When the universities in Bangladesh continue to find themselves in slots down the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings as well as the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, accusing fingers are invariably pointed at a lack of quality teaching and research. Some other elements such as classroom environment and a minimal practice of traditional note-taking are often missing from the discourse. Note-taking in class involves collecting key information in a notebook during a lecture for its review and revision later. This is precisely for better comprehension of problems or subjects and probing further, if possible, to develop newer insight. Students at the tertiary level in Bangladesh, like many of their university peers around the globe, have been practising this habit for years. However, the tendency to take notes seems to be on the wane among the current generation of students. Some factors are behind this, including technological advancement, below-standard question papers, and comprehension gaps.
Technological advancement takes the crown when it mistakenly makes students convinced that they can do without taking notes from lectures. With the integration of more technologies, there is a growing tendency to opt for the easy way out. University students are no exception to this rule, in fact, they are more smart than others to adopt the latest technological advancements. They know that almost everything is easily available on the Internet. Finding any information is just a simple click away. So why take so much trouble with note-taking instead of just listening or relaxing? Besides, their attention span has reduced significantly because of too much exposure to electronic devices. They find it difficult to focus on any task for a longer period. Their short attention span prevents them from staying focused during long lectures and taking notes. Moreover, since technological devices are allowed in university classrooms, many students use their mobile phones to audio record their teachers' lectures. Naturally, they do not feel the necessity of taking notes when they have the option to store the entire lecture. Furthermore, the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI), like ChatGPT, has significantly decreased the challenges of writing assignments or preparing notes for examinations. Most of the varsity students nowadays rely on ChatGPT more than they should. It is much easier to ask it to prepare notes for them than taking notes themselves in class and expanding the range of intellectual exercise and creative grasp.
However, tech development should not be entirely to blame. Students' lack of interest in taking notes is also related to the fact that the question papers in many educational institutions are not up to the mark. The education system here demands that getting good grades is more important than actually acquiring knowledge. Academic institutions are desperate to showcase their students' above par, if not extraordinary, performance. To achieve that, the question papers are set in a way that allows students to copy and paste answers from books. If they can only memorise the answers, it is easy to get satisfactory grades, but what is concerning is that applying their reasoning and analytical abilities seems quite unnecessary while answering these not-so-challenging questions. When students are used to this pattern, they find taking notes and analysing them nothing more than a total waste of time. Question papers that require minimal effort simply discourage them from going the extra mile to thoroughly comprehend any topic.
Thus the comprehension gaps act as a disincentive for students' willingness to take required notes. These gaps occur when students fail to perceive and interpret the contents of class lectures. They enter the classrooms without sufficient background reading which is why they cannot connect when new concepts are introduced. This disconnect interrupts the process of efficient note-taking. The problem intensifies because the medium of instruction in most universities is English. Missing important parts of lectures due to inability in following pronunciation of words has become an insurmountable problem. This issue has its origin in the whimsical experiments and changes brought about without proper research in recent years. The curriculum, not suitable in the context of our country, has contributed to the downgrading of the quality of education. It explains why the number of students with a good command of English has dropped significantly in the past few years. Deficient curriculum of the undergraduate course including that of the secondary education has left a wider comprehension gap with the tertiary education. The problem, however, does not end here. Not all teachers are particularly careful about presenting their lessons in a comprehensive manner. They are not mindful about the students' shortcomings. The mismatch between the wavelengths of the teacher and the taught makes the lecture unappealing. Student engagement is rare in such classes as they just keep listening without active participation and mostly do not find anything worth noting down.
Evidently, university students' traditional note-taking practice has been affected by quite a few elements. There are some students who take notes using their electronic devices, but the number is limited. More importantly, many studies have shown that digital note-taking cannot be as effective as longhand note-taking. Pam A. Mueller and Daniel M. Oppenheimer, in a research conducted in 2014, found that longhand note-takers took fewer notes than laptop note-takers due to the slower speed of writing. However, it gave them more time to process the information efficaciously which led to better understanding and retention. As a consequence, students taking handwritten notes were able to answer conceptual questions better than students taking notes on laptops. So, the importance of paper-based note-taking is beyond doubt. Our teachers and educationists need to work together in order to mitigate the factors that demotivate students to take notes. Allowing this practice to claim a more solid foothold in classroom teaching will enhance the learners' multitasking ability in the form of listening, writing, and thinking at the same time. At its best, classroom teaching not just at the tertiary but all levels should be lively, motivating, participatory and interactive. Once this two-way traffic of sharing knowledge receives a shot in the arm, students in general as well as higher education in the country will reap rich dividends out of this traditional but apparently ordinary practice.
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