[randcraw]

At the very least, every school, subject, and teacher should be obliged to conduct experiments during the school year -- A/B/C trials in which various forms of note taking are explored: handwritten, computer-typed, and neither.

Then see how it affects the kids' learning speed and retention of the various subjects. Then they need to compare notes with the other teachers to learn what they did differently and what did or didn't work for them.

Ideally they'd also assess how this worked for different types of students, those with good vs bad reading skills, with good vs bad grades, esp those who are underperforming their potential.

[ChadNauseam]

The idea that we would A/B test handwritten vs typed to see what would improve retention is focusing on the wrong thing. It's like A/B testing mayo or no mayo on your big mac to see which version is a healthier meal. No part of the school system is optimized for retention. It's common for students to take a biology class in 9th grade and then never study biology again for the rest of their lives. Everyone knows they won't remember any biology by the time they graduate, and no one cares.

We know what increases retention, it's active recall and (spaced) repetition. These are basic principles of cognitive science have been empirically proven many times. Please try to implement that before demanding that teachers do A/B tests over what font to write the homework assignments in.