EFFECT OF NOTE TAKING TRAINING ON NINTH-GRADE STUDENTS' COMPREHENSION OF EXPOSITORY AND HIGH INTEREST MATERIAL

The effect of note taking training on the comprehension of ninth grade students was explored. A sample of 115 suburban Philadelphia public school students participated in an extreme groups design that selected subjects with an Educational Records Bureau (ERB) aptitude score of greater than the 80th percentile and lower than the 35th percentile. Students were randomly assigned to two world cultures teachers. One teacher instructed his classes in the note taking technique used in this study, while the other did not. All students took two tests, one expository and one high interest, at the end of a nine week practice period. Analysis of the results using MANOVA indicated that the note taking training significantly affected, at the.05 level of significance, the students' comprehension regardless of ability level. This was mainly attributable to the expository passage. However, not all students applied the technique as instructed, and there was no carryover of the use of the technique to the high interest passage; thus, the group trained in note taking did not score significantly higher on the high interest test. An interaction was found between the treatment group and the passage type, indicating that note taking was more effective when the material was expository. Note taking training had a significant effect on subjects' comprehension; however, if transfer is desired and if the process is to be internalized, the practice period should probably be longer than nine weeks.