1. Does Note-taking Method Matter in Physical Therapy School?
- Author
-
Lorio, Anne K. D NCS, Greenberg, Daphne, Oshima, T. C., Gore, Jane B., and Carruth, Laura L.
- Subjects
PHYSICAL therapy students ,DIGITAL technology ,ONE-way analysis of variance ,HANDWRITING ,LEARNING strategies ,DOCUMENTATION ,COMPARATIVE studies ,DESCRIPTIVE statistics ,STUDENT attitudes ,PORTABLE computers - Abstract
Introduction. Personal technology devices are now a primary method of note-taking in graduate learning. This study compared student learning outcomes using laptops for digital note-taking compared with handwritten notes. Review of Literature. Various results were reported in the literature of which note-taking method in undergraduate and graduate levels of learning results in best learning outcomes. Subjects. Subjects were 117 first-year doctoral physical therapy students enrolled in a 3-week wound care course. The study was completed over 3 consecutive years. Methods. Subjects volunteered to either use their laptop for digital note-taking or take handwritten notes on slide handouts. After course completion, course grades were compared between the 2 different note-taking method groups. Results. A 1-way analysis of variance yielded no significant difference due to the method of note-taking on overall course grade F (1, 115) =.048 (P =.827). A 2-way analysis of variance yielded no significant interaction between the method of note-taking and gender, but the main effect of gender was significant, with female subjects scoring higher than male subjects. Another 2-way analysis of variance yielded a significant interaction between the method of note-taking and the age of the student F (1, 113) = 9.402 (P =.003), and a simple main effects analysis for age found a significant difference in course grade between the 2 note-taking methods for older students F (1, 113) = 8.923 (P =.003) but not for younger students. This indicates that the effect of note-taking method on the course grade depended on the age group, specifically the older group tended to perform better with handwritten notes. Discussion and Conclusion. With our findings focusing on graduate physical therapy students, we found that handwritten note-takers tended toward having higher course grades, but they did not significantly outperform the digital note-taking group. Our findings found that the age of student and handwritten note-taking resulted in significantly higher course grades. Female gender was also found to be a significant factor for improved classroom performance in this study. Important and Relevance of Work. Results from this study indicated that modality of note-taking may not matter for most students, but it may matter for older students. Older students performed better in the handwritten notes group, and these findings are important to share with course instructors and with older students who may be struggling in graduate coursework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF