INTRODUCTIONEvery job in the world needs its own specific tools. In the tool box of students, teachers and researchers, the most important tool may appear to be note-taking. By definition, taking notes implies comprehending either a written document or a lecture and recording information by writing it down (Biria, Haghverdi and Karimi 2010). Initially the debates centered on whether note-taking resulted in improved student performance on tests. Over the years, researchers have tried to verify that note-taking helps students improve on learning. Over the years, researchers have tried to verify that note-taking helps students “encode” the information involved and that notes are valuable as materials for review. However, the end has not come yet, and the researchers has have always recommended further studies hoping to reveal more benefits of note-taking. According to (Montserrat and Monereo 2005), note-taking is the hegemonic study activity and, in many cases, the main ground for education interaction between teacher and student.
This observation has given rise to an increasing interest in studying students note-taking and its impact on learning. In broad terms, three lines of research have been developed in the last 40 years: the effects of note-taking and note-rewriting on some cognitive variable (attention, memory, comprehension, and so on); the relationship between quality of notes and significance of learning; and the changes in the teaching methodology which may enhance note-taking (Montserrat and Monereo 2005).Note- taking is something essential for all those who deal with study as food, water and air are for humans’ lives. The necessity of conducting such a study originates from the uses, advantages and importance of note-taking for those who, in one way or another, deal with learning, teaching and researching. People take notes to study for examinations, to prepare a technical talk and to record the minutes of work meetings. All note taking entails recording information collected from one or more sources. Such a record constitutes a stable external memory that is intended to help to plan future activities, to learn, to think or to create. Thus, it is important to understand this common activity for both theoretical and practical reasons (Piolat, Olive and Kellogg 2005).
The process of taking notes in itself is beneficial for learning because it serves two purposes which is encoding of content, which is potentially enhanced by taking notes, and storage of information for which is helpful at a later; point when a student reviews the material. During lecture, students must decide which information to integrate into their working memory and which information to store into their long-term memory to be retrieved in the future. This information is what should be recorded in students notes.To further investigate the theme, this report aims to analyze the related literature focusing on the significance of how note taking improves or affect our learning, the theory underlying it.
