongings and mentally check out a few minutes before the lecture ends. They are missing out on the opportunity to write down valuable information. Keep taking notes until the lecture is complete.

The Cornell System

One way of taking notes in class is using the Cornell System. Created in the 1950s by Walter Pauk at Cornell University, the Cornell System is still widely used today. Perform a web search for “Cornell note taking method.”

The note-taking area is for you to use to record notes during lectures.

Students use the column on the left to create questions after the lecture has ended. The questions are based on the material covered. Think of it as a way to quiz yourself. The notes you took should answer the questions you create.

Tips for after the lecture

Consolidate notes as soon as possible after the lecture has ended. Identify the main ideas and underline or highlight them.

Test yourself by looking only at the questions on the left. If you can provide most of the information on the notes side without looking at it, you’re in good shape. If you cannot, keep studying until you improve your retention. Review periodically as needed to keep the information fresh in your mind.

Students use the bottom area for summarizing information. Practice summarizing information — it’s a great study skill. It allows you to determine how information fits together. It should be written in your own words (don’t use the chapter summary in the textbook to write your summary, but check the chapter summary after you write yours for accuracy).

The Outline Method

Another way to take notes is the outline method. Students use an outline to show the relationship between ideas in the lecture. Outlines can help students separate main ideas from supporting details and show how one topic connects to another.

Perform a web search for “outline note taking method” to see what they look like.

Visual learners may want to experiment with mind maps (also called clustering). Invented by Tony Buzan in the 1960s, it’s another way of organizing information during lectures. Start with a central idea in the center of the paper (landscape is recommended). Using branches (like a tree), supporting ideas can supplement the main idea. Recall everything you can as the lecture is happening. Reorganization can be done later. Perform a web search for mind maps for note-taking.

The most important aspect of reviewing your lecture notes is when your review takes place in relation to when your notes were taken. For maximum efficiency and retention of memory, it’s best to review within 20 minutes of when the lecture ends. For this reason, I do not advise students to take back-to-back classes without 30 minutes in between. It is important to have adequate review time and to give your brain a break. Reviewing shortly after the lecture will allow you to best highlight or underline main points as well as fill in any missing portions of your notes. Students who take lecture notes on a Monday and then review them for the first time a week later often have challenges recalling information that help make the notes coherent.

If you wish to go “above and beyond,” you may consider discussing your notes in a study group with your classmates, which can give you a different perspective on main points and deepen your understanding of the material. You may also want to make flashcards for yourself with vocabulary terms, formulas, important dates, people, places, etc. Online flash cards are another option. Students can make them for free and test themselves online or on their phone.

The Big Picture

Keep in mind that students who know what their instructor is going to lecture on before the lecture are at an advantage. Why? Because the more they understand about what the instructor will be talking about, the easier it is to take notes. How? Take a look at the syllabus before the lecture. It won’t take much time but it can make a world of difference. You will also be more prepared and be able to see important connections if you read your assigned reading before the lecture. It’s not easy to do, but students that do it will be rewarded. If I have read information assigned before the lecture and know what the lecture will be about, I have best prepared myself for taking notes during the lecture and given myself the greatest potential for understanding relationships between the reading material and the lecture.

Licenses and Attributions:

Content previously copyrighted, published in Blueprint for Success in College: Indispensable Study Skills and Time Management Strategies (by Dave Dillon), now licensed as CC BY Attribution.

Adaptations: Changed formatting, removed all copyrighted information, slight edits for consistency.

• Deborah DeZure, Matthew Kaplan, and Martha A. Deerman, “Research on Student Notetaking: Implications for Faculty and Graduate Student Instructors,” 2001, http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/~krasn...th156_crlt.pdf . ↵
• Anders Ericsson et al., “The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance,” Psychological Review , (Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 1993), 393-394. ↵

When You Write

Note-Taking Benefits: Why Writing Things Down Helps You Remember

Do you know that feeling of frustration when you’re struggling to recall something important? Whether it’s a crucial detail for a project or a name you should know but just can’t seem to remember, it can be incredibly frustrating.

