Can Guided Notes Support Students’ Note-taking in Mathematics Lectures?

Abstract

In traditional mathematics lectures the instructor normally writes the definitions, theorems, and proofs covered on the board, and gives informal oral explanations that help to make sense of them. The students have to take notes. However, there are serious problems concerning students’ note-taking in traditional mathematics lectures. Students often cannot think about the information presented during the lecture as they are busy writing. Making sense of the content later is also difficult because many students do not include the lecturer’s oral explanations in their notes. One approach to addressing these problems can be the use of guided notes: a modified version of the instructor’s notes with certain blanks the students have to fill in during the lecture. We investigated to what extent guided notes can support students in their note-taking in mathematics lectures in a study using a mixed-method design. This study provides on the one hand quantitative data suggesting that guided notes are perceived as beneficial by many students for several aspects of their note-taking. On the other hand, it offers qualitative data illustrating how the use of guided notes can influence these aspects. The results indicate in particular that the use of guided notes can address some of the problems concerning students’ note-taking in traditional mathematics lectures, while it can also lead to new problems that one needs to be aware of.