ABSTRACTS The purposes of this paper are to examine whether utilizing the Cornell note-taking method has a positive impact on the British Culture and Society learning of 2nd –year studen
INTRODUCTION
Rationale for the study
Most subjects at universities now are being represented in classes through lectures that are long and include a variety of knowledge, and it is fact that the teachers then always require the pervasiveness of lecture from their students That is reason why I need to create high quality notes that help students to attain better comprehension and better review However, note- taking is a complex skill that needs the combination of comprehension and notes production; furthermore, this complicated process is dependent much upon working memory So now, there is a well-organized note-taking method
- the Cornell note-taking, implemented popularly in the world’s universities and is demonstrated to help students overcome many of the difficulties of lecture learning and note-taking
British culture is one of the most difficult subjects for 2 nd students to learn because it consists of too much information to remember and require the deep understanding from lectures to take its exam At the end of the term, many students were in desperate for getting a very low score at this subject The researcher hopes to improve the situation by trying on implementing the Cornell note-taking method on learning the British culture subject
Therefore, I make decision on choosing the research topic: “A study on implementing the Cornell note-taking method in learning the British culture and society subject of the second-year students at a university in Hanoi.”
99% of college students record their notes (Kenneth A Kiewra, 2002, p
72), and note-taking is a popular method used by and demanded from students
A consistent format aids learners in the note-taking process Format also helps
2 organization of notes which benefits students when they use their notes for review Consequently, the researcher wants to gather meaningful information that has potential to improve students’ note-taking and study skills in order to more effectively support them become independent, autonomous and successful learners
The utilization of the Cornell note-taking system eliminated unorganized traditional note-taking methods and created a more organized, user-friendly tool for learners to use for study As a result, students are willing to perform at their full possibility rather than feeling frustrated and overwhelmed Pauk (1997) indicated that higher performance gives rise to best overall academic scores The findings and conclusions drawn from this study are intended to contribute knowledge in the field regarding effective note-taking and recall process for potential boosted achievement, as well as to offer data that may support inform future teaching practice in universities This study is hoped to be helpful to second-year students in SOFL who are studying British Culture and Society subject in this semester Hence, the researchers will provide the importance of note-taking in processing, recording, and studying content area information more effectively and independently in the subject.
Aims of the study
This study set out to examine whether utilizing the Cornell note-taking method has a positive impact on the British Culture and Society learning of
2 nd –year students at SOFL.
Methodology
The research question guiding the study was “How does the use of the Cornell note -taking method impact on learning the British Culture and Society of the second –year students at SOFL?”
The researcher decided to choose action approach to guide the research; which means the findings of the research will be drawn out after collecting, measuring and analyzing numerical data In this way, the researcher serves as an instrument to gather statistical data from a lot of different sources to resolve the research question In this study, questionnaires are used as main data collection methods The former is expected to collect respondents’ assessment of the Cornell note-taking method while the latter is believed to bring the most objective data for evaluating participants’ achievement.
Design of the research
The research consists of three main parts:
Part A Introduction presents rationale, objective, methodology and organization of the research
Literature Review discusses the theoretical basis of the study including prominent theories of note taking in general and the Cornell note taking method in particular Furthermore, there is another part representing the overview of the British Culture and Society subject and difficulties for students during learning it
The chapter deals with the research development in-depth, including the research approach, participants and data collection methods employed with clear explanation and description
The collected data is analyzed in this part
This part is in charge of interpreting and discussing the findings basing on the data analysis Additionally, the researcher makes connections to other findings from previous research
In this part, the whole study is recapitulated through the main points The recommendations for taking Cornell notes and using them as learning materials for reviewing and testing efficiently are then mentioned Besides, the researcher also recommends some relevant topics in the research field for further research
LITERATURE REVIEW
Definition of note-taking
According to Piolat, Olive & Kellogg (2004), on theory in a cognitive psychology, note-taking is an information management, an aspect of a complex human behavior that involves the coordination of underlying mental processes and their interactions with other cognitive functions, or it is the human’s information processing which consists of three stages (Lieberman,
2000) At the beginning, a memory is created when the sensory memory obtains information from the outside and converts it into a compatible format through the transduction process (Huitt, 2003) However, due to the momentariness of a sensory memory, the information needs to be stimulating to the individual or recalling a stored pattern in the brain; or else it will not move on the next stage - the short-term memory The sensory memory may be conveyed to the short term memory, also known as the working memory, which “is a kind of mental workbench where the author assembles information and then work on this information” for specific purposes (Lieberman 2000), at the second stage (Orey, 2001) Then, if there is no hindrance, In the last stage, the memory may move into long term memory if there is no hindrance
