In your response to my question about notetaking, you suggested “action research” on notetaking/notemaking as a professional development project. How would I go about beginning such a process? I have the question but I’ve never tackled something of this nature.
—Kelly, Raleigh, North Carolina
Action research is inquiry or research focused on efforts to improve student learning. It typically is designed and conducted by teachers or teams of teachers who analyze the data from their own classrooms to improve their practice and student learning. Action research gives teachers opportunities to reflect on their teaching, explore and test strategies, assess the effectiveness of the strategies, and make decisions about which ones to use and for which students they might be effective. Action research uses the types of thinking and problem-solving we want our students to develop.
The response to your original question on note taking referenced a recent study, “The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking” (summarized here) This study compared note taking with pen and paper versus typing notes on a laptop keyboard. You are wondering about a variation on this—handwritten paper-and-pencil notes vs. notes written on a tablet with a stylus.
Action research models generally have several components, which I’ve annotated with some thoughts about your area of interest:

• Identify and fine-tune a focus area or research question. Some ideas to consider: Would you give notes to students to copy or will they make their own? If the latter, what level of experience do they have with their own note taking/making? Will you require a particular style of notes (outline, Cornell style, concept map, highlighting, margin annotating) or allow the students to choose their own? How proficient are students with writing and drawing with a stylus? (If they are just learning, it could interfere with the quality or quantity of notes they take). If they take or make notes during a lecture or video presentation, time and the pacing of the information also must be considered. You may opt to have them take or make notes from text material they can reread or a video they can pause and review. What do you expect students to do with their notes later on? Do students have access to their notes when they are finished? Do they review from them? Use them in subsequent activities or assessments? Archive them for later? Revise them?

• Design a strategy and collect data. If you have more than one section, you could try each strategy in a different class. Reverse the strategy in the next unit so students a chance to try both strategies. You may need to try the strategy during several lessons if students are novices at notetaking. Your data can be qualitative and quantitative. As the students proceed, listen to their conversations and observe them at work. (You could use photographs or videos to document the process.) Note the students who seem to struggle with either strategy. Examine what students write in their notebooks or on the tablets, describing the accuracy, structure, and content of the notes. Ask questions about their understanding of the purpose of note taking/making. Observe how and when students use their notes. Compile the results of formative and summative assessments.

• Analyze and interpret the data. Document the impact of each strategy. Review if or how the quality and structure of student notes correlates with their assessments. Determine how different note taking/making styles lend themselves to the two strategies. Is there a pattern in how different students react to the strategies? Observe and follow up with students who become frustrated and those display confidence and creativity. Debrief with the students on their understanding, insights, or feelings about the results of this informal study. Does there appear to be a difference in assessment scores between the two strategies?

• Develop an action plan. Depending on your results and the experience level of your students, you may decide that some students may need additional modeling and scaffolding as they take on more responsibility for making and using their notes with either strategy. You may decide to try additional apps for note taking/making. If implementing your action plan leads to more questions, the action research cycle continues.

Action research is classroom-based, not quite as structured as research conducted by universities and think tanks. It’s very personalized, and other teachers can get ideas for their own classrooms from it. It’s not at the level of research published in peer-reviewed research journals. But I’ve been to many NSTA conferences and read many NSTA journal articles in which the teacher-researchers share what they did. My own action research helped me become a better teacher.
Resources:

• Teacher Research
• Action Research for Teachers

Photo: http://tinyurl.com/mp49bu5