Improving Student Performance through Note Taking and Organization
Action Research
Improving Student Performance through Note Taking and Organization
Developed by:
Jeff R Sherman
Major Professor:
Dr. Greg Thompson
April 29, 2010
Oregon State University
Introduction
“Education is often considered the most important form of human capital” (Becker 1993, pg 1-13).In the United States, vocational education teachers earn an average annual wage of $53,700 in 2008. In Oregon, vocational education teachers make an average of $51,850 annually (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Depending on the amount of time spent grading assignments, quizzes, homework, and tests the resulting costs can become a costly investment. On average in Oregon,it will cost $12,962.50 for teachers who spend a quarter of their time grading student work.
Creating effective assignments, homework and assessments which increase student achievement will help create lifelong learners (Fidel, Davies, Douglass, Holder, & Hopkins, 1999). Time can be more effectively used in the classroom evaluating student progress through teacher-student interaction. “Success rates of 70-80 percent are effective when a teacher is present to provide immediate feedback and monitor responses” (Michaelsen, Knight, & Fink, pg 53). Knowledge gained in high school classes can impact students for a lifetime. It is the responsibility of teachers to spend time engaging, motivating, and educating students.
Review of the Literature
In Oregon and in the United States there is a need to improve student achievement (Oregon Department of Education). There is an increasing amount of pressure on teachers to ensure that their tests and assessments are aligning with course objectives and learning outcomes (Gibbs & Simpson, 2004). Controversy surrounding education is often about assessments, falling standards, unreliable testing, cheating, and errors in exam papers.
Assessments are often the cause of conflict, debate, and countless research articles about the use of formative assessments and examinations, and tying these assessments into course outcomes and objectives. Assessments often include: essays, reports, case studies, laboratory-based practical work, individual work, group projects, written tests, and examinations (Stefani, 2004).
Often teachers are set on using tests and exams because these assessments can be monitored to ensure students are not cheating, copying, or reproducing someone else’s work. Studies show that the most reliable way to enhance student learning is through meaningful assignments. “The most reliable, rigorous and cheat-proof assessment systems are often accompanied by dull and lifeless learning that has short lasting outcomes — indeed they often directly lead to such learning… design assessment, first, to support worthwhile learning, and worry about reliability later. Standards will be raised by improving student learning rather than by better measurement of limited learning” (Gibbs & Simpson, p. 2-3).Assessments and coursework should be designed with the sole purpose being student achievement and success. Students tend to do better on course assignments than on examinations, which validate the need for effective assignments, projects, and questions which can advance student learning and save teachers time.
Compared to examination scores, assignments are a better indicator of student performance (Gibbs & Simpson, 2004). Often when students are preparing for tests the information is placed in the short-term recall portion of the brain, and the information is gone once the information has been recalled to pass the examination (MartonWenestam, 1978). Learning involved with coursework including: homework, research projects, and assignments has long term benefits. Information obtained for the purpose of taking a test is often erased from memory because the information was not made pertinent for students. Examinations often use recall or revision, which do not incorporate the same kind of learning benefits of assignments (Gibbs & Simpson, 2004).
In 1997, Gibbs and Lucas conducted an analysis of 1,712 classes at Oxford Polytechnic and discovered that courses with 100% coursework had an average mark 3.5% higher than courses which had 100% examinations. Three times as many students failed courses which only conducted examinations to determine student performance. The format of all of the 100% examination-style courses consisted of readings, lectures, and examinations. In the analysis, courses which utilized more coursework and less examination, showed an increase in student performance (Gibbs & Simpson, 2004).
These results may explain the reasoning behind students performing better nationally in Biology, Business Studies, Computer Science, and Law courses compared to English and history classes. Students in hands-on courses often retain more information from their courses because in-class assignments and other coursework is made relevant. If all courses could find a way to make information real and relevant, student achievement levels would continue to rise.
Higher average coursework grades are useless if assessment grades are worth a significantly larger amount than coursework. Students consider assignments to be fairer than exams,and measure a greater range of abilities than exams. Through assignments, students can use their own forms of organization and work patterns to a greater extent (Kniveton, 1995). Many schools in Oregon require students to take quizzes, tests, and final examinations, and the teacher must record those results in grade books. A way to incorporate the use coursework for assessments would be to allow students to use their notes, assignments, and previous work for completing assessments; validating the coursework for students.