But what if there was a simple solution that could help you remember things more easily? Enter note-taking.

At its core, note-taking is a simple act of writing down information in a way that makes it easier to remember and recall later. But the benefits go far beyond just helping you remember important details.

In fact, taking notes can actually enhance your critical thinking skills, boost your creativity, and improve your communication abilities. So if you’re looking for a way to stay focused, organized, and engaged in your work, read on to discover the many benefits of note-taking.

Key Takeaways

• Note-taking enhances critical thinking skills, creativity, and communication abilities
• Creating a summary or outline is a great way to keep track of important information and is essential for efficient studying and reviewing
• Visual aids help convey complex information and make presentations more engaging
• Practicing active listening and effective note-taking techniques can enhance collaboration skills.

Increased Focus and Engagement

By actively engaging in the act of note-taking, you’re able to better focus and retain information, ultimately leading to increased engagement with the material.

Note-taking is not just a passive activity, but a mindfulness practice that requires you to be present and attentive. When you’re taking notes, you can’t be distracted by your phone or other distractions, which helps you stay focused on the material you’re learning.

Additionally, note-taking helps with memory retention. When you write down information, you’re not only processing it in your brain but also visually and kinesthetically. This means that you’re using multiple senses to learn the material, which makes it easier to remember.

In fact, research has shown that people who take notes are more likely to remember what they learned than those who don’t. So, by actively engaging in note-taking, you’re not only increasing your focus and engagement with the material but also improving your ability to remember it.

Enhanced Organization and Review

When it comes to organizing your notes, creating a summary or outline is a great way to keep track of important information. This method allows you to easily reference key points when studying or preparing for a presentation.

By breaking down your notes into manageable sections, you can review the material more efficiently and effectively.

Creating a Summary or Outline

Crafting a summary or outline is like creating a roadmap for your thoughts. It helps you navigate and remember the information more efficiently. Note-taking techniques can be enhanced by effective summarizing skills. You can condense the main ideas into a few key points. Summarizing helps you gain a better understanding of the material. It forces you to think about what is essential and what is not.

Creating an outline can also be helpful in organizing your thoughts and ideas. It allows you to see the structure and flow of the information, making it easier to remember and recall later on. Outlines also serve as a reference point, so you can quickly review the material without having to go through all your notes.

In conclusion, summarizing and outlining are essential note-taking techniques. They not only help you remember information but also make studying and reviewing more efficient.

Easy Reference for Study and Presentation

With an easy reference for study and presentation, you’ll be able to impress your audience and feel confident in your knowledge. One way to achieve this is by using visual aids. Visual aids can help you convey complex information in an easy-to-understand way, and they can also make your presentation more engaging.

For example, you might use charts, graphs, or diagrams to illustrate important concepts or data points.

Another way to make your notes an easy reference for study and presentation is by using effective note-taking strategies. When you take notes, try to focus on the most important information, and use shorthand or abbreviations to save time. You can also use symbols and color coding to help you organize your notes and make them easier to read.

By using these strategies, you’ll be able to quickly review your notes and prepare for your presentation with ease.

Improved Critical Thinking

By jotting down notes, you can boost your critical thinking skills and enhance your ability to analyze complex ideas and concepts. Just like how a sculptor can better shape a block of stone by chipping away at it, note-taking is not just about writing down what you hear or read – it’s about actively engaging with the material, processing it, and making sense of it.

This analytical processing helps develop your cognitive abilities, making you better equipped to tackle difficult problems and think outside the box. Moreover, taking notes helps you organize your thoughts and ideas in a way that is easy to understand and remember. By breaking down complex concepts into smaller, more manageable pieces, you can better understand how they fit together and identify any gaps in your knowledge.

This enables you to ask more informed questions, make connections between different ideas, and develop a deeper understanding of the material. Ultimately, note-taking is an essential tool for anyone looking to improve their critical thinking skills and develop a more innovative approach to problem-solving.

Enhanced Creativity

You’ll be amazed at how much more creative you can be when you allow yourself the freedom to explore new ideas and take risks. Note-taking offers a great opportunity for brainstorming techniques. By jotting down your ideas as they come to you, you can explore different possibilities and see where your thoughts take you.