In practical terms, note-taking can be conceptualized as an activity that requires note-takers to gain and filter the incoming inputs, arrange and reorganize existing knowledge and, above all, they must store and incorporate the newly processed material The product of these cognitive processes is the remarkable information jotted down in a comprehensible manner
2.1.1 Roles of note taking in learning
One of the principal purposes of note-taking is retention of knowledge for lifelong learning and for assessment Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock
(2001) stated that notes “provide students with tools for identifying and understanding the most important aspects of what they are learning” Titsworth (2001) gave the same point of view that students who take notes habitually retain more information than those who do not Indeed, students retain knowledge better when they create materials by themselves rather than given documents such as slides and visual aids because they have intention of recalling noted items greater than non-noted items
Another role of note-taking is increasing academic achievement (Boyle, 2007; Boyle, 2010; Kiewra & Benton, 1988) Kiewra (1991) carried out a survey on two groups of students one of which wrote their own notes and used them for review (encoding and storage group) and the other studied notes that were handed (storage only group), and he then jumped to conclusion that the former group recalled more and accomplished better on assessments
Indeed, while adding details to their notes by themselves, students will find the course content more profound (Boyle, 2007; Boyle, 2010) because they are better able to identify the main points of the lecture Furthermore, notes serve as a summary of the lesson for later review, so if students spend time revising their notes typically; their achievements are certainly higher than those who do not
In conclusion, by taking notes properly, students can not only retain the lecture information at a longer and deeper level, but also get better comprehending and better results on assessment However, to become a successful note-taker with an effective collection of notes, students need to have good working memory that is mentioned in the following part This requires formal training, which can be provided in a specific course or integrated in an academic course The latter is used in this study
2.1.2 Factors that make note-taking challenging
One of the key contributing factors to effective note-taking is the note- taker’s working memory Piolat, Olive, & Kellogg (2004) suggested that working memory is mostly responsible for conjoining comprehension with notes production, a complex process in note-taking It is also explained clearer that working memory helps to “acquire, mentally represent, select and understand” (Makany, Kemp, & Dror, 2009) the new inputs while making connections with previous knowledge Despite understanding the importance of working memory, many students fail to control it, and then fail to take notes successfully just because while listening to a lecture, they are unable to hold the crucial information long enough in working memory until they can write all it down
Equalizing the writing and listening attempt simultaneously and deciding significant objects to note (Boyle, 2010) are other difficulties Konrad et al., (2009) also indicated that it is problematic to listen, write and select all important information immediately That explains why many students write everything shown on the blackboard or screen with the thought that they are all necessary (Baker & Lombardi, 1985), or only copy instinctively what is seen or heard, not resulting in comprehension (Piolat et al.,
2004) To change these situations, students should focus on lecture and create effective notes with the essential items or main points in a systematic way, then add details to them
Additionally, another reason for students’ note-taking failure is due to the imbalance between the writing speed and the lecture speed (Makany, Kemp, Dror, 2009; Piolat et al., 2004), meaning instructor’s speaking speed at a faster pace than students are able to take note This causes a problem that students have not remembered what lecturer said and been enough time to
8 write it down before the instructor is moving on to the next topic
As stated before, note-taking is a learned skill and students need training in how to take notes effectively In the literature, there are different models of note-taking training, in this study, the Cornell’s model (Faber et al., 2000) is adopted, which guides how note-taking in integrated in the British Culture and Society academic course What follows is a brief description of this model Cornell note taking method
The Cornell Note was first developed by Walter Pauk at Cornell University in the 1950s Walter Paul was known as an Emeritus Professor with the title “one of the most influential professors in the field of developmental education and study skills” (Kerstiens, 1998) The Cornel method has been introduced in his best-selling book “How to study in college” At the beginning, the Cornell note taking technique has been designed to help students at Cornell University form the habit of taking note and facilitate it; however, after that, this method has rapidly gained its’ reputation across the United States
2.1.3 The Cornell note taking format
Faber et al., (2000) introduced a Cornell note format separated into three parts: cue column, note-taking area, and summaries (as shown in the figure)
In the cue column, the left column by one third of the page, its’ blank space is kept empty during students are taking notes in class, and only filled in until after class when they abridge their jottings as key words and questions to retrieve information from memory According to Pauk (2001), this column serves as a material for the review process; he added that the process of writing the questions in the cue column “helps clarify meanings, reveal relationships, establish continuity, and strengthen memory”
The second part on the right column by two thirds of the page, note- taking area, is the space where students write the lecture down as fully and as
9 meaningfully as possible Pauk (2001) remarked that this area is used to catch
“the lecturer’s ideas and facts” during the lecture
