The best high school teacher I ever had was the one who demanded that we learn to take notes. He was a science teacher taught largely by way of an overhead projector with us taking notes. We were expected to take those notes to find and study the appropriate material which we would later be tested on. He also graded our notes.
Its a habit that I’ve carried with me ever since. I almost always carry a pocket sized notepad and write facts that I may need to keep track of. I know it certainly impresses a new boss to see a new hire paying that kind of attention to detail.
Today, THAT science teacher would be rated unsatisfactory. The new Commie Core Curriculum demands that students NOT be taught by a teacher putting notes up on a board, but that they read passages in groups and answer questions based on the reading. They must then be able to cite where they got the information to formulate their answers. Teacher-centered lessons will get you unemployed. Student-centered lessons will eventually get this country nowhere. How can neophyte learners teach themselves? How can they know what is important in these readings? What if they can’t read the passages properly? Then the whole class time has been wasted and they have learned nothing. I still say that the teacher should teach the class and that the students should take notes, broken up during the week with some hands-on activities.