Want to Engage Students? Drop the Jargon and Ask Better Questions
By: Anthony Clemons
Tags: Higher Education, Education, Communication, Education Technology, Learning

Image Credit: Innovative Educators

When a generally understandable academic article is published or an educator gets students to think critically about their beliefs, neither event comes with much acclaim. Rather, the article is digitally shelved somewhere between obscurity and irrelevance (or is grossly misinterpreted or oversimplified) and everyone just assumes the professor was just doing her job.

But there’s something to be said for academic literature that’s understandable in a vocation that prides itself on being obtuse through the liberal application of exotic language, esoteric terms, and technical jargon.

There’s also something to be said for getting students to deeply reflect on their beliefs and assumptions in settings where the notion of critical thought is a nice byproduct of teaching that could have never achieved critical thought in the first place. And yet, the lingering question remains as to how to get an educator to generalize their message and stoke critical thought.

Interestingly, new research is coming forward that explains why people use jargon-laced language to communicate, which, if subverted, can lead a better understanding of the content by more people and educators being able to implement strategies that stoke critical thought on the deeper points of the content.

Ego Gets In the Way

Early in my career, I was regularly accused of using jargon and talking over people’s heads. I’d always opt for the larger and complex words and phrases that made me out to be the smartest person in the room. It took me years to understand that I wasn’t communicating in a way people could appreciate my message, which usually meant that I’d leave the conversation satisfied and they’d leave frustrated.

As I’ve matured, I’ve come to believe that a lot of people, including the younger version of myself, tend to be obtuse because of ego. But how you communicate should ultimately be guided by your audience and where you can most reasonably assume they are in their understanding of whatever it is you’re talking about.

I’ve always been told both by my father and my friends and peers. You don’t have to use $5 words to get the point across. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t. There is a time and a place for using certain terms, but it should never be in service to ego. Instead, it should be for the sake of making your message meaningfully tailored to those on the receiving end of your message.

Status Determines the Use of Jargon

Adam Grant, Professor of Organizational Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, published the following tweet on September 29th:

Adam Grant’s Tweet

The tweet alerted me to a forthcoming study confirming something I’d always thought: people who use jargon to sound smart are insecure.

Alliteratively titled Compensatory conspicuous communication: Low status increases jargon use, the November 2020 study merges data from nine studies. The result? Those who lack status resort to unnecessarily technical language to look smart; whereas, those with status were more concerned with the clarity of their communication. This means that the insecurity that drives people to use jargon ultimately comes down to how they feel about their standing in whatever field they’re in.

If you’ve ever taken a class to a new (read inexperienced) professor or chatted with someone who has a touch of narcissism, you’ve probably noticed both use technical jargon. This study is an indictment of that tendency and, for the first time, gives us a reason that people regress to jargon when communicating: perceived threats to one’s ego.

But what exactly do the researchers who published the study mean by status?

If I’m a credentialed professional with little experience and I’m unsure of myself, I’ll probably use technical terms (jargon) to show you how much I know. However, if I’m recognized as a subject matter expert in my field by my peers and others, I’m more likely to communicate for a wider audience because my status is more solidified. This means that our ability to communicate our ideas effectively to the most number of people comes down to our ego and where we believe we stand against others (perceived or otherwise) in our professional lives.

Questions for Critical Thought

Losing the jargon and putting our egos in check isn’t enough, though, if we’re trying to get people to think deeply about what it is we’re talking about. To get after that, the next step in good communication is knowing how to ask the right types of questions to stoke the intellectual flame of those wanting to learn more about our message given how well we’ve communicated it. So what types of questions do we need to be asking?

There are three main types of questions that stoke critical thought in any learner:

How? What? Why?

These questions are in stark contrast to, say, a binary question (yes/no) that only permits a single response. So, for example, when somebody says or asks, Hey, is Michael Jordan the greatest basketball player of all time? Well, that automatically falls into my beliefs; whereby, I’d just respond Sure, Michael Jordan is the greatest player of all time. To answer that question I had to do zero critical thinking. All I had to do was rely on my unchallenged feelings and beliefs to give you an immediate response.

Instead, I should ask, How can Michael Jordan be considered the greatest player of all time? What could keep Michael Jordan from being considered the greatest player of all time? Or Why do we believe that Michael Jordan is the greatest player of all time? Those types of questions force me to critically reflect on beliefs and are a catalyst for opening me up to new information.

Tools for Critical Reflection

Now that we’ve set aside our ego, clearly communicated the message, and formed the right questions, the final step is thinking about the best medium to give learners the chance to critically respond.

Tool choices depend on the objective(s) of a class, what the instructor is comfortable using, and what the students prefer. From there, there are really three categories of tools to choose from that I’ve listed below that are great mediums for students to critically reflect on any topic:

Writing-Focused Tools: These types of tools include blogs, journals (analog or digital), discussion boards, and letters Video-Focused Tools: These types of tools include class response systems like Flipgrid, vlogs, and YouTube recordings Community-Focused Tools: These are tools that involve bringing communities of learners together. The types of tools can include virtual reality, augmented reality, community games (Second Life, Word of Warcraft), and social media platforms

Ultimately, the choice of educational technology tool is driven by the level of critical thought being sought, and the level of interactivity the student is expected to engage in. That’s a conscious choice on the part of the instructor when panning the choreography of post-class assignments.

As a final thought, the available educational technology tools can sometimes guide how an instructor chooses to facilitate a lesson. Instead, the learning objectives and instructional expectations should guide the choice of tools. However, it’s important to know what tools are available to know how to maximize the potential of achieving and even exceeding the learning objectives of a given block of instruction.