This is particularly true when it comes to artistic expression. Whether you’re a writer, an artist, or a musician, note-taking can help you unlock your creativity and find new ways to express your ideas.

Here are three ways note-taking can enhance your creativity:

• It allows you to capture your ideas before they slip away: When you’re in the midst of a creative burst, it’s easy to lose track of your ideas. By taking notes, you can capture those ideas before they slip away and explore them further later on.
• It helps you see patterns and connections: When you take notes, you can start to see patterns and connections between your ideas. This can lead to new insights and creative breakthroughs.
• It gives you a place to experiment: Note-taking is a safe space to experiment with new ideas and techniques. By trying out different approaches, you can find new ways to express yourself and push the boundaries of your creativity.

Improved Communication

Now that you understand how note-taking can improve your creativity, let’s talk about how it can also enhance your communication skills.

When you actively listen and take effective notes during a conversation or meeting, you’re more likely to retain important information and understand the perspectives of others. This helps you communicate more effectively and avoid misunderstandings.

Active listening is an important part of effective communication, and note-taking is a valuable tool that can help you become a better listener. By taking notes during a conversation or presentation, you can focus your attention on the speaker and capture important details that you might otherwise forget.

This allows you to engage more fully in the conversation and respond thoughtfully to the points being made. By practicing active listening and effective note-taking techniques, you can improve your communication skills and enhance your ability to collaborate with others.

In essence, note-taking can be seen as a key that unlocks the door to your memory and helps you to retain and recall information more effectively.

So why not give it a try? Grab a pen and paper, and start taking notes today.

You may be surprised at how much more you remember and how much more engaged you feel.

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Optimize Your Notes: The Secret to Success with Psychology Note-Taking

The importance of effective note-taking in psychology.

Taking effective notes is a crucial aspect of studying psychology. It not only helps in retaining information but also enhances understanding and critical thinking skills. In this section, we will explore why note-taking is crucial in psychology and the benefits of having organized and comprehensive notes.

Why Note-Taking is Crucial in Psychology

Note-taking plays a vital role in the field of psychology for several reasons. Firstly, psychology involves studying complex concepts, theories, and research findings. Taking notes helps to break down these concepts into smaller, more manageable pieces of information. It allows individuals to capture key ideas, important definitions, and examples that are essential for understanding psychological concepts.

Secondly, note-taking promotes active engagement during lectures, discussions, or while reading psychology-related materials. When individuals actively listen and take notes, they are more likely to internalize the information and make connections between different topics. This active processing of information improves comprehension and retention.

Furthermore, note-taking helps psychologists and psychology students to develop critical thinking skills. By summarizing information, identifying key points, and analyzing the material, individuals can gain a deeper understanding of the subject matter. Additionally, note-taking encourages individuals to ask questions, make inferences, and reflect on the material, fostering a more thoughtful approach to learning.

Benefits of Organized and Comprehensive Notes

Having organized and comprehensive notes in psychology offers several benefits. Firstly, well-structured notes make it easier to review and study for exams or when preparing for research projects. When information is organized in a logical manner, it becomes simpler to locate specific topics and retrieve relevant information.

Comprehensive notes also serve as a valuable resource for future reference. Whether you’re a psychologist, coach, practitioner, therapist, or an online psychologist, having concise and detailed notes allows you to revisit important concepts, theories, and research findings. This not only supports ongoing learning but also aids in providing accurate and evidence-based information to clients or colleagues.

Moreover, organized and comprehensive notes can contribute to effective communication within the field of psychology. When collaborating with colleagues or sharing information with clients, having clear and well-structured notes enables efficient knowledge transfer and facilitates productive discussions.

To assess and improve your psychology note-taking skills, you can utilize a  psychology note-taking assessment rubric . This tool provides an objective evaluation of your note-taking abilities based on specific criteria. For more information on psychology note-taking assessment tools, check out our article on  psychology notes assessment tool .

Taking effective notes in psychology is an essential skill that can significantly enhance learning and professional development. By recognizing the importance of note-taking and striving for organized and comprehensive notes, psychologists and psychology students can unlock the full potential of their study materials and contribute to their success in the field.