Bottom of the page in a two-inch space is the part for a brief summarization in which students shorten your notes in one or two main point(s) Mentioning to the role of the summarizing part, Pauk, (2001) indicated that the summary helps to make course meanings and review easier and clearer
In generally, the Cornel format is displayed in a well-organized and scientific manner, which is very helpful for students to take note and review, and so can improve their comprehension and achievement
Figure 2.1 Cornel Note-Taking Format
2.1.4 Suggestions for taking and using Cornel notes successfully
Summary
This chapter has thoroughly dealt with the basic theoretical frameworks of note-taking in general and of the Cornell note-taking method in particular
In the theory of note-taking, definitions, roles and difficulties in note-taking are logically represented on the basic of much other note-taking research that has been conducted by famous researchers and educationists In the writing of the Cornell note taking system, every aspect of the method has been mentioned including origin, format and techniques for taking and using Cornell notes successfully; especially, the effectiveness of the Cornell system has been demonstrated through data collected from previous research all of which serves as the mainly theoretical base for this whole study
Besides, the literature review also analyzes problems that make British Culture and Society become one of the most challenging subjects for SOFL second- year students From this analysis, the researchers are inspired to choose the topic: the implementation of the Cornell note-taking method in learning British Culture and Society, which is expected to bring positive results in improving this difficult situation
In the next chapter, the methodology of this research that includes the context research, deeply-analyzed research approaches and data -collecting methods will be discussed detailed
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Action Research
The two objectives of the action research approach are action and research Action learning, contextual action research, collaborative inquiry, and participatory research are some other names for it In recent years, a number of definitions for action research have been put proposed
According to Kemmis and MacTaggart, they indicated action research as “teacher – initiated classroom research that seeks to increase teacher understanding of classroom teaching and learning, resulting in improvement in classroom practices.”
According to Wallace (1999), he comprises collection and analysis pertaining to certain facets of our professional practice This is carried out so that we consider our conclusions and apply them to our work This is where it varies from more conventional research designs that focus on universal truths Formal research and professional development connect with action research, and for some practical teachers, action research can operate as a link between the two The goal is not to turn the teacher into a researcher, but rather to support the teacher in becoming a better teacher, and action research is a tool to help with this (Wallace, 1999)
In Mills’ (2003) theory, action research is any systematic inquiry carried out by teacher researchers, principals, school counselors, or other stakeholders in the teaching/ learning environment to gather information about how their specific schools operate, how they teach, and how well their students learn Teachers look for ways to make their profession better by investigating concerns or issues they come across, thinking about these topics, gathering and evaluating data, and making adjustments in response to their conclusions
No matter how many ways one defines it, the aim of action research is to find "problematic" problems that participants want to learn more about and then work through real-world solutions to implement well-informed improvements in practice Every teacher ought to do it whenever it's feasible.
Why Action Research is used in this study
This study is designed with action research for some following reasons: First, it can result in a precise and quick outcome that is immediately applicable to practice inside the teacher's own setting To put it another way, action research is highly timely since it can be conducted anytime the researcher needs to, yield quick results, and address issues raised by teachers The value of action research is evident to a teacher or group of instructors who wish to learn more about particular techniques that can be useful for classroom improvement To put their suggestions for creating a better classroom into practice, they carry out action research They won't quit undertaking the action study if they find particular patterns
However, they will consider the findings of the investigation and carry out any further development efforts The research's conclusions are crucial for advancement in the future
Second, the "findings" of this kind of research might be mostly narrow Since it is not stated that the methods are relevant to all situations, they might be more adaptable than those employed in conventional research In particular, action research seeks to address a real-world issue in a particular educational context; that is, teacher researchers are investigating a useful topic that will advance education Moreover, teacher researchers carry out action research in response to their own circumstances rather than in response to other people's methods
1 Action research is a research approach that belongs to the umbrella term of teacher research It is initiated and conducted by teachers themselves in an attempt to improve practice and to gain understanding of the practice It involves action and research of the impact of the action taken on students’ learning Therefore, action research is context-specific and generation is not the aim of the research
2 This study was conducted by the teacher, who is also the researcher, its aims is to set out to examine whether utilizing the Cornell note- taking method has a positive impact on the British Culture and Society learning of 2 nd –year students at SOFL
Four classes (approximately 25 students each class) out of 7 British Culture and Society classes at SOFL, HUST were randomly selected to do surveys There was the total number of 100 participants at the age of 19-
20 They were second-year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, had intermediate level in English and were taking a course in British Culture and Society.
