I think the evolutionary change is also in the higher education institutions and how the society views them. In my country government authorities have taken to calling students our "customers,"  which is rather different from the traditional views and indeed from my view of the relationship.  We may well want our students to be educated but many of them just want to  buy the degree. Our government is monitoring success/pass/graduation  rates  as a mark of quality in the institution.  The pressure to provide notes, Powerpoints etc. often comes  from the institution itself. In one ( fee paying ) course I teach  all the material must be presented to the students in a very flash binder before the unit begins as this is seen by management as providing value for money. It seems to be all about  perceptions, packaging and presentation. No one seems overly concerned with the content.
 
Perhaps we need a discussion forum  at the next ALSB conference on  "Quality fights back", or "How to get students to take responsibility for their own education." This should not take longer than a week the first time we do it!
Anne Maureen
 
Anne Maureen Scarff
School of Economics and Finance
University of Western Sydney
Locked Bag 1797
Penrith South DC
NSW 1797


""The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists in the circulation of their blood. "
Logan Pearsall Smith (1865 - 1946), Afterthoughts (1931) "Age and Death".

________________________________

From: Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk on behalf of Keith A Maxwell
Sent: Sat 10/03/2007 8:40 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Taking Notes (one more time)



Well, I didn't realize when I started this discussion that it would stimulate such an extended conversation. Should I say thank you for corroborating my suspicion that this is a nearly universal phenomenon? Misery loves company! 

 

As to why this is occurring, I am intrigued by the notion suggested by someone (Anne Maureen?) that we may be witnessing an evolutionary change in the way students learn brought on by the internet age. If that is so, in what way is NOT taking notes adaptive behavior in the evolutionary sense? I don't believe that it is since it tends in some contexts to reduce learning. Nor do I think that the practice of note taking is waning because there are more efficient ways to accomplish the same thing. I cannot believe that an ex post facto searching of the internet is a more efficient way to obtain the non-textbook information that the professor covered in class. 

 

I am inclined to believe that students do not take notes because they did not experience a need for it in  their high school education, and they have never learned the skill. One of the "many lost arts," as John called it. Then there is the whole thing of handing out Power Point slides that is apparently so common among many university professors-so, no perceived need to take notes in college either. And I wonder how many professors really stray beyond the course material printed in the textbook or reading packets. If there were, wouldn't note taking be adaptive behavior for educational survival, or at least for grades higher that a C, or (in the era of grade inflation) a B? 

 

BTW, thanks to Anne Maureen for sharing the Logan Pearsall Smith quote. It really speaks to me.

 

Cheers,

 

Keith (an older person therapeutically denouncing youth in the Pacific Northwest) 

 

 

 

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Keith A. Maxwell

Director, Business Leadership Program (Spring 2007)

Professor of Legal Studies and Ethics

Nat S. and Marian W. Rogers Professor Emeritus 

School of Business and Leadership

University of Puget Sound

Tacoma, WA 98416

Office Phone: 253.879.3703

www.ups.edu/faculty/maxwell/home.htm

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