Note-Taking Techniques for Students With Disabilities

This article provides a synthesis of note-taking research among students with learning disabilities or other high-incidence disabilities. A search of the professional literature between 1980 and 2010 yielded nine intervention studies, which were evaluated either in terms of effect size or percentage of nonoverlapping data. The studies examined three different note-taking techniques used by students during lectures and included 125 students of varying disabilities. Findings revealed that students who used note-taking techniques were effective at increasing scores on measures of achievement and the quality and quantity of notes recorded. Limitations and implications of note-taking techniques for content-area classrooms are discussed.