Abstract:

This work is encompassed in a university context in which, at a general level, a decrease in the final grades of the subjects of the first years of the engineering degrees has been detected. There are several authors who indicate that this reduction in the performance may be closely related to the ability of the students to record all the information that they acquire from the teaching staff. Taking this starting hypothesis, the group of teachers that make up this study carried out a new model for collecting and processing information for the subject “Physics I”. Subject belonging to the STEM field and mandatory in all engineering courses at the University of Valladolid (Spain). This new method, application of the Cornell one, was based on the development of a new original personalized template to improve the collection of information from the problems/cases solved in the classroom, as well as their subsequent treatment to achieve a more effective study. This template recorded both the problems resolution itself and other aspects such as the formulas used, the description of the steps followed or the possible variations, among others. It was applied to two different degrees, establishing a control and experimental group for each one. The results indicated an increase of more than 0.5 points out of 10 of the experimental group over the control for the average grades of both the ordinary and extraordinary calls.

Keywords:

Academic performance, cornell method, higher education, note-taking, physics, STEM.