Assessing Your Psychology Notes

To gauge the effectiveness of your psychology notes, it is important to have a reliable assessment tool in place. The  Psychology Note-Taking Assessment Rubric  is a valuable resource that can assist you in evaluating the quality and comprehensiveness of your notes. By utilizing this rubric, you can identify areas for improvement and enhance your note-taking skills.

Introducing the Psychology Note-Taking Assessment Rubric

The Psychology Note-Taking Assessment Rubric is a systematic approach to evaluate the content and structure of your psychology notes. It provides a framework for assessing various aspects of your note-taking process, ensuring that you have captured all the essential information accurately.

This assessment tool takes into account several key criteria, including the clarity and conciseness of your summaries, the accuracy and completeness of the information, the organization and structure of your notes, as well as your critical thinking and analysis skills.

Understanding the Criteria for Evaluation

The Psychology Note-Taking Assessment Rubric consists of the following criteria:

• Clear and Concise Summaries : This criterion assesses how well you have summarized the key concepts and ideas in your notes. It evaluates whether your summaries are concise, yet comprehensive enough to capture the main points.
• Accurate and Complete Information : This criterion examines the accuracy and completeness of the information in your notes. It assesses whether you have captured all the relevant details, including important theories, concepts, and supporting evidence.
• Organization and Structure : This criterion evaluates the organization and structure of your notes. It assesses whether your notes are well-structured, with clear headings, subheadings, and logical flow. It also considers the use of bullet points, numbering, or other formatting techniques to enhance readability.
• Critical Thinking and Analysis : This criterion focuses on your critical thinking and analytical skills demonstrated in your notes. It evaluates whether you have included your own reflections, interpretations, and connections to other concepts or theories. It also assesses the depth of your analysis and the ability to critically evaluate the information presented.

By using this rubric, you can objectively assess the quality of your psychology notes. The evaluation process will help you identify areas where improvement is needed, allowing you to refine your note-taking techniques and enhance your understanding of the subject matter.

Remember, effective note-taking is an ongoing process, and continuous evaluation and refinement of your notes are key to optimizing your learning experience.

Key Elements of Effective Psychology Note-Taking

When it comes to  effective psychology note-taking , there are several key elements that can greatly enhance your learning experience and retention of important information. By incorporating these elements into your note-taking strategy, you can create comprehensive and well-organized notes that serve as valuable study aids. The key elements include  clear and concise summaries ,  accurate and complete information ,  organization and structure , and  critical thinking and analysis .

Clear and Concise Summaries

One of the fundamental aspects of effective note-taking in psychology is the ability to create clear and concise summaries. This involves distilling complex concepts, theories, and research findings into succinct and easily understandable statements. By focusing on the most important points and main ideas, you can create concise summaries that capture the essence of the material. Using bullet points or numbered lists can help to structure and highlight key information within your notes.

Accurate and Complete Information

Accurate and complete information is crucial for effective psychology note-taking. It’s important to capture all the relevant details, including concepts, definitions, research studies, and supporting evidence. Ensuring the accuracy of your notes involves active listening and careful observation during lectures or when reading psychological texts. Be diligent in recording information accurately and avoid making assumptions or adding personal interpretations without proper grounding in the material.

To enhance accuracy, consider incorporating visual aids such as diagrams, charts, or tables to represent complex information. These visual representations can help you better understand and remember the material while providing a clear and concise reference within your notes.

Organization and Structure

Organizing your psychology notes in a logical and structured manner is essential for easy retrieval and comprehension. Consider using headings, subheadings, and bullet points to create a hierarchical structure that reflects the relationships between different concepts. This organizational approach helps to break down the material into manageable sections and facilitates quick navigation when reviewing your notes.

Additionally, consider using abbreviations, symbols, or color coding to further enhance the organization and visual clarity of your notes. These techniques can help you quickly locate specific information or identify important concepts during revision.