Peer assessment of assignments have shown to increase student retention and learning, and at the same time save teachers valuable time of grading the individual’s coursework. A study by Forbes and Spence in 1991, took a higher education engineering class where students were completing weekly problem sheets for the purpose of a grade in the class and a requirement as per the course syllabus. The instructor stopped asking students to produce the weekly problem sets altogether; student test scores dropped. Students were asked to complete the assignments not for a grade, but because they would be peer-reviewing the assignments and the results concluded that test scores increased a considerable amount.
The results of the peer-reviewing assignments showed that student exam scores saw a dramatic increase after students began correcting the work of their peers; without the possibility of receiving a grade for the assignment. The increase in student knowledge is attributed to the quality of engagement in learning tasks between students (Forbes & Spence, 1991). Generating learning engagement is a proven way to enhance student learning. Teachers do not have to spend tremendous amounts of time marking papers and writing assessments to enhance learning; student interaction will produce learning.
Assessments, examinations, quizzes, and tests are often closed-note, closed-book, and closed-mouth. Information is expected to roll off the tip of students’ fingers and produce the results teachers are expecting. These types of assessments, as backed up by research, do not evaluate the level of knowledge a student possesses (Gibbs & Simpson, 2004).
Assessing for higher order skills should be a focus for teachers, but most tests only require students to recall information. Curriculum design often focuses on the subject matter and not the development of critical thinking. When students develop critical thinking and organizational skills, the information often becomes knowledge which can be retained and utilized for years to come (Stefani, 2004). The question becomes, how do we develop curriculum which encourages students to use higher order thinking skills?
Teachers ask students to complete assignments because they find the relevance in the discovery of the information. Why can coursework not be used on examinations, when teachers can see the relevance in assigning the work? Why is coursework given a grade if students just complete the work for a grade? As Gibbs and Simpson reported in 2004, students learn more from coursework than assessments. If examinations and assessments are going to be produced, students should be able to use the information they have acquired and peer-reviewed. Less teacher time will be spent grading assignments and more knowledge will be obtained and retained by students.
Methodology
The observations took place in the second section of a horticulture class at a medium size high school in the Pacific Northwest. The classroom was a larger classroom situated on a seventy-six acre school farm. The students were bussed down from the high school. When students entered the classroom from the bus they walked past the teacher’s office and into a well-lit room with many decorations of prior student’s achievements decorating the walls. The west wall was lined with a magazine and newspaper rack, bookshelves, and baskets for students to turn in coursework and retrieve graded assignments from the prior day. Also on the west wall, a door leads to greenhouses. A projector screen and white board establish the front of the classroom and block the teacher’s office window from students. Students are seated in a U-shape around the teacher’s podium.
Forty-two students participated in the research ranging from ninth to twelfth grade, and varying academic levels including students on Individualized Education Plans (IEP) to students who are Talented and Gifted (TAG). The class met five times a week during the trimester, and students were evaluated every other week for ten weeks. Students were evaluated on their organization, note-taking, and quiz or test score. Students were required to keep a binder in the class which held information on the course, notes, word-of-the-day activities, and assignments. Before information was presented to the class, or directions were given for specific activities students were asked to write down the important facts and the directions for the day’s activities.
In the early weeks of the course students were not told by the teacher the notes were able to be used on tests or quizzes. In the second week of the course the teacher gave a quiz to the students on the prior two weeks assignments, notes, and activities. The teacher then explained that any material used in the class could be used to assist in taking the quiz.
The process of allowing students to use notes, assignments, and activities for any quiz or test was implemented in the following weeks of the course. Overall, four quizzes and one test were given to students. The graphs below show the total percentage of students who completed quizzes and tests by using their notebook and the materials within the notebooks. Graph 1 shows the increase in student usage of notes for the quizzes and tests. Graph 2 tracks the students quiz and test scores through the five week research period.
