Background: Practice tests have been shown to be an effective means to foster long-term retention in higher education, at least compared to restudying (i.e., the testing effect). Objective: The present study replicated and extended prior research by examining whether and to what extent the positive effects of testing on long-term retention in a…

Laptops and other networked technologies are commonplace at university campuses. While a range of studies researches the negative effects of multitasking, screenpeeking and other laptop related side effects this article emphasize the situational impact of student-laptop interaction. Departing from Goffman's framework on unfocused interaction and…

Examined whether students who studied together outside class did better on exams than those who studied alone, and whether pedagogical method (cooperative/active learning versus lecture) influenced students' out-of-class study behavior. Mean exam scores were generally higher for students who studied in groups, regardless of teaching style, and…

Recognizing that success in general chemistry is dependent on the development of disciplined study habits, the author motivates his students to develop these skills through prelecture assignments that introduce them to various studying strategies. The format and use of the prelecture assignments are described. (JN)

Two experiments studied the effects of note-taking, strategy of note-taking (short/long notes), and reviewing personal notes and/or simplified teacher-notes on immediate and delayed recall. One hundred and sixty Nigerian university students, classified as either short or long note-takers, served as subjects. (Author)

Self-questioning, summarizing, and review of lecture notes were compared as strategies for learning from lectures for 56 underprepared college students. Subjects were randomly assigned to self-questioning (19 students), summarizing (19 students), and notetaking-review (18 students) conditions. Self-questioners performed better than summarizers and…

Many college students are paying others to attend lecture classes and take notes, a practice that angers many professors and caused one university to sue a note-taking company over copyrights. Although students and some faculty say the notes are helpful in large, impersonal classes, others say they encourage poor attendance. (MSE)

During a series of electronics lectures, college students used three kinds of notes: (1) duplicates of lecturer's notes; (2) headings, key points, diagram outlines, tables and references with spaces for additional information; and (3) students' own notes taken during lectures. Student preferences for type of notes, and achievement using the three…

College students were assigned to either take their own personal notes or to use full or partial notes that were distributed in class. The use of personal or partial notes resulted in higher scores on the essay test, and students preferring personal notes scored higher on the multiple-choice exam. (Author/JN)

Presents five preliminary conclusions about notetaking practices based on findings in the literature. Each conclusion is followed by a discussion of its implications for classroom instruction, and links between various lecturer and student behaviors and the external events of instruction are proposed. (Author/MBR)

Courses using a Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) have proliferated in the past decade. Researchers have explored various factors related to PSI, but rarely, if ever, have students' study habits or preferences been considered. A questionnaire examining the study habits, exam preferences and attitudes toward various instructional formats was…

Note-taking at college lectures is believed to provide an external memory device for review and to require the student to encode the learning material into a personally meaningful form. A closer examination of the kinds of notes made and used by students may help to explain the relationship between the note-taking process and individual…

Outlines and discusses the implications of student reaction to different teaching methods in British colleges. Presents student evaluations, organized into sections on subjects, courses, and teaching techniques. Discusses the great emphasis on lecture based teaching. Suggests the need for new teaching approaches. (Author/AEM)

Introductory psychology students were randomly assigned to two experimental groups. For the first half of the class term, only Group 1 received instructor-prepared notes. In the second half of their term, only Group 2 did. Achievement did not differ until phase two, when Group 1 had significantly lower performance. (SJL)

This paper shows what research about student perceptions of lecture courses can indicate about student approaches to learning and the outcomes of learning. The amount that students will learn from a lecture course depends on: 1) student approach to learning, 2) perception of what is to be learned, and 3) level of information processing. It was…