Research Procedures
British Culture and Society and difficulties in learning it
The British culture and Society course is a (three) -credit course at HUST University It is delivered to the second-year students The overall of the course is to help the students enhance their understanding about the subject by implanting the Cornell note-taking By the end of the course, the students are expected to achieve better lecture comprehension in the British Culture and Society as well as in other subjects; in this way, they can also boost their own academic assessments The required materials for the course are/is implementing the Cornell note-taking method in learning the British
16 culture and society subject of the second-year students at a university in Hanoi For the course content, see Appendix A
It is undeniable that British Culture and Society is one of the toughest subjects for the second-year students at School of Foreign Languages As being students who experienced of this subject, I have coped with a ton of troubles Besides, I have heard that many sophomores complained about their no orientations for absorbing this subject effectively because of a massive amount of knowledge
It is noted that “it is often difficult to acquire the basic knowledge on which the debates are founded without carrying out extensive research” (David, 2015) In the other words, proper methods and techniques have not been applied to improve how to learn quickly and scientifically As a result, this subject put student at a large number of drawbacks in both making new lesson ready at home and learning in class
In terms of preparing lesson at home, it can be seen that the major difficulty lies on text books which are full of new words, numbers, and complicated sentence structures with terrible length In addition, it is the intensive and extensive knowledge in this book, as well as the cultural differences between a Western country and an Eastern country that makes students confused The result is that they cannot remember information, or not understand thoroughly
In the aspect of class, it is obvious that if you do not prepare the next lesson before, you will not comprehend effectively Another reason that makes you not perceive new knowledge is lack of time Normally, a lesson in Vietnam lasts 45 minutes and a lesson in British Culture and Society is about
1 hour 20 minutes which is not enough for lecturers to transmit all of the information Moreover, the traditional noting down system which the
17 lecturers talk and the students write down is completely ineffective because at the end of lesson, students cannot summarize what they have learned in class by just listing all individual ideas on papers It is such a waste of time when students continue to keep this boring system
Although students have to encounter with difficulties in learning this subject, it still brings us a great deal of useful knowledge After this course, students will definitely have an excellent understanding of social life aspects in Britain such as history, geography, culture, education and political system This awareness can help to describe and illustrate a perfectly comprehensive picture about a either strange or familiar country Through grasping information of this subject, students can link the British historical events or socio-cultural features to those in Vietnam Therefore, students can simultaneously explore the similarities and differences between two countries and enhance their own comprehension
Owing to these reasons, I decide to introduce a new method called Cornell note- taking method that can assist students to learn British Culture and Society By implementing this method, I want to achieve the goal that students may organize and recall briefly and scientifically what they have learned in class as well as at home, and then can improve their academic performances in learning British Culture and Society
How students apply the Cornell note-taking method in the study of British Culture and Society
Implementing the Cornell note-taking method in the study of British Culture and Society at Hust University involves adapting the technique to suit the specific content and learning objectives of the course Students can apply the Cornell method as followings:
Prepare Cornell Note-Taking Templates: Before lectures or reading assignments, students can create Cornell note-taking templates tailored to the study of British Culture and Society This involves dividing their note-taking pages into three sections: a narrow left-hand column for cues or questions, a larger right-hand column for main notes, and a section at the bottom for summarizing key concepts
Active Engagement During Lectures: During lectures, students should actively engage with the material by listening attentively to the instructor's explanations, participating in discussions, and critically analyzing the content
As they listen, they can use the main note-taking section to jot down key points, significant dates, influential figures, and major events related to British culture and society
Formulate Questions and Cues: In the left-hand column, students can formulate questions, prompts, or cues based on the material being presented These cues can help students to identify key concepts, make connections between different topics, and stimulate critical thinking For example, if the lecture discusses the impact of the Industrial Revolution on British society, a cue might be "What were the social consequences of industrialization?"