Data was also collected on student responses to using notes, and the comments made during and after the quizzes and tests. That data collection is listed below the graphs under the heading “Data.”
Data
January 12, 2010
Today was the first day of recorded data for students in the class using their notes on a quiz. Students were told they could use any notes, assignments, or homework from the class for the quiz. Out of 42 students, 3 were absent, and 12 students had papers in front of them. When I asked some of the other students why they were not using their notes I received the following comments:
“I didn’t know we could use notes on the quiz.”
“I left them at home.” –referring to the notes
“I did not take any notes.”
After the quiz was finished, I explained to the students that all of the assignments, notes, quizzes, and homework from the class can be used on any test or quiz. I suggested students should use three-ringed notebooks to keep all of their paperwork organized. I offered students free binders if they needed one. Seven students took free binders to organize their class work.
January 19, 2010
Students were asked to take a pop-quiz on hand tool identification. The previous day I had given out guided notes on the common hand tools used in pruning. The test was given orally, but students were still allowed to use their notes from the previous day to complete the quiz. Out of 42 students, 29 were using their notes, 4 were absent the day before, and 4 were absent for the quiz. I asked two of the remaining 5 students why they were not using their notes I received the following comments:
“I don’t need my notes, I already know this stuff.”
“I left them in my locker” –referring to everything needed for the class
After the quiz was completed I again reminded students that everything handed out or written on in class is cleared to be used on tests.
January 26, 2010
A quiz was given today on plant parts and functions. I explained to the students that their notes could be used on the quiz along with any other materials which have been provided to them. I was surprised to notice that I still had students asking questions such as; “Can I use this handout?”
My response was tailored, “Did everyone hear Billy’s question? Can you use this handout on your quiz? Yes, you can use any handouts, notes, or assignments for the quiz.” Out of the 42, 35 students were using their notes and had their binders out. Three students were missing which left me with four students still not using their binders or notes to complete the quiz.
February 2, 2010
Today I played review jeopardy with the students to cover the pruning lesson from the previous three weeks. I told the students their notes can be used to answer the jeopardy questions and that if they do not have the jeopardy information in their notes, to write them in because the questions would be on the lesson final.
Students were responsive to the directions because 37 students out of the 39 students in attendance were writing the information down during jeopardy and/or using their notes to try and answer the questions.
February 3, 2010
Today students took the final for the pruning lessons. Every student in attendance had something from the lesson in front of them answer questions on the final. Only one students was absent, so 41 out of 42 students used some sort of assignment, note pages, or activity sheet to complete the final. I asked a few of the students if they liked the opportunity to use coursework on tests and quizzes and the answer was unanimously yes.
I asked students if they took better notes, and completed more of the work when the activities could be used on tests and quizzes, and the answer was unanimously, “yes.”Under five percent of the students explained to me that they took the same quality of notes as if they couldn’t use them on the test, and the other ninety-five percent of the students said their notes have improved and they do a more thorough job on the assignments knowing they can use them on tests and quizzes.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Students learn best from hands-on activities which promote higher order thinking skills. Simply asking students to recall information from notes three weeks early is not the most effective use of student knowledge or teacher time. When teachers assess student learning, the activities, notes, and assignments are dually justified when they can be revisited for quizzes and tests.
Many students have never been exposed to a class setting where the tests aren’t generated from memory. In the Agricultural Science and Technology classroom notes aren’t just taken to take notes, but more importantly to reference in the future. By asking students to reference their notes, assignments, and activity outlines to complete other assignments makes those class materials valuable to the students.
If assignments, activities, and notes are important enough to assign, students should be allowed to use them as resources to complete assessments. When students are able to use their notes on tests and quizzes the effectiveness of the notes increase along with test scores.
Bibliography
Arter, J.,Spandel, V. (1990).Using Portfolios of student work in instruction and assessment.Intructional Topics in Educational Measurement, Retrieved from
Becker, G.S., 1993, Human Capital.3rd ed. (The University of Chicago Press. Chicago, IL.)
Fidel, R., Davies, R., Douglass, M., Holder, J., & Hopkins, C. (1999). A Visit to the information mall: web searching behavior of high school students. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 50. Retrieved from 10.1.1.108.1263