Critical Thinking and Analysis

Effective psychology note-taking goes beyond simple transcription of information. It involves engaging in critical thinking and analysis of the material. As you take notes, actively think about the implications and applications of the concepts being discussed. Consider asking questions, making connections to previous knowledge, and evaluating the strengths and limitations of the theories or research being presented.

By incorporating critical thinking and analysis into your note-taking process, you not only deepen your understanding of the material but also develop a more comprehensive and thoughtful set of notes that can serve as a valuable resource for future study and reflection.

By focusing on these key elements of effective psychology note-taking, you can optimize your learning experience and create a valuable resource for studying and revising. Remember to seek feedback and guidance from your instructors or peers to further improve your note-taking skills. For a comprehensive assessment tool to evaluate your psychology notes, check out our  psychology note-taking assessment rubric .

Strategies for Optimizing Your Psychology Notes

To make the most out of your psychology note-taking, it’s important to employ effective strategies that enhance comprehension and retention. Here are three key strategies to optimize your psychology notes:  active listening and engagement ,  utilizing effective note-taking techniques , and  reviewing and revising your notes .

Active Listening and Engagement

Active listening and engagement are essential components of successful note-taking in psychology. Actively participating in lectures, discussions, or therapy sessions allows you to fully immerse yourself in the material and better understand the concepts being presented.

To actively engage with the material, maintain a focused and attentive mindset. Ask questions, seek clarification, and participate in discussions to deepen your understanding. Actively listening also involves identifying and highlighting key points, important examples, and relevant case studies.

By actively engaging with the content, you’ll be better equipped to capture the key ideas and concepts in your notes, facilitating better recall and understanding later on. Remember to remain present and attentive throughout the session to maximize the effectiveness of your note-taking.

Utilizing Effective Note-Taking Techniques

The use of effective note-taking techniques is crucial for organizing and structuring your psychology notes. There are various techniques you can employ, such as the Cornell method, mind mapping, and the outline method. Experiment with different techniques to find the one that works best for you.

Regardless of the technique you choose, ensure that your notes are clear, concise, and well-structured. Break down complex concepts into smaller, digestible sections and use headings, subheadings, and bullet points to organize information. This helps to create a logical flow and makes it easier to review and revise your notes later on.

Consider incorporating visual aids, such as diagrams or charts, to supplement your written notes. Visual representations can enhance understanding and aid in memory recall. However, use visual aids sparingly and only when they truly enhance comprehension.

Reviewing and Revising Your Notes

Regularly reviewing and revising your psychology notes is crucial for solidifying your understanding and retaining the information long-term. Set aside dedicated time to go through your notes, preferably within 24 hours of the session to capitalize on the primacy effect.

During the review process, identify any gaps in your understanding and fill them by referring to textbooks, research articles, or reputable online resources. Summarize complex concepts in your own words, ensuring accuracy and clarity.

Revising your notes also involves periodically consolidating and condensing information. Identify overarching themes and connections between different topics to develop a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter. This process helps you to identify any areas that require further study and reinforces your learning.

By actively engaging with the material, utilizing effective note-taking techniques, and regularly reviewing and revising your notes, you can optimize your psychology note-taking experience. Remember, effective note-taking is not only about capturing information but also about actively engaging with the material and creating a resource that supports your learning and understanding.

Enhancing Your Psychology Note-Taking Skills

To take your psychology note-taking to the next level, it’s important to continuously improve and refine your skills. This section will explore three key strategies for enhancing your psychology note-taking:  seeking feedback and guidance ,  practicing reflective writing , and  incorporating visual aids and diagrams .

Seeking Feedback and Guidance

One effective way to improve your psychology note-taking skills is by seeking feedback and guidance from experts or experienced professionals in the field. This can be done through mentorship programs, workshops, or by engaging in discussions with colleagues or professors. By sharing your notes and receiving constructive feedback, you can gain valuable insights into areas where you can improve, such as organization, clarity, or critical analysis. Utilizing the knowledge and expertise of others can help you refine your note-taking techniques and ensure that you capture the most important information effectively.