Summarize Key Concepts: At the bottom of each page or at the end of the lecture, students should summarize the main ideas and concepts covered This summary should capture the overarching themes of the lecture and highlight key takeaways related to British culture and society Students can use their own words to condense complex information and ensure comprehension
Review and Revise Notes: After the lecture, students should review and revise their Cornell notes regularly They can use the cues in the left-hand column to prompt recall of main points and test their understanding of the
19 material Additionally, reviewing the summaries at the bottom of the page helps reinforce learning and aids in retention
In a research study examining the effectiveness of implementing the Cornell note-taking method in the study of British Culture and Society at Hust University, the duration of data collection for student samples is a crucial aspect to consider The research design would likely involve assessing the impact of the Cornell method on students' learning outcomes, comprehension of course material, and retention of key concepts over a specified period
To gather comprehensive data, researchers may opt for a longitudinal approach, spanning multiple weeks or months of the academic semester This extended timeframe allows for the observation of how students' note-taking habits evolve over time and how the Cornell method influences their learning experiences throughout the course By collecting data at various intervals, researchers can assess both short-term and long-term effects of the intervention on student learning and academic performance
DATA ANALYSIS
Data from the first questionnaire
Though it is widely known that a questionnaire is a data- collecting tool of research used to directly collect number data, questionnaires in the survey include not only number data but also factual information such as opinions and attitudes However, this information would be translated into numbers and presented in a way that communicates the most important findings
It should be noted again that the total sample size is N0, which included participants from 4 British Culture and Society classes In terms of experiences in taking note, 97% of respondents answered that they have ever taken note in classes However when being asked to self-rate the effectiveness of their current note-taking method, 63% of the students sampled chose
“Dissatisfied”, 21% for “Neutral”, 12% for “Very dissatisfied” , only 4% (equivalent to 2 students) for “Satisfied”, and no one felt “Very satisfied”(See Figure1)
Figure 4.1 Ratings of satisfaction for existing note-taking methods Most of the respondents (77%) supposed that a large amount of subject knowledge and no effective learning methods are the biggest difficulties in learning the British Culture The former is an irrefutable reason which there is no way but to study hard The researcher only focuses on the latter which is closely associated with this research That is the reason why the question of methods students are applying for learning the British Culture and Society and its effectiveness is given As for the question, there are only 5.5% of respondents applying some methods such as mind- map, flow charts and Cornell to learn the subject and see their effects, 37% applying some method but not see effective, and 57.5% respondents not applying any method to learn
There are only 14% respondents who have ever known the Cornell- note-taking method; the rest answered that it was the first time they heard this method However, notably, majority of the respondents (92%) ticked “Yes” in the question of whether they want to experiment the Cornell note- taking method in learning the British Culture and Society or not, and only 8% of the
Dissatisfied Neutral Satisfied Very satisfied
To sum up, through the questionnaire, the researcher collected a large amount of useful information from the respondents, which specially showed that most of them are getting trouble with British Culture and Society and have yet found out an appropriate learning method Above all, respondents are willing to try the Cornell note-taking method in learning this subject with the hope that the method could make a big change in their academic results.
Data from the second questionnaire
After carrying out the questionnaire that aimed to examine the impacts of the Cornell-note taking method on students’ comprehension, accuracy and memory, the researcher conducted the second questionnaire to collect students’ evaluation of the effectiveness of the Cornell-note taking on their British Culture and Society learning In this way, the researcher could collect subjective opinions of participants which combined with objective analysis of researcher to address the research question
After having tried the Cornell note- taking method, participants were offered to give an assessment of the impact of using this method in a pictorial form of quality rating: Very good; Good; Moderate; Poor; Very Poor (see figure4) The largest percentage of respondents is found in the “Moderate” item, with 69% while the two lowest proportion rates “Very good” and “Very poor” are 5% and 4% respectively 13% of respondents rated “Good” and 9% for “Poor”
