Why do students or pupils find it difficult to write their own notes in science?

Question

In lessons school students tend to write very short answers to questions. they rarely seem to write enough about a subject so they can revise it. If they do copy from a board or textbooks they only write their teachers understanding of the information not their own. What can be done about this?

Answer 1

My experience with taking notes (at least in a lecture setting) has been that it's easier to just write what's being said/displayed, then go back and try to understand it. I don't want to bog down the rest of the class by asking questions every two minutes.


What helps is when a professor uses PowerPoint and makes the slides available to the class, and recording lectures. Other than that, it's up to the student to fully understand the material (as opposed to regurgitating information). To make students fully learn concepts, ask questions that weren't used as examples or that deal with the concept as a whole.

Answer 2

Describing concepts concisely is difficult. You only have to look at the number of pages in science textbooks to realise this. Adding to the problem is the sequential nature of understanding in science - a minor fault in comprehension at one point in the concept will render the idea nonsense.
Mechanical, 'blind' copying of a textbook, writings from the blackboard or a teacher's dictation is pointless. As you know, the process of making notes must be an interactive process with input from both student and teacher. What is written by a student during a lesson is only the first draft; there is a lot of work yet to be done.
The teacher has a responsibility to make clear the scope and depth required of both notes and question answers. If a student writes answers that are too short and lack detail it is the fault of the question (and therefore the teacher) for not clarifying the requirements.
A teacher is responsible for carefully developing concepts and most importantly ensuring that the ideas upon which the concept is built are properly understood. This must be planned around the knowledge that different students have differing learning styles - 'one size fits all' does not apply.
It is the teacher's fault that pupils find it difficult to write their own notes.

Answer 3

it is because of the lack of common sense. most of the students don't seem to understand the topic they are working on or at least have a vague idea on it. pupils are expected to know about different things during free time, not only science but in everything. what i can say about science is that it is a complex subject which involves thinking back and forth upon a point made.

Answer 4

thats true with science ive never thought of it like that but you are right. science is a difficult subject and many kids probably find it boring they should do something to make the subject more interesting and then maybe the kids would take part in it more as they would probably understand it better.

Answer 5

it's either they can't be bothered or they think this is not a test so it's ok to write notes in short form. i know and have seen it. I mean i see ur point of writing it whole because when it comes to revision. One solution is u cud tell them to write the question/synopsis above the short answer or tell them it's bothering u, the good ones who want to learn and achieve will notice ur point but u can't force but encourage them. i shud know, i'm a student myself.

Answer 6

taking notes is hard! Often the person speaks very fast and it's hard to process a scentance and then write it down, because you will have already missed 3 more scentances! So my advice would be to slow down.

Answer 7

because science is too hard to understand. science is unending quest for right results. it starts with a question and ends with a question.

Answer 8

Hmm, tough question. But, I do not agree with you.

Answer 9

bcause they are not very bright.