Practicing Reflective Writing

Reflective writing is a powerful tool for enhancing your psychology note-taking skills. This technique involves taking time to review and analyze your notes after each study session or lecture. Reflective writing allows you to critically evaluate the information you have captured, identify any gaps or areas of confusion, and make connections between different concepts. By engaging in this reflective process, you can deepen your understanding of the material and improve your ability to synthesize and summarize complex information. Consider using a  psychology note-taking assessment rubric  or  evaluation tool  to guide your reflective writing process and ensure you are covering key aspects of effective note-taking.

Incorporating Visual Aids and Diagrams

Visual aids and diagrams can greatly enhance your psychology note-taking experience. Incorporating visual elements such as charts, graphs, or mind maps can help you organize and visualize complex information. These visual representations can facilitate understanding, aid in memory retention, and make it easier to review and revise your notes. Furthermore, visual aids can assist in identifying patterns, relationships, and connections between different concepts, which is particularly beneficial in psychology where topics often interrelate. Experiment with different visual techniques and tools to find the ones that work best for you. Consider using online resources or software that allow you to create and customize visual aids that suit your note-taking style.

By actively seeking feedback, practicing reflective writing, and incorporating visual aids and diagrams, you can enhance your psychology note-taking skills and optimize the effectiveness and efficiency of your study sessions. Remember to adapt these strategies to your own learning style and preferences. Continuously refining your note-taking approach will not only improve your understanding of psychology concepts, but also boost your academic performance and contribute to your overall success in the field.

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Supplement to Critical Thinking

How can one assess, for purposes of instruction or research, the degree to which a person possesses the dispositions, skills and knowledge of a critical thinker?

In psychometrics, assessment instruments are judged according to their validity and reliability.

Roughly speaking, an instrument is valid if it measures accurately what it purports to measure, given standard conditions. More precisely, the degree of validity is “the degree to which evidence and theory support the interpretations of test scores for proposed uses of tests” (American Educational Research Association 2014: 11). In other words, a test is not valid or invalid in itself. Rather, validity is a property of an interpretation of a given score on a given test for a specified use. Determining the degree of validity of such an interpretation requires collection and integration of the relevant evidence, which may be based on test content, test takers’ response processes, a test’s internal structure, relationship of test scores to other variables, and consequences of the interpretation (American Educational Research Association 2014: 13–21). Criterion-related evidence consists of correlations between scores on the test and performance on another test of the same construct; its weight depends on how well supported is the assumption that the other test can be used as a criterion. Content-related evidence is evidence that the test covers the full range of abilities that it claims to test. Construct-related evidence is evidence that a correct answer reflects good performance of the kind being measured and an incorrect answer reflects poor performance.

An instrument is reliable if it consistently produces the same result, whether across different forms of the same test (parallel-forms reliability), across different items (internal consistency), across different administrations to the same person (test-retest reliability), or across ratings of the same answer by different people (inter-rater reliability). Internal consistency should be expected only if the instrument purports to measure a single undifferentiated construct, and thus should not be expected of a test that measures a suite of critical thinking dispositions or critical thinking abilities, assuming that some people are better in some of the respects measured than in others (for example, very willing to inquire but rather closed-minded). Otherwise, reliability is a necessary but not a sufficient condition of validity; a standard example of a reliable instrument that is not valid is a bathroom scale that consistently under-reports a person’s weight.

