One of the fundamental tenets of higher education is that students should take notes on what their instructor says in order to study from those notes later. But there are two problems with this method. First, note-taking requires focusing on what was said in the past, meaning that you often miss what is currently being said. That is partly why students do not want to ask questions in class; they worry that the instructor covered the point while they were making a note. Second, instructors expect students to summarize and synthesize what they’ve said as well as reflect on it. But this is a secondary process that falls to the side as the student scrambles to write down the instructor’s points without falling too far behind.
