EFFECTIVENESS OF NOTETAKING, SELF-QUESTIONING AND SUMMARIZING STRATEGIES ON LEARNING FROM DIAGRAMS

Open Access
- Author:
- Lan, Ya-Ling
- Graduate Program:
- Educational Psychology
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- July 16, 2008
- Committee Members:
- Rayne Audrey Sperling, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
- Keywords:
- self-directed learning
notetaking
reading
summarization
self-questioning
diagrams
comprehension strategies - Abstract:
- The primary purpose of this experimental study was to evaluate the hypothesis that comprehension strategies known to facilitate expository text comprehension were also effective in assisting students¡¦ learning from complex diagrams. The study was conducted in an online environment. The conditions we investigated in this study were a control condition (C) and three experimental conditions: notetaking (N), self-questioning (Q), and summarizing (S) strategies. Two hundred and twenty-eight undergraduate students logged onto a website and were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions to study a text and a normal distribution diagram and to employ the assigned strategies. Upon completion of reading the diagram with the text, all participants took two learning outcome measures: a multiple-choice recognition test and a free recall task. The amount of time that participants spent on the learning materials and testing tasks was also recorded. Overall, results indicated that no significant effect was found among conditions on the multiple-choice recognition test, but a significant difference was found among conditions on the free recall task. Students in the notetaking condition (N) significantly recalled more idea units than students in the control condition (C). The current findings were consistent with previous research that notetaking facilitated students¡¦ knowledge as measured by free recall. Results also indicated no time difference among conditions. Data revealed significant positive correlations between time and learning outcome variables. Our results point to important conclusions, implications, and directions for future research.