by Rennison Lalgee

In my years of teaching, it was not unusual to see students in class that did not take notes. However, I’ve noticed an increasing number of students that come to class (some of them have perfect attendance!) who will not even bring a pen. This semester I used the “pause procedure” technique during my lectures. The Pause Procedure is one way to “interrupt” the long lecture and give students an opportunity to “reset”. The primary function of this process is to increase student retention of presented material. When employing the pause procedure, the students will stop three times during the class period and form dyads to discuss material presented and determine unclear concepts or to fill in gaps in their notes. At the conclusion of the class, the students put away their notes and write as many important points, facts, names as they can remember without using their notes. They are informed that this information is not to be graded but to help the instructor in evaluating the effectiveness of teaching key points.

Students have reported that they like the process as it gives them an opportunity to get clarification from classmates before falling behind during the lecture. I like it because I get to see later that day which ideas may need more work or clarification. There are, of course, greater benefits as well. The regularity of the process has increased student engagement with each other. I find students actually talking to each other before class begins instead of looking at their phones. I’ve learned from my own interactions with students that they already have several students that can fill them in on missed work when they are absent.

Lastly, without having to ask them to take notes, the “pause procedure” process implicitly requires students to take notes, knowing that they will have to share information with classmates. There are different exercises that one can build from this process, but I’ve enjoyed seeing the increased student engagement as well as everyone taking notes!