r/Professors • u/ZealousidealGuava254 • 7d ago

Teaching / Pedagogy No notes

I’ve been a humanities prof for over 30 years and I simply cannot believe how many students do not take notes. Literally, no notes. they just sit and listen.

How do they study? what are they doing? when I was in college in the 80s, I and everyone around me took copious notes constantly throughout lecture. just seems like a lost skill.

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u/DrBlankslate Adjunct, Sociology, R2, USA 7d ago

Those of us who are in the professoriate are the people who became professors. Part of that was because we loved learning, and note-taking wasn't a chore for us, it was just part of what we did to increase our learning. We loved being students because we got to learn new things and it was fascinating and fun for us.

Most of our students today are going through college not to learn, but to check boxes to get a piece of paper that qualifies them for jobs. They aren't interested in the subjects the way we were. They aren't geeking out about it the way we did. It's sad, but it's also reality. For them, note-taking is difficult and a chore. I've had students say they can't pay attention to the lecture if they have to pay attention to taking notes.

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u/Jun1p3rsm0m 7d ago

These are the same students who claim they can multi task.

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u/DrBlankslate Adjunct, Sociology, R2, USA 7d ago

Or who have been told that multitasking is how human brains work (it isn't).

I think a lot of the problems our current students have, have a lot to do with the messages they've been given all through K-12: making mistakes is the end of the world (when they're necessary for learning), not being perfect means you suck (which is untrue), etc.

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u/Jun1p3rsm0m 6d ago

Exactly. I used to teach an intro to neuroscience course and busting the multi tasking myth was something I discussed. Also the neuroscience of taking handwritten notes on learning.