[1] Research by Mueller and Oppenheimer (2014) compared students who typed lecture notes on laptops with those who wrote them by hand during the same time.

[2] In terms of immediate results, laptop users typed and recorded more words during the lectures, and their notes were aimost word-for-word transcripts of the lectures. The initial assumption was that this would ultimately be beneficial for these students compared with those who were handwriting their notes.

[3] After the lectures, the two groups of students in this study were tested on the information presented. The results showed that students who wrote by hand during lectures scored significantly higher on the tests than those who typed.

[4] The immediate question was: "Why was this the case?" Muelier and Oppenheimer (2014) found that students who handwrote their notes were consistently engaged in higherlevel thinking. This meant that throughout their lectures, these students were actively listening and intellectually analyzing what to record. This led to higher knowledge-based outcomes.

[5] Luo et al. (2018) found that handwritten notes contained more meaningful content (such as deeper thought and greater intellectual structure), resulting in higher scores on knowledge-based tests.

[6] Morehead et al. (2019) confirmed that the benefits of handwriting are most evident when students are assessed on higher-order conceptual understanding rather than on memorizing facts.

[7] These studies confirm that handwriting is an essential cognitive process and a highly beneficial intellectual activity that enhances learning at advanced levels of education and that begins from the first day of school and continues thereafter.

[8] This evidence from university classrooms illustrates a broader principle: handwriting for note-taking is a deeper thinking skill. When students write by hand, they actively select and synthesize information.

[9] This process requires them to decide what is essential, how ideas connect, and how best to represent them in their own words. The research indicates that this type of engagement develops, advances, and enhances critical thinking (defined as the ability to analyze, evaluate, and make reasoned, detailed judgments), because handwriting forces students to process information conceptually rather than transcribe it verbatim.

[10] The research also indicates that this process helps to develop higher-order thinking, which involves analyzing, applying, synthesizing, and evaluating information. This then develops a deeper knowledge potential. Additionally, as confirmed by classroom studies and evidence from neuroscience, handwriting activates broader brain networks than typing.

[11] Building on this, some studies explain that the ongoing substitution of handwriting by typewriting in almost every educational setting may seem somewhat misguided, as it could negatively affect the learning process.

[12] However, Van der Weel and Van der Meer (2024) emphasise the importance of staying current in this everchanging digital world. With this in mind, they state that children must, first and foremost, learn handwriting. Only after they are absoiutely proficient, especially at complex narrative handwriting, should typing be considered.

(Adapted from: https://www.psychologytoday.com)