Assessing dispositions is difficult if one uses a multiple-choice format with known adverse consequences of a low score. It is pretty easy to tell what answer to the question “How open-minded are you?” will get the highest score and to give that answer, even if one knows that the answer is incorrect. If an item probes less directly for a critical thinking disposition, for example by asking how often the test taker pays close attention to views with which the test taker disagrees, the answer may differ from reality because of self-deception or simple lack of awareness of one’s personal thinking style, and its interpretation is problematic, even if factor analysis enables one to identify a distinct factor measured by a group of questions that includes this one (Ennis 1996). Nevertheless, Facione, Sánchez, and Facione (1994) used this approach to develop the California Critical Thinking Dispositions Inventory (CCTDI). They began with 225 statements expressive of a disposition towards or away from critical thinking (using the long list of dispositions in Facione 1990a), validated the statements with talk-aloud and conversational strategies in focus groups to determine whether people in the target population understood the items in the way intended, administered a pilot version of the test with 150 items, and eliminated items that failed to discriminate among test takers or were inversely correlated with overall results or added little refinement to overall scores (Facione 2000). They used item analysis and factor analysis to group the measured dispositions into seven broad constructs: open-mindedness, analyticity, cognitive maturity, truth-seeking, systematicity, inquisitiveness, and self-confidence (Facione, Sánchez, and Facione 1994). The resulting test consists of 75 agree-disagree statements and takes 20 minutes to administer. A repeated disturbing finding is that North American students taking the test tend to score low on the truth-seeking sub-scale (on which a low score results from agreeing to such statements as the following: “To get people to agree with me I would give any reason that worked”. “Everyone always argues from their own self-interest, including me”. “If there are four reasons in favor and one against, I’ll go with the four”.) Development of the CCTDI made it possible to test whether good critical thinking abilities and good critical thinking dispositions go together, in which case it might be enough to teach one without the other. Facione (2000) reports that administration of the CCTDI and the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) to almost 8,000 post-secondary students in the United States revealed a statistically significant but weak correlation between total scores on the two tests, and also between paired sub-scores from the two tests. The implication is that both abilities and dispositions need to be taught, that one cannot expect improvement in one to bring with it improvement in the other.

A more direct way of assessing critical thinking dispositions would be to see what people do when put in a situation where the dispositions would reveal themselves. Ennis (1996) reports promising initial work with guided open-ended opportunities to give evidence of dispositions, but no standardized test seems to have emerged from this work. There are however standardized aspect-specific tests of critical thinking dispositions. The Critical Problem Solving Scale (Berman et al. 2001: 518) takes as a measure of the disposition to suspend judgment the number of distinct good aspects attributed to an option judged to be the worst among those generated by the test taker. Stanovich, West and Toplak (2011: 800–810) list tests developed by cognitive psychologists of the following dispositions: resistance to miserly information processing, resistance to myside thinking, absence of irrelevant context effects in decision-making, actively open-minded thinking, valuing reason and truth, tendency to seek information, objective reasoning style, tendency to seek consistency, sense of self-efficacy, prudent discounting of the future, self-control skills, and emotional regulation.

It is easier to measure critical thinking skills or abilities than to measure dispositions. The following eight currently available standardized tests purport to measure them: the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (Watson & Glaser 1980a, 1980b, 1994), the Cornell Critical Thinking Tests Level X and Level Z (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005), the Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test (Ennis & Weir 1985), the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (Facione 1990b, 1992), the Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment (Halpern 2016), the Critical Thinking Assessment Test (Center for Assessment & Improvement of Learning 2017), the Collegiate Learning Assessment (Council for Aid to Education 2017), the HEIghten Critical Thinking Assessment (https://territorium.com/heighten/), and a suite of critical thinking assessments for different groups and purposes offered by Insight Assessment (https://www.insightassessment.com/products). The Critical Thinking Assessment Test (CAT) is unique among them in being designed for use by college faculty to help them improve their development of students’ critical thinking skills (Haynes et al. 2015; Haynes & Stein 2021). Also, for some years the United Kingdom body OCR (Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations) awarded AS and A Level certificates in critical thinking on the basis of an examination (OCR 2011). Many of these standardized tests have received scholarly evaluations at the hands of, among others, Ennis (1958), McPeck (1981), Norris and Ennis (1989), Fisher and Scriven (1997), Possin (2008, 2013a, 2013b, 2013c, 2014, 2020) and Hatcher and Possin (2021). Their evaluations provide a useful set of criteria that such tests ideally should meet, as does the description by Ennis (1984) of problems in testing for competence in critical thinking: the soundness of multiple-choice items, the clarity and soundness of instructions to test takers, the information and mental processing used in selecting an answer to a multiple-choice item, the role of background beliefs and ideological commitments in selecting an answer to a multiple-choice item, the tenability of a test’s underlying conception of critical thinking and its component abilities, the set of abilities that the test manual claims are covered by the test, the extent to which the test actually covers these abilities, the appropriateness of the weighting given to various abilities in the scoring system, the accuracy and intellectual honesty of the test manual, the interest of the test to the target population of test takers, the scope for guessing, the scope for choosing a keyed answer by being test-wise, precautions against cheating in the administration of the test, clarity and soundness of materials for training essay graders, inter-rater reliability in grading essays, and clarity and soundness of advance guidance to test takers on what is required in an essay. Rear (2019) has challenged the use of standardized tests of critical thinking as a way to measure educational outcomes, on the grounds that  they (1) fail to take into account disputes about conceptions of critical thinking, (2) are not completely valid or reliable, and (3) fail to evaluate skills used in real academic tasks. He proposes instead assessments based on discipline-specific content.

