reference to whether the things we are teach-
ing are worth learning — whether the curricu-
lum is engaging and relevant to [students’]
experiences. (p. 60)

Also of concern to Kohn is the central focus of Qual-
ity models on performance and the attempt to improve
it. Kohn cites a number of researchers who see the fo-
cus on performance as a “particularly potent way to in-
hibit creative thinking and conceptual learning.” (p. 61)

He sums up:

No one can object to ‘quality’ as an abstract
concept, but if a set of practices revolving
around that word requires us to treat stu-
dents as customers or workers, then we
should leave management practices to man
agers and get on with the challenge of edu
cating. (p. 61)

Reference: Alfie Kohn, “Turning Learning Into
a Business: Concerns About Total Quality.” Educa-
tional Leadership, September 1993: 58-61. Tp

What Students Do and Don’t
Take From Lectures

Get this: the average lecture contains about 5,000
spoken words. The average student ends up with about
500 of those words in his or her notes. Key question:
How do students make their selections?

The fact and question come from an interesting arti-
cle by A.H. Johnstone and W.Y. Su, whose research in-
volved analyzing student notes and lectures in a first-
year chemistry class across a three-year period. The to-
tal number of subjects in their study is small, but the
uniqueness and thoroughness of the analysis make the
findings noteworthy. In addition to detailed reviews of
the student notes, faculty lectures were recorded, as
was the boardwork and other visual presentations.

In brief, these researchers found:

e “On average, students recorded about 90 percent
of the blackboard information in terms both of
words and of information units” (p. 76) — defined
as the smallest block of knowledge that can stand
as a separate assertion. However, the conclusion
does not imply that student notes were complete.
Rather, it seems to illustrate the commonplace
student assumption that all they need is the writ-
ten material.

e “Inaccuracies in the notes occurred most fre-
quently when students were copying diagrams,
numerical figures, equations and items on trans-
parencies.” (p. 76) The researchers also found that
rarely did any faculty corrections end up in stu-
dents notes. The finding seems like a good argu-
ment for handing out diagrams, figures, and the
like.

e What most often did not appear in students’
notes was anything related to demonstrations,
examples of applications, detailed sequences of

arguments, and meanings of technical terms and
symbols.

Four basic note-taking styles emerged in this study:

e Students who write down only what appears on
the board and have an incomplete record of even
that;

e Students who write down what appears on the
board and have all that material;

e Students who have the board material and other
material;

e Students with “elaborated notes,” which contain
“extra or connective material not explicit in the
lecture.” (p. 76)

And, not surprisingly, Johnstone and Su found a cor-
relation between note-taking style and test perform-
ance. On average 45 percentage points separated
students in category 1 from students in category 4.

They conducted several other analyses, all of which
lead to this observation: “Only about one third of the
students in the sample were leaving the lecture with
most of the information units recorded and with sub-
stantially complete notes.” (p. 79) The researchers
wisely conclude: “At best, lectures are overviews or
outlines of what has to be learned rather than learning
experiences in themselves.” (p. 79)

Reference: A.H. Johnstone and W.Y. Su, “Lec-
tures — A Learning Experience?” Education in
Chemistry, May 1994: 76-79. Tp

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The Teaching Professor November 1994