Learning by writing notes
Last week, a student asked me: “Why do you make your tests essays instead of multiple choices.”. Another student added: “It would be easier for you to grade multiple choices than essay then you have more time for yourself”. I answered: “I do not mind spending more time to grade your essays because writing will improved your learning much better than multiple-choice items. I do not like to see you guess on multiple choices or memorize few things just to pass the test. I want you to think more and learn more.”
In university, professors can assign as many tests as they want. Most usually have two tests per semester, some may have test every month. I like to have test every week and often on Friday. Having test on the last day of the week will require students come to class as some often skip Friday class to have a longer weekend. By having weekly tests, I can monitor students’ progress to make sure that they all learning according to the pace of the class. By having test on Friday, I know how well students have learned that week so in the following week, I can either start a new chapter or review previous materials.
There are several types of test but many professors prefer multiple choices over essay. It is easier and faster to grade, because all they do is checking numbers of correct choice then score. However I prefer essay because I want students to think carefully before they write down something. With essay, either students know the materials or they do not. There is no guessing or memorizing. By writing, students have to learn, have to think, have to analyze, instead of memorizing.
There was a study about the difference between types of test. It concluded that by writing down materials, students will learn better and was able to retain the information longer. The study examined two different types of learning among college students where they either thought or wrote about topics that they just learned. Several thousand students participated in this study. They all listened to a lecture then later were asked to take multiple choices test about the lecture content. The first group were asked to think about the topic for five minutes. The second group were asked to write about it for five minutes. After ten minutes break, both groups took the multiple-choices test. The result was significant different between two groups. Just five minutes of writing on a topic produced much higher scores on the multiple choices test than just spending the same amount of time thinking about it. After two weeks, students again were asked to re-take the same multiple choices test. The results were significant different, the group that wrote down was 92% better than the group just thought about the topic. This research demonstrates that a simple teaching technique such as writing down something can produce significant improvement in students’ performance.
Based on that, I always encourage students to take note during my class. In active learning, they should do some pre class reading to learn something about the course materials (The first learning). They should print out class lecture materials since I always have the slide presentations on line for students to access. In class, when listening to the lecture, they should take note directly on the printed materials. Of course, these notes would be based only on their understand of the lecture because most of the points are already on the slide materials so they do not have to write down everything (The second learning). After class, they should go to the library to review the materials. This time, they have the class note that they took as well as the entire lecture materials so their study could be completed (the third learning). I believe by learning something at least three times, students will understand better, perform better, and retain the materials better. My advice: “If you want to learn something, write it down”.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
