There are a lot of topics to give thought to in the area of education. Obviously, there are a few which need this effort in order to understand them, but there are quite a few more which need some thought about understanding why… One of these ideas (sic) is one which has been bothering me for decades.
Long ago when I was an incoming freshman to college, I was impelled, as a matter of course in many of my classes to have to withstand the teachers constant carping about how poorly prepared we were for college. It is important to realize that this was no ad hominem attack upon us, or our capabilities, it was a critique of some of the glaring deficiencies in how we were prepared by our high schools. Imagine my thoughts when as a returning undergraduate (only a few years ago) to have to endure hearing almost exactly the same thing in many classes. The big difference here was that I could now see what the college instructors were talking about!
Our K-12 public school system is supposed to help prepare our children to make it in the greater world when they graduate. For some students, they do a good enough job, but for many of the students in the middle (i.e. no real problems, medium grades, and some inclination to try to get a college degree…), things are tough.
I spent a lot of my time (during my last trip through college) trying to help fellow students to become more adept in the skills needed to get through college. Foremost of these skills would have to be note taking. Some high schools, especially for students in AP or IB classes (advanced placement…)are driven to develop some of these skills since it is all about gathering and digesting a lot of information. Not all students avail themselves of these classes (they’re pretty hard!).
To take notes in a class lecture there are some subsidiary skills needed in order to get the job done. First, you need to work to develop some ability in critical listening. This is a specific skill in taking time to carefully listen to what the lecturer is actually saying, and as a note taker, to be able to effectively paraphrase the gist of what is being stated. This is a skill which takes time to develop, and as such, high schools should be spending time to help their students to develop these budding skills.
Critical listening is analogous to critical reading skills, in that you need to try to be scrupulously objective and skeptical of every fact, and every inference. A part of these skills, as well as a practical part of note taking is the need to ask questions (if only in your notes). Generally speaking these skills are at or near the top of the Bloom’s Taxonomy hierarchy of intellectual skills.
There are quite a number of methods of writing notes, here is a list containing some information regarding a few of them, most notable the Cornell note taking method. I can see that this method (one I have never used for myself) may be a good method with which to start to develop some of the skills needed to take ‘good’ notes. I should mention that these note taking methods work well with critical reading too…
This is something which I was forced to realize several decades ago, and I think that these skills may be at least as valuable as some of the subject which students may feel compelled to use them with. To be able to objectively gather the import of what someone is saying (to writing), and then to be able to ask critical questions would seem to me to be an effective path towards some real wisdom…
