Notetaking from textbooks: Effects of a columnar format on three categories of secondary students

Abstract

Abstract We implemented a multiple‐baseline design across social studies and science classes to examine the effectiveness of a columnar notetaking strategy. We designed the strategy to aid secondary students in the process of abstracting main ideas, special terms, and facts from their assigned textbooks on a paragraph by paragraph basis. The treatment involved a diagnostic‐prescriptive approach to placing students with learning disabilities, students in remedial classes, and students without disabilities in three secondary‐level instructional groups: teacher‐directed, dyadic, and independent. The columnar notetaking strategy was effective in treatment, near‐transfer, far‐transfer, and maintenance conditions. We summarize the primary factors underlying treatment effectiveness, elaborate on distinct patterns in the data set, and discuss consumer applications.