3 Ways to Make Learning Stick With Better Note-Taking
When students rely on verbatim notes and highlighting, they don’t actually retain information very well—but research points to several methods that work better.
November 16, 2022
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Go to My Saved Content.Studies show that students who use visual note-taking tactics like sketch notes, concept maps, and graphic organizers process information more deeply, retain significantly more of what they’ve learned, and sharpen their higher-order thinking skills too. If you’d like to learn more about the research cited in the video, please see the links below:
- 2021 study on how drawing improves metacomprehension accuracy, by Keith W. Thiede, Katherine L. Wright, Sara Hagenah, Julianne Wenner, Jadelyn Abbott, and Angela Arechiga
- 2021 study on the benefits of interactive graphic organizers, by X. Wang, R.E. Mayer, P. Zhou, and L. Lin
- 2021 study on using laptops versus longhand note-taking, by Heather L. Urry, Chelsea S.Crittle, and Jonah E. Zarrow
- 2021 study on the benefits of writing an explanation in your own words to help retain information, by Alyssa P. Lawson and Richard E. Mayer
- 2018 study on how drawing improves memory, by Myra A. Fernandes, Jeffrey D. Wammes, and Melissa E. Meade
- 2018 research study on five popular study strategies and their pitfalls and optimal implementation, by Toshiya Miyatsu, Khuyen Nguyen, and Mark A. McDaniel
- 2014 study on how laptop note-taking is less effective than longhand note-taking for learning, by Pam A. Mueller and Daniel M. Oppenheimer