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This, like any system, works better for some individuals than others, depending on their learning style. I liked the presentation here, basically “try this, you

This, like any system, works better for some individuals than others, depending on their learning style. I liked the presentation here, basically “try this, you may find it valuable”. I'm sure that some people found it useless, others very useful. When I was teaching, students would sometimes ask me for permission to record the lectures. I always said yes, because I know that some students learn best aurally, and find note-taking interferes with their learning style. Teachers (or school systems) that mandate this system, and, even worse, GRADE NOTEBOOKS completely misunderstand the point of it. In K-12, one of the goals is to help students become effective learners, which involves students identifying the tools that help them learn best. I really like the SUMMARY section, asking the student to synthesize some kind of big picture. I always said that in a 50-minute university class, you can thoroughly explain one sentence and its ramifications. The space given for SUMMARY really asks the student to identify that sentence. And it also gives room for a really good question from a student: “Hey, teach, I can't figure out the summary for that class on recursion, can you help me?”, though, to be fair, no student ever called me “teach”.

quanticle 4y ago
Teachers (or school systems) that mandate this system, and, even worse, GRADE NOTEBOOKS completely misunderstand the point of it. In K-12, one of the goals is to help students become effective learners, which involves students identifying the tools that help them learn best. A single assignment forcing Cornell Notes (or any other note taking system) might be all right. Something like, "Here's a reading, please submit a summary of it in Cornell Notes format." That gets the kids to interact with the system, and it exposes students to something that they might find useful going forward. To force its use for an entire quarter or semester just sounds like sadism. Furthermore, from what I can tell, the Cornell system is highly tied to paper (and lined letter/A4 sized paper at that), and is basically useless outside of a school/university context. It doesn't do much to structure your notes. Instead, the class itself is assumed to be providing the structure, and the notes combine with the class structure to provide an outline of your knowledge. In the "real world", where information is coming at you from a dozen different sources, and it's up to you to provide your own structure, something like Cornell falls down, hard.
wrp 4y ago
> ...identifying the tools that help them learn best. Ideally, we could present students with a variety of study techniques and let them choose what works best for them. The problem is that most students don't have the judgement or enthusiasm to pursue it on their own, so we have to spend some time forcing it to see what sticks. It's tremendously gratifying to be able to observe a student become a more effective learner, but that happens only with a small minority (leading to dark moments of questioning my value as a teacher). Another problem is evaluating "what works". In school, outcomes are assumed to be adequately represented by grades. However, different teachers will emphasize and test differently, so specific study methods may not be equally helpful in all situations.
Obscurity4340 4y ago
That is all I will ever call teachers nowzers.

quanticle 4y ago

Teachers (or school systems) that mandate this system, and, even worse, GRADE NOTEBOOKS completely misunderstand the point of it. In K-12, one of the goals is to help students become effective learners, which involves students identifying the tools that help them learn best. A single assignment forcing Cornell Notes (or any other note taking system) might be all right. Something like, "Here's a reading, please submit a summary of it in Cornell Notes format." That gets the kids to interact with the system, and it exposes students to something that they might find useful going forward. To force its use for an entire quarter or semester just sounds like sadism. Furthermore, from what I can tell, the Cornell system is highly tied to paper (and lined letter/A4 sized paper at that), and is basically useless outside of a school/university context. It doesn't do much to structure your notes. Instead, the class itself is assumed to be providing the structure, and the notes combine with the class structure to provide an outline of your knowledge. In the "real world", where information is coming at you from a dozen different sources, and it's up to you to provide your own structure, something like Cornell falls down, hard.

wrp 4y ago

> ...identifying the tools that help them learn best. Ideally, we could present students with a variety of study techniques and let them choose what works best for them. The problem is that most students don't have the judgement or enthusiasm to pursue it on their own, so we have to spend some time forcing it to see what sticks. It's tremendously gratifying to be able to observe a student become a more effective learner, but that happens only with a small minority (leading to dark moments of questioning my value as a teacher). Another problem is evaluating "what works". In school, outcomes are assumed to be adequately represented by grades. However, different teachers will emphasize and test differently, so specific study methods may not be equally helpful in all situations.

Obscurity4340 4y ago

That is all I will ever call teachers nowzers.