One shouldn't take notes at all. Class is for understanding; material should be available in books.
Notebooks are an escape if the class is boring/irrelevant. They should not be banned, so students can make at least something useful. I learned a lot about programming in high school from printed materials from under the desk in some classes which where not for me.
Class is for understanding; notes are for recording the class, so that the understanding can be revitalized at a later date.
In other words, notes are your tool to have access to those critical moments of understanding again, later. I don't know about you, but even if I have a "eureka" moment, it may start to slip through my fingers and require refreshing once or twice.
I do love having recordings of a lecture, but that is a very recent development and not always offered. Up until somewhere in the 2008-2010 timeframe, recording/storing/serving decent video in a systematic, campus-wide fashion was a very daunting task. (Thankfully the hardware & storage has gotten much cheaper, and people's internet is faster)
That was my MO throughout high school and college. I watched countless students buried in a laptop or (paper) notebook furiously trying to keep up and undoubtedly not even processing phrases or sentences. Of the people I talked to, most were convinced that it's better than just listening, but I suspect they would find their memory is a lot better if they're actually comprehending strings of speech longer than two or three phonemes.
The only exception for me were courses that were heavy in symbolic manipulation, like calculus, statistics, and relational algebra. For those, the concepts are still easily gleanable from the textbooks, but I found that it's very helpful to follow along with the teacher on paper to practice the physical manipulation of symbols.
I'd hesitate to enforce one approach on everyone. I find that making notes helps me to understand. I'm an algebraic rather than an analytical thinker, and I like to scrawl out some thoughts and equations as I learn from the lecturer.
I disagree. Writing down the important parts of a lecture can keep you focused on what's important. If your goal is to write down the important parts of a lecture, you're going to constantly be asking yourself what's important.
Also, by writing something down, you're repeating the fact in your head a second time. Once when you hear it, the second when you rephrase and write. I find notes improve comprehension, because notes force this kind of comprehension.
okay, I guess everyone learns differently. Then, you were lucky this time. I just hope all our kids will be able to choose their preferences when it's their turn.
They can be about structure, or about your own mental process. Or they can simply be a way to transfer spoken material to a visual (written) format -- some people learn better with their eyes than their ears.
Notebooks are an escape if the class is boring/irrelevant. They should not be banned, so students can make at least something useful. I learned a lot about programming in high school from printed materials from under the desk in some classes which where not for me.