Figure 4.2 Assessment of the impact of using of the Cornell-note-taking method Next, the participants were allowed to review their Cornell notes, and then self-rated of their own note-taking performance in terms of percentages of how well their Cornell notes covered the lecture The Cornell notes could cover “30%-45%” of lecture content, which is the common statement of 36% of respondents; meanwhile, 26% of respondents selected the item of covering
“25%-30%” of lecture content There are 15% of the respondents choosing
“20%-25%” and 10% of the respondents for “15%-20%” The two lowest proportions belong to the item “5%-10%” and “1%-5%”, with 12% and 11% respectively
As for the effectiveness of the Cornell method in improving lecture comprehension, respondents were asked to rate how many percentage the Cornell note-taking method helped to increase their lecture comprehension There is no respondent selecting percentages from 20%-100% A very high proportion of respondents (58%) chose the item “1%-5%”, followed by 27% of the respondents rating “5%-10%” The item “10%-15%” takes up to a very
Very good Good Moderate Poor Very poor
28 small proportion, with only 9% of the respondents Notably, the number of respondents that thought the Cornell method had no impacts on their lecture comprehension is up to 6%
To address the effects of the Cornell method on participants’ memory of lecture content, the researcher gave a question of how many percentages of the lecture participants could memorize after class The same as the question of comprehension above, in this question, no one chose the item that showed
“20%-100%” of the lecture content Most of the respondents (51%) thought that the effects were moderate, which helped them memorize only “5%-10%” of the lecture content Meanwhile, the item “1%-5%” takes up to a quite large proportion, with 39% of the respondents, and the item “10-15%” has a quite large number of respondents, with 10% It is remarkable that there is no one selecting “0%” in the question, which indicated the difference in participants’ perceptions of memory and comprehension
Although the results from the and questionnaires suggested that the participants did not achieve the expressive effects on their lecture comprehension and memory, most of them still showed their positive assessment of this method As they gained experience from taking notes, 85% of the respondents ticked “Yes” when being asked whether Cornell notes would be more useful and easier for review, and 91% of the respondents selected “Yes” for the question of whether they continued to use this method in the other subjects.
Summary
In conclusion, by utilizing the questionnaire to collect data, the researcher obtained data that were objective, reliable and accurate; furthermore, these data were quantifiable, easy to understand results and helpful in dealing with the research question Especially, throughout results of
29 questionnaires, they played an important role in obtaining actual experiences of students about implementing the Cornell note-taking method, which helped the researcher jump to the most objective conclusions, so address the research question the most properly In general, the data that were displayed and analyzed mathematically in this chapter will be represented into main findings in the next chapter
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
Interpretation of findings
In this part, the research question guiding the research should be reminded, i.e “How does the use of the Cornell note-taking method have an impact on learning British Culture and Society subject of the second-year students at SOFL?” To address this research question, the researcher used questionnaire to collect subjective assessments of participants First, regarding data from sessions, these data suggested the score difference of 100 participants Notably, that in the first session, participants had no awareness of implementing the Cornell note-taking method; instead, they were free to select the note-taking method for recording the lecture After finishing the lecture, they took the second one with their own material In contrast, in the later session, participants were introduced to the Cornell note- taking method and guided to use it during lecture After the lecture, they took with their Cornell notes
Participants performed on all three tasks which indicated that the Cornell note-taking method actually helped them understand and remember
31 information of the lecture better Next, 50% students claimed that using Note- taking makes them feel easier to review before exams and encourages students to engage more actively in class The others ticked the note helps them reduce their stress when studying and increases their overall academic performance 5 On a scale of 1 to 5, the researcher asked “How would you rate the overall impact of Cornell Notes on your academic performance?” and the participants answered “Neutral”.
After taking questionnaires which showed that a small proportion of participants appreciated the effect of the Cornell note-taking on their memory and comprehension Though the ratio was still moderate, the researcher could jump at a conclusion that the Cornell note-taking method had substantially increased lecture comprehension and memory of participants in learning British Culture and Society Therefore, the research question is addressed through the action approach and data collection methods used.
