Joseph R. Boyle

The Effects of Strategic Notetaking on the Recall and Comprehension of Lecture Information for High School Students with Learning Disabilities

This investigation examined the effects of strategic notetaking on the recall and comprehension of high school students with learning disabilities (LD) or educable mental retardation (EMR). Twenty-six students with high incidence disabilities (LD or EMR) were randomly assigned by grade and disability to either an experimental or control group. Using strategic notetaking, students in the experimental group were taught to independently take notes while viewing a videotaped lecture. Students who were taught strategic notetaking scored significantly higher on measures of immediate free recall, long-term free recall, comprehension, and number of notes recorded than students in the control group who used conventional notetaking. The limitations of the research and implications of this technique for classroom application are discussed.

Enhancing the Note taking Skills of Students with Mild Disabilities

Teachers can improve the note-taking skills of students with mild disabilities by either modifying their presentation during lectures or teaching students how to use note-taking techniques. This article begins with a vignette and then describes how teachers can modify their lectures and how they can teach note-taking techniques to students. The two note-taking techniques described are strategic note taking and guided notes.

Note-Taking Skills of Middle School Students With and Without Learning Disabilities

For middle school students with learning disabilities (LD), one major component of learning in content area classes, such as science, involves listening to lectures and recording notes. Lecture learning and note-taking are critical skills for students to succeed in these classes. Despite the importance of note-taking skills, no research has been reported on the problems that school-age students with LD encounter when recording notes during science lectures. Using a sample size of 90 middle school students, the performance of students with LD was compared to students with no learning disabilities (NLD). Results found that students with LD performed significantly worse than students with NLD in terms of the type and amount of notes recorded and test performance.

Note-Taking Techniques for Students With Disabilities A Systematic Review of the Research

This article provides a synthesis of note-taking research among students with learning disabilities or other high-incidence disabilities. A search of the professional literature between 1980 and 2010 yielded nine intervention studies, which were evaluated either in terms of effect size or percentage of nonoverlapping data. The studies examined three different note-taking techniques used by students during lectures and included 125 students of varying disabilities. Findings revealed that students who used note-taking techniques were effective at increasing scores on measures of achievement and the quality and quantity of notes recorded. Limitations and implications of note-taking techniques for content-area classrooms are discussed.

Microcirculatory hematocrit and blood flow.

Direct measurements from many laboratories indicate that the oxygen tension in skeletal muscle is significantly less than in the large veins draining these tissues. Harris (1986) has proposed that because of the parallel anatomic arrangement of large arterioles and venules in skeletal muscle, a counter-current exchange between these vessels can occur. He theorized that diffusion of O2 between arteriole and venule would lower the PO2 in the blood as it enters capillaries and result in a decreased tissue PO2 and an increase in large vein PO2. Calculations (Appendix) show that the amount of O2 transferred between arteriole and venule is inadequate to account for this difference in PO2 between tissue and veins due to the small surface area that is involved. It is well documented that the microcirculatory hematocrit ranges between 20 and 50% of that in the supply vessels. The reduced hematocrit lowers the oxygen content in these vessels and results in a low oxygen tension in the surrounding tissue. True arteriovenous shunts are not present in most skeletal muscles, but 15-20% of the microvessels represent thoroughfare or preferential flow channels. It is suggested that these vessels contain a greater than normal hematocrit to account for a conservation of red cell mass across the microcirculation. Furthermore, it is shown that the hematocrit in the preferential flow channels is an inverse function of the flow rate for any level of the microcirculatory hematocrit. The increased hematocrit raises the flow resistance in these vessels which reduces flow further and represents a positive feedback condition which may contribute to the intermittent and uneven flow patterns which are present within the microcirculation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Strategic Note-Taking for Inclusive Middle School Science Classrooms

To be successful in inclusive classrooms, middle school students need effective note-taking skills to learn lecture content. Unfortunately, students with disabilities perform poorly at recording critical lecture content in notes and perform poorly on subsequent tests. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the effects of a note-taking technique, called strategic note-taking, on the note-taking and achievement of students with and without learning disabilities. The Results showed that students who were trained to use strategic note-taking performed better than students who used conventional note-taking on measures of immediate recall and comprehension. The limitations of the research and the implications for future research are discussed.

A new surface balance for dynamic surface tension studies

Abstract A new design for a dynamic surface balance is described which utilizes a vertical mesh cylinder to alter surface area. The device is described and initial studies have been carried out. Results from DPPC monolayer experiments indicate that force—area isotherms using this device closely agree with results from standard surface balances. The described surface balance has a number of advantages over the Langmuir trough such as preventing leaks in surface films, a wide frequency range and greater accuracy using a Wilhelmy plate.

The Process of Note Taking: Implications for Students with Mild Disabilities

Students with mild disabilities have a difficult time recording notes from lectures. Accurate note taking is important because it helps students understand the content from lectures and notes serve as a document for later review. In this article, the author describes what teachers can do before, during, and after the lecture to help students become better note takers.

Reading Strategies for Students With Mild Disabilities

Teaching children with mild disabilities to read can be a challenging task for even the most seasoned teacher. In order to be successful, teachers need to be knowledgeable about the big five of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2000). While the ultimate goal of reading is comprehension, several of the aforementioned skills must be in place to meet this goal (Tolman, 2005). Despite knowledge of the big five, other skills such as syllabication and structural analysis, subsumed under phonics and vocabulary instruction, are needed in order for children to progress from word-callers to becoming fluent readers who can efficiently comprehend text.

Exploring metacognitive strategy use during note-taking for students with learning disabilities

This mixed-methods study analysed over 200 interviews from 20 seventh-grade students with learning disabilities (LD). Students were instructed how to use a note-taking intervention during science lectures. The interview analyses were supported by pre- and post-intervention quantitative data. Data suggest that the intervention helped students identify important information; systematised the process of listening to, interpreting and using that information; and offered students a means by which to organise the information they were hearing. A discussion about metacognition and attention explores how these processes altered students’ awareness of their own learning, as well as how they equipped students with a new strategy for holding onto and translating information from their science lectures into a useful set of notes. These findings have implications for how theorists conceptualise the relationship between metacognition and attention and how teachers use scaffolding to support the learning of students with LD.