Personal planningHandling lectures The Department of Biosciences Foundation Degree

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Personal planning/Handling lecturesThe
Department of Biosciences Foundation Degree

• Week 9
• Week 10
• Shaun Theobald
• The Student Learning Advisory Service

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Aims of Week 10 Lectures notes

• Brief review of Week 9
• To understand why lectures are used in HE
• To help develop techniques for using lectures
  effectively
• To examine some techniques for note taking
• Lectures
• Printed text
• To practice some of these note taking techniques

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Week 9 Summary points

• Time management
• Clear targets
• Flexible targets
• Weekly schedules
• Organisation
• Careful selective reading
• Concentration
• Block Break Review

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What are lectures?

• They are a formal opportunity for one expert
  figure usually an academic member of staff in
  HE to share core information widely
• They provide the essential information about a
  module
• They provide this in a logical sequence

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What are lectures?

• Because of their size, they are an efficient way
  of reaching large numbers of people
• This is especially the case where students from
  different programmes are studying a shared core
  module e.g. BI300

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Typical problems

• Going into the lecture unprepared
• Fall in concentration after first 15 mins.
• Trying to note down everything
• Conversely, not taking enough notes
• Making lecture notes too dense on the page
• Untidy lecture notes
• Lecture notes that are not filed away
• Lecture notes that cant be used

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Preparation for Lectures

• Be on time!
• Be physically fit and alert
• Map lectures across your programme of study
• Put them in context against
• practicals
• supervisions
• seminars tutorials
• course outline
• reading for the module/subject
• assessment targets

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Preparation for Lectures

• Think about them in advance
• Note down questions in advance
• Carry out essential preparatory reading/tasks
• Even if you are pushed for time, make sure you
  check some of the core reading!
• Review the previous lecture notes for the module
• Dont miss any lectures!

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Active Listening Skills

• Listen for pace/volume/tone
• Listen for key stages of a lecture
• Introduction/aims
• Links/summaries
• Where the lecturer departs from a prepared script
• Where the lecturer explains a Power Point
  slide/diagram etc
• Signpost statements
• Closure

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Active Questions

• There may be the opportunity to raise questions,
  especially at the end of the lecture
• Dont be shy!
• Formulate brief questions in advance
• detailed discussion is the preserve of the
  seminar tutorials Stage 1 Handbook,
  Biosciences p.10
• Re-phrase for clarification
• Ask and listen
• Confirm you have heard the reply to your question
• Keep making notes
• Question peers afterwards

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Active Participation

• Practice/think about your listening skills!
• Practice/think about your note taking skills
• Use notes creatively
• Learn to listen and write at the same time
• You dont have to note down everything!
• It is not necessary to commit every utterance of
  the lecture to paper, but to identify and note
  key points Stage 1 Handbook, Biosciences p.10
• So, good notes are selective
• Use a lecture template

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Lecture templates
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Good Practice After the Lecture

• Go over your notes
• Tidy and revise immediately
• If you can, go over the lecture for a couple of
  minutes with another student
• Tidy and revise later as well
• Follow up SAQs
• Files notes away systematically

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Good Practice After the Lecture

• Make sure lecture notes are referenced
• Date/number/cross-reference/title/module links
• Re-use your lecture notes
• For active revision
• For assignment preparation
• Remember the golden rule of lecture notes if you
  re-examined them after a gap of some months,
  would you understand them?

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Active Notetaking

• Explore techniques
• But once you have found those that work, stick to
  them!
• You need to get down information quickly and
  accurately
• Adapt your techniques accordingly
• Apply these methods to texts as well
• Notes from texts must be selective too

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Notetaking Techniques

• Bullet points
• SAQs
• Self assessment questions
• Layout
• Wide margins
• Headings and sub-headings
• Indents
• Directional arrows

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Notetaking Techniques

• Underlining key words/concepts
• Colour
• Highlighter
• Signs and symbols ( lt gt )
• Abbreviations
• Separate sheets/post-its for formula/data?

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Types of notes

• As well as linear notes, there are 2 other main
  type of notes Cornell notes Pattern notes
  (Brain maps)
• See
• http//learning.londonmet.ac.uk/TLTC/learnhigher/n
  otemaker/index.html
• Both of these have distinct advantages

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Activity

• Practice Exercise
• Reed, Robert (1998) Practical Skills in
  Biomolecular Sciences Harlow, Longman pp3 5
• Stage 1 Work in pairs
• Discuss the text identify the main points
• Stage 2 Individually
• Using some of the techniques we have discussed,
  make some notes for one of these pages

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Feed-back

• We are always interested in your views about our
  study skills sessions within departments please
  let us know what you think -
• https//survey.kent.ac.uk/slas-advantage

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Feed-back

• We are always interested in your views about our
  study skills sessions within departments please
  let us know what you think -
• https//survey.kent.ac.uk/slas-advantage

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Further academic advice guidance

• The Student Learning Advisory Service
• www.kent.ac.uk/uelt/learning