Discussion- Implications of the Cornell notes for lecture comprehension
Comparing results sessions showed that participants got a better understanding of lecture (i.e after using the Cornell note-taking method), but the effect was unclear as the score difference was not significant However, more or less, the Cornell method also had a positive impact on participants’ comprehension, which was identical to the finding of Donohoo (2010) Particularly, according to Donohoo (2010), after implementing the Cornell Note-taking method, students in science courses had understood the lecture better; as a result, they got a 10-12% higher average score than students in the previous semester not using this method
Besides, the Cornell method could increase comprehension and achievement also appeared in the statement of Fisher, Frey, & Lapp (2009) The finding contributed to build a strong foundation for “Western” (a pseudonym) High School to determine a course of action for improvements, including a plan to teach all students the Cornell note-taking system It was believed that students who were taught the Cornell method had significantly better scores than the students who were not taught this method (Faber et al.,
In general, improving lecture comprehension was one of the irrefutable implications of the Cornell note-taking that was proved through a lot of previous research; however, in the study, it was still not significant The researcher found out some reasons for this moderate improvement as follow: First, due to different learning styles, many of the students would learn in a different way For example, auditory students may have been distracted by the visual requirement of note taking while visual learners may not have gained much from the audio portions of note-taking Second, it may be that participants were not acquainted to using the note-taking regularly; consequently, they wrote down unnecessary words for understanding the message of the lecture Additionally, many students recorded lecture content that were incorrect and could not credit for that information While being jotted down too many words, they tended to record a lot of irrelevant information, instead of key main ideas Therefore, as stated earlier, note- taking by itself is not easy, and it is certainly a learning skill that requires students to do their own best with a significant amount of attention and effort
The finding drawn out from the Chapter 3- Data analysis showed that besides improving lecture comprehension, the Cornell note-taking method
33 also increased participants’ ability to remember the lecture content It was stated from the beginning parts of the research that one of the functional objectives of the Cornell note-taking was to provide organized notes for studying and reviewing, so it was understandable when participants could increase their ability to memorize the lecture content
Besides identical reasons mentioned above, there were other reasons for the modest memorizing improvement As known that all participants did take Cornell-formatted notes on the session, but there was no way to know if students were actually using the notes for study purposes or not In fact, if participants were not using the Cornell notes for reviewing, they could not achieve the high results in Task3- Memory Furthermore, it was difficult to make all participants cooperative and use notes as required since frequently, they lack interest and motivation to learn the historical or geographic characteristics of Britain having no much relevance to their modern society It is difficult for them to simultaneously combine new and unfamiliar information with a new strategy This could have affected the effect of the Cornell notes on participants’ achievement
In conclusion, there were the visible implications of the Cornell note- taking method for comprehending and memorizing the lectures in the British culture and Society subject gained from process of analyzing data, but the implication was not really significant Though, throughout questionnaire, the researcher found that there was still some participant who commented positively on the clear and well-structured format in the Cornell note-taking method, and majority of the participants were willing to engage in using the
Cornell note-taking method in other subjects Hopefully, future investigations may minimize lack of students’ motivation on some type of incentive or external motivator
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusion
The researcher conducted this study with aim of examining if second- year students could achieve more positive results on learning the British Culture and Society subject after using a simple tool like the Cornell note- taking method or not Furthermore, the researcher hoped to see not only the positive result but also a significant enhancement in students’ British Culture and Society learning achievement at the end of the study In general, the objective and the question of the research were actually resolved after the research has completed though the results of the research were not good as expected
Questionnaires indicated participants’ reviews of the Cornell note- taking method Most of participants appreciated the clearance and organization of the method and were still willing to use the method in the future This showed a positive sign that could inspire the researchers to carry out further relevant research
The research has been completed in a quite short period of time, i.e 2 months and a half; but above all, the researcher still managed to deal with the research question in a most detailed and thoroughly way Throughout the research, the researchers’ broads their mind on the effectiveness of the Cornell note-taking method, which is commonly used in the world’s celebrated universities However, there were some unavoidable troubles during conducting the research such as time limit of the research, a dearth of reliable references and especially knowledge limitations of the researcher The trouble did not stop there when the researcher encountered with a fact that the results of the research might not bear a high generalization because it
35 was experimentally conducted on a sample of only 100 students at SOFL, HUST But anyway, there has always limitations for the beginning research; the further relevant research will be conducted more deeply and more comprehensively Hopefully, many other researchers will be inspired to develop the further research of employing the Cornell note-taking method on learning the British Culture and Society in particular and on other subjects in general, which makes a significant contribution to increasing the learning quality of SOFL.
