Essentials of Planning, Selecting, and Tailoring Interventions for Unique Learners

TwelveInterventions for Students with Lecture Note–Taking Difficulties

Stephen T. Peverly

Gardith Marcelin

Michael Kern

After elementary school, the amount of information students are required to understand increases dramatically (Thomas, Iventosch, & Rohwer, 1987) and most information is presented in forms students find difficult to process: lecture (Piolat, Olive, & Kellogg, 2005; Putnam, Deshler, & Schumaker, 1993) and expository texts (Mulcahy-Ernt & Caverly, 2009; Snow, 2002). Thus, as adolescent and young adult learners progress through school, they increasingly take notes (Thomas et al., 1987), a cryptic written record of important information presented in lecture or text (Piolat et al.), to help them encode and subsequently more thoroughly process and remember important information. Most college students, for example, rate lecture note–taking as an important educational activity (Dunkel & Davy, 1989) and most take notes in classes (approximately 98%; Palmatier & Bennett, 1974; an ongoing survey of college undergraduates in our lab indicates that 100% take lecture notes at least some of the time). In addition, research supports the efforts students expend in taking notes. Students who take and/or review lecture notes (Armbruster, 2009; Fisher & Harris, 1973; Kiewra & Benton, 1988; Kiewra, Benton, & Lewis, 1987; Kiewra, DuBois, Christian, McShane, Meyerhoffer, & Roskelley, 1991; Peverly et al., 2007; Titsworth & Kiewra, 2004) or text notes (Bretzing & Kulhavy, 1981; Peverly, ...