There are also aspect-specific standardized tests of critical thinking abilities. Stanovich, West and Toplak (2011: 800–810) list tests of probabilistic reasoning, insights into qualitative decision theory, knowledge of scientific reasoning, knowledge of rules of logical consistency and validity, and economic thinking. They also list instruments that probe for irrational thinking, such as superstitious thinking, belief in the superiority of intuition, over-reliance on folk wisdom and folk psychology, belief in “special” expertise, financial misconceptions, overestimation of one’s introspective powers, dysfunctional beliefs, and a notion of self that encourages egocentric processing. They regard these tests along with the previously mentioned tests of critical thinking dispositions as the building blocks for a comprehensive test of rationality, whose development (they write) may be logistically difficult and would require millions of dollars.

A superb example of assessment of an aspect of critical thinking ability is the Test on Appraising Observations (Norris & King 1983, 1985, 1990a, 1990b), which was designed for classroom administration to senior high school students. The test focuses entirely on the ability to appraise observation statements and in particular on the ability to determine in a specified context which of two statements there is more reason to believe. According to the test manual (Norris & King 1985, 1990b), a person’s score on the multiple-choice version of the test, which is the number of items that are answered correctly, can justifiably be given either a criterion-referenced or a norm-referenced interpretation.

On a criterion-referenced interpretation, those who do well on the test have a firm grasp of the principles for appraising observation statements, and those who do poorly have a weak grasp of them. This interpretation can be justified by the content of the test and the way it was developed, which incorporated a method of controlling for background beliefs articulated and defended by Norris (1985). Norris and King synthesized from judicial practice, psychological research and common-sense psychology 31 principles for appraising observation statements, in the form of empirical generalizations about tendencies, such as the principle that observation statements tend to be more believable than inferences based on them (Norris & King 1984). They constructed items in which exactly one of the 31 principles determined which of two statements was more believable. Using a carefully constructed protocol, they interviewed about 100 students who responded to these items in order to determine the thinking that led them to choose the answers they did (Norris & King 1984). In several iterations of the test, they adjusted items so that selection of the correct answer generally reflected good thinking and selection of an incorrect answer reflected poor thinking. Thus they have good evidence that good performance on the test is due to good thinking about observation statements and that poor performance is due to poor thinking about observation statements. Collectively, the 50 items on the final version of the test require application of 29 of the 31 principles for appraising observation statements, with 13 principles tested by one item, 12 by two items, three by three items, and one by four items. Thus there is comprehensive coverage of the principles for appraising observation statements. Fisher and Scriven (1997: 135–136) judge the items to be well worked and sound, with one exception. The test is clearly written at a grade 6 reading level, meaning that poor performance cannot be attributed to difficulties in reading comprehension by the intended adolescent test takers. The stories that frame the items are realistic, and are engaging enough to stimulate test takers’ interest. Thus the most plausible explanation of a given score on the test is that it reflects roughly the degree to which the test taker can apply principles for appraising observations in real situations. In other words, there is good justification of the proposed interpretation that those who do well on the test have a firm grasp of the principles for appraising observation statements and those who do poorly have a weak grasp of them.

To get norms for performance on the test, Norris and King arranged for seven groups of high school students in different types of communities and with different levels of academic ability to take the test. The test manual includes percentiles, means, and standard deviations for each of these seven groups. These norms allow teachers to compare the performance of their class on the test to that of a similar group of students.

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