Recommendations
In the penultimate section of the research, the researchers will suggest useful information which supports students to taking notes efficiently in the British Culture and Society subject in particular and in other subjects in general
Followings are suggestions for an efficient note-taking process which the researcher draw out from the practical experiences as well as capture some ideas from empirical research These suggestions are represented in time order (before class, during class and after class), as follow:
Students should read assigned textbooks and materials related to the topic as well as prepare essential tools for listening and recording such as a packet of notes, pens and highlighters The preparation will help them ready for the class hour as well as identify if there are questions, they might need to ask the lecturer
Sitting near the teacher helps students to hear clearly and avoid distraction or sleepiness It should be marked that during the lesson, students should pay attention to cues and emphasized information from the lecturer to
36 take notes, but not write down every single word spoken or everything on blackboard For example, lecturers often give word signals about what is important: “write this down, it’s important!” or repeat or emphasize notable things through tone of voice and body language Besides, students should make notes on their own words as that helps them to actively think about lecture content and may facilitate retrieval of data from lectures or texts There are strategies for efficient note-taking students should follow to keep their notes brief, accurate and clear First, they should write only key words and shortened phrases rather than complete sentences and do not need concern a lot with spelling and grammatical errors which make their note production interrupted In addition, to make the notes brief but still readable, they should use flexible fonts, abbreviations such as b/c for “because,” w/ for
“with,” or “edu” for “education” and meaningful symbols such as “=>” to show results or causality, or “=” to show equivalent relationships, and leave space to fill in additional information Moreover, using colored pens to mark important portions and notable attention will be convenient for later review, and can lead to their inspiration whenever they look back Also, students do not hesitate to ask their lecturer questions of the lecture since that makes them comprehend the lecture more thoroughly
Students should spend 10 to 15 minutes after class on rereading their entire notes, which can help them to identify concepts that are still confusing or unclear, and call for assistance from lecturer in the next class If possible, students should compare or share their notes with classmates to supplement or clarify, even reorganize their own notes as needed
Evaluating the quality of notes is also necessary because it helps to find out whether there are lots of errors or gaps; if have, students can ask lecturer
37 to review their notes and make suggestions for improvement After evaluating the note quality, summarizing the main ideas of the lecture content plays a very important role because it provides the learners with an optimal review to transform their notes in some interactive way, rather than simply read or copy their notes (Bjork, Dunlosky & Kornell, 2013) They should try summarizing the information by creating additional outlines, diagrams, concept maps, and charts, or even use various colored pens or highlighters to help identify important information Finally, to get best academic results, students should review their notes regularly, not just the night before an exam
Besides aforementioned general recommendations, the researcher also would like to mention a specific strategy of using the Cornell note-taking method successfully, which is known as 6Rs (Pauk, 1997) 6Rs are a series of activities including Record, Reduce, Recite, Reflect, Review and Recapitulate that helps students achieve the best results from the Cornell method These activities are as follow:
First, in the Record step, students will record as much meaningful information in the note-taking area as possible during the lecture After the lecture, main ideas and questions or cues relating to the record are concisely written down in the cue column, which is the Reduce step In the next step- Recite, students do not look at the record in the note taking area; instead, use only their writings in the cue column to build the facts and ideas of the lecture as detailed as they can in their own words Then they can verify what they represented with the record in the note taking area The Reflect step allows students to raise questions for instructors from their note, or express their own viewpoint on the lecture, which helps prevent ideas from being soon forgotten The Review step is one of the most important one because it will help students to recall most of what they have learned and make them familiarized with course topics before succeeding lectures The Recapitulate is the final
38 step at which notes will be recapped in the students’ own language The act of recapitulation makes the lecture meanings clearer, boosts continuity and increases memory (Pauk, 1997, p.238-241)
To sum up, the note taking skill is an important part of the learning process as it actually not only helps students learn, but also provides them with tools to cognitively store the material and review later However, effective note-taking is not just to write quickly, but needs many other factors as mentioned above The researcher hopes that by combining suggestions for a note-taking process in general and Pauk’s 6Rs activities in particular, students can achieve better lecture comprehension in the British Culture and Society as well as in other subjects; in this way, they can also boost their own academic assessments
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The subject British culture and society likely delves into a rich tapestry of historical, social, political, and cultural aspects that define the United Kingdom It likely encompasses a broad range of topics, providing 2 nd –year students with a comprehensive understanding of Britain's past, present, and future trajectory Here is how the subject might be approached at Hust University:
Historical Context: The study of British culture and society would likely begin with an examination of the country's historical foundations This could include discussions on the evolution of the British monarchy, the formation of the British Empire, key events such as the Industrial Revolution and World Wars, and the emergence of modern British society
Social Structures and Institutions: Students would likely analyze the social structures and institutions that shape British society This might involve exploring topics such as class structure, education, healthcare, and the welfare state, as well as contemporary issues related to diversity, inequality, and social mobility
Cultural Traditions and Identity: The curriculum on British culture and society would likely explore the diverse cultural traditions and identities that exist within the UK This could include an examination of literature, art, music, and film, as well as discussions on national identity, multiculturalism, and the impact of globalization on British culture