DAVAO ORIENTAL STATE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SAN ISIDRO CAMPUS MALACABAC, BATOBATO, SAN ISIDRO, DAVAO ORIENTAL AN ACTION RESEARCH ON THE EFFECTIVITY OF TAKING NOTES AND TAKING PICTURES AS A TECHNIQUE IN STUDYING AMONG BEED IV-A STUDENTS By Student-Researchers: Mark Anthony L. Batausa Madonna Grace Planteras Mary Jane Suan Rachel Maranga Van Hazel Paytone Sara Jane Pajiji Rhejane Absalon Abstract Taking notes is a common strategy among higher education students, and has been found to affect their academic performance. Nowadays, however, the use of cellphones is replacing the traditional pencil-and-paper methodology. The present study aims to identify the advantages and disadvantages associated with the use of cellphones (taking pictures) and pencil-and-paper (handwriting) for taking notes by college students. A total of 30 BEEd students participated in the study. Two experimental conditions were chosen: taking notes (25) and taking pictures (5). Some of the BEED students suggested that taking picture is less effective than taking notes for learning. Prior studies have primarily focused on students’ capacity for multitasking and distraction when using cellphones. Those that used cellphones for note taking can't concentrate on the discussion because of the distractions that was on the cellphones like games and social media applications. However, those using handwritten notes (taking notes) performed better on free recall tasks. Experimental and survey results converge and dictate that the and preferred practice for students learning is taking notes. I. Introduction Studying techniques are approaches applied to learning. They are generally critical to success in school,considered essential for acquiring good grades and useful for learning throughout one’s life. Every student needs to study,each of them has different techniques to study their lessons at school. In line with note-taking, students notes created in class or while reviewing course material ,are an important tool for learning. Many students and instructors feel that note-taking is an obvious and initiative skill to have, yet few consider or encourage best practices. Unfortunately,many students are unaware of or don not appreciate the benefits that effective note-taking may have on their own learning and the importance of cultivating their note-taking skills over the course of their education. Good note-taking practices can lead to efficient study practices, better course outcomes and improve retention of content beyond a course conclusion (Michael C. Friedman). While in taking pictures as a technique in studying,students who write notes actually learn more than those who are only taking pictures but it is easier to do so and no rush needed and you only just open your mobile phones then you can study (Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer) This study will determine which technique is effective in studying in SIC education Students Would it be writing down notes or taking picture of notes. II. Statement of the Problem This study will determine which is more effective studying technique in SIC- education students,writing down notes or taking picture of notes. Specifically it sought to answer the following: 1. How many percentage of the students prefer to use taking notes and taking pictures as a technique in studying among 4th year BEED IV-A students? 2. What particular situation does these two studying technique better to use? 3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of taking notes and taking picture of notes ? III. Methodology This action research aims to determine the mostly used studying techniques of Education students in all year level either it is taking notes or taking pictures. The responses of the respondents is being measured through survey questionnaire. On the first day, we disseminate survey questionnaire to all BEED-IV A containing 30 respondents. The result of the survey will be computed through manual tally. After we tally the survey result we will evaluate the result using graph .Through the graph presentation ,we can now determine what studying technique is the most commonly used. IV. Data Gathering The student-researcher started the experiment for a week. First, we conduct a consensus of what will be the content of our questionnaires that will cater the information needed for our survey. The questionnaires were distributed to 30 respondents of BEED 4-A students. The scores of 30 respondents after the survey were taken and this data were coded and tallied. V. Results and Discussions The survey result shows the percentage of the responses in every question we ask, to our 30 respondents in BEED IV –A .In question number 1, 83% of them prefer to use taking notes and 17% of them in favour to taking pictures.In question number 2 (In what particular situation does taking notes/taking pictures better to use?) , 37% of them prefer to choose the situation in number 1 , 53% of them prefer to choose the situation in number 2 , 17% of them prefer to choose the situation in number 3 , 30% of them prefer to choose the situation in number 4 , 23% of them prefer to choose the situation in number 5 , 23% of them prefer to choose the situation in number 6 , 16% of them prefer to choose the situation in number 7 , 33% of them prefer to choose the situation in number 8 .In question number 3 ( What are the advantages and disadvantages of taking notes?) ,for the advantages , 37% of them prefer to choose the first situation, 40% of them prefer to choose the second situation, 83% of them prefer to choose the third situation, 53% of them prefer to choose the forth situation, 70% of them prefer to choose the fifth situation, 30% of them prefer to choose the sixth situation, 43% of them prefer to choose the seventh situation. For the disadvantage of taking notes, 57% of them prefer to choose the first situation, , 50% of them prefer to choose the second situation, 20% of them prefer to choose the third situation, 20% of them prefer to choose the forth situation, 33% of them prefer to choose the fifth situation. In question number 4, ( What are the advantages and disadvantages of taking pictures?) for the advantages ,57% of them prefer to choose the first situation, 60% of them prefer to choose the second situation, 47% of them prefer to choose the third situation, 33% of them prefer to choose the forth situation, 33% of them prefer to choose the fifth situation, 50% of them prefer to choose the sixth situation, 20% of them prefer to choose the seventh situation.And for the disadvantage of taking pictures, , 77% of them prefer to choose the first situation, 77% of them prefer to choose the second situation, 40% of them prefer to choose the third situation, 50% of them prefer to choose the forth situation. VI. Findings The student-researcher found out what is more effective studying technique in 4th year BEED students of SIC, whether it is writing down notes or taking pictures of notes. The following are the findings in this action research: 1. Based on the survey we conducted, the percentage of the students who prefer to use writing down notes is 83% while there are 17% who choose taking picture of notes. 2. Based on their responses, taking notes is better to use when the situations are reporting using visual aids and when getting the factual information. And taking picture of notes is better to use when the situations are reporting using PPT and when you are in a rush. 3. Based on their responses, the advantages of writing down notes are; It helps them familiarize the lesson while taking down notes and it is easy to study because you can make outline while writing down notes while the disadvantages of writing down notes are; writing down notes is tiresome and when you are writing down notes you cannot listen to your teacher/reporter carefully. And the advantages of taking picture of notes are; taking pictures of notes can easily be search and stored and no hassle of carrying loads of heavy books/notebooks, photocopies in school everyday while the disadvantages of taking pictures of notes are; while studying, the attention is converted to the other applications installed in your phone and when you lost your memory card or your cellphone will be corrupted, all your files will be corrupted. VII. Conclusions The following are the conclusion of this study: 1. Most of the students in BEED IV-A prefer to use writing down notes as their studying technique. 2. The most common reason why BEED IV-A prefer to use taking notes is that it helps them to familiarize the lesson while taking down notes and the least reason why they didn’t prefer to use taking notes is that it is tiresome in their part. VIII. Recommendation Taking notes and taking pictures are are the same technique in studying. However, they differ in many ways, when taking pictures it is easy to do so because you will just capture those topic that you want to study but you have to consider different instances that it might be deleted in your files . When taking notes you will spend more time to copy a given topic but this will not be deleted in your notebook unlike in taking picture. Some of the students are comfortable on taking pictures and some of those are fond of taking notes therefore, students do differ in many ways. Although this two varied in some ways it's still a technique that you can use in studyi g. So Our recommendation is that it will depend on you on what technique you are capable off and what suits to your liking because this two technique will help you in your studies . This two are effective in studying and we do believed that your grade will not vary on what technique you used but vary on how well you study and apply it. IX. References Fried, C. B. (2008). Advantages of taking Notes, 50, 906–914. Hadwin, A. F., Kirby, J. R., & Woodhouse, R. A. (1999). Individual differences in notetaking, summarization, and learning from lectures. The Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 45, 1-17. Hartley, J. (2002). Notetaking in non-academic settings: A review. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 16, 559–574. doi:10.1002/acp.814 Huxham, M. (2010). The medium makes the message: Effects of cues on students’ lecture notes. Active Learning in Higher Education, 11, 179–188. doi:10.1177/1469787410379681 Jacobs, K. (2008). A comparison of two note taking methods in a secondary English classroom. 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