The Importance of handwriting
One of the concerns teachers might have about the increased use of technology in the classroom is the potential lack of handwriting practice for students. Compared to when students type, handwriting connects more visual and motor networks in the brain( James and Guthier, 2006). Being able to write legibly, comfortably and at speed with little conscious effort allows a student to concentrate on the higher-level aspects of writing composition and content. With the majority of students taking GCSE, A Level and IB exams still being assessed on hand written exams, fast and legible handwriting remains a critical skill. Michael Gove, in his Education Act 2011, referenced a correlation that he had deduced between countries that occupied the top four positions in the PISA 2012 league table- Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong that place great emphasis on traditional pedagogical skills relying on handwriting as a key discipline in providing a structured mind, cognitive skills and the student’ s ability to possess and retrieve textual information( Doug, 2019).
Note-taking in the classroom: handwriting versus typing
Selina Harvey, Teacher of Classics
The use of technology in the education system is on the rise. In the Department for Education’ s Technology in Schools Survey 2022-3 it reports that 43 % of IT leads in secondary schools said their school had a Bring Your Own Device policy. But does an increase in the use of technology correspond to an increase in pupil attainment? In the same survey education leaders and teachers were asked whether technology had contributed to improved pupil attainment. Education leaders were more likely than teachers to report that technology had contributed to improved pupil attainment in the last three years( 67 % vs. 45 % respectively). When thinking about the impact of technology across the next three years, again education leaders were more positive than teachers: 83 % of leaders believed that technology will contribute to improved pupil attainment, compared with only 64 % of teachers. So, education leaders appear to have more faith in the potential of student device use than the teachers who see them being used in the classroom setting. What might this difference suggest?
Handwriting versus typing
Aside from the importance for public examinations, we should also be considering whether the process of handwriting aids students’ understanding when recording information. Mueller and Oppenheimer’ s( 2014) research compared note-taking writing on paper versus typing on a laptop keyboard. Their conclusion was that taking notes longhand was superior. Flanigan, Wheeler and Colliot’ s( 2024) meta-analysis took this research further looking at 24 studies to see how note-taking methods affected the volume of notes taken and test performance with US college students. Across all of the studies included in the meta-analysis, typed notes led to students taking a greater amount of notes, with electronic notes containing significantly more words and ideas from the lesson than handwritten notes. Although this might seem to be a positive when compared to writing by hand, which is much slower, the outcome was actually the opposite. Students who are handwriting notes often can’ t keep up with writing down what the speaker is saying and therefore may end up summarising the content or even cutting parts out, paraphrasing in their own personal style. By being forced to directly engage with the material and only take down the most important points, the student is making connections between the lesson content and their own existing schemas which leads to deeper understanding( Piaget, 1952). Although the research in this area in secondary schools is scant, the conclusion of a study by Horbury and Edmonds( 2020) which looked at note taking by 10 and 11 year old boys found that conceptual understanding was significantly better after a delay of one week in the students who handwrote their lesson notes, compared to those who typed them on a laptop.
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