Teachers Can Help Students "Translate" Ideas
by
Martha M. Peters

A student says, "Excuse me, professor. I did not understand that." The professor then repeats the statement in a louder voice, enunciating all the words more clearly.

Sometimes a louder repetition is exactly what students need. More often, students' questions indicate that they have not been able to connect the concept to something significant for them. If so, they need different words to make the professor's communication meaningful. They need words that touch their knowledge base and experience.

Recently, a student made this point by telling me that one of her professors routinely explained every concept in two different ways. The professor's first explanation was like a foreign language to the student, but the second explanation was usually more experientially based and more understandable. The student made it a practice to write down both explanations and put an equal sign between them so she could work on learning the terminology and meaning of the first explanation from her understanding of the second. She described her experience as "translating."

Why "translate"?

One reason for the need to "translate" is the inherent difference in starting points between an expert and a novice. For an expert who has already put together a framework or mental map of an area of law, concepts have context and fit within a larger picture or pattern of relationships. This "seamless web" is a reflection of the integrated knowledge of the expert.

Students, however, start as novices, bringing only their interest in learning and whatever experiences and knowledge their lives and academic backgrounds provide. Instead of the multidimensional, intricate pattern of the expert, students must sort through a variety of maps developed for other areas. They scan for similarity of content or pattern to connect this new concept with past knowledge and experience. Only then can they begin constructing simple frameworks for the new concepts.

The difference between a teacher and another expert is the teacher's willingness to stop and make "seams" or entry points that help the novice. The expert may try to reach back to recall early experiences with legal concepts, but while important, this will still be limited because the expert cannot easily erase current insights, and because there are many learning factors.

Variety of learning styles

The teacher's particular experience is but one of many possible processes for learning the same material. For the teacher, this may be the clearest, easiest way to understand: It worked for her or him! However, many students will require different methods and metaphors. The need for other ways to cognize material is prescribed by past experience and learning style, not intelligence. Even when the student develops a complex, integrated pattern of understanding, it will not exactly match the professor's. However, if learning is accurate, the pattern will have the same basic elements, similar relationships, and corresponding application outcomes.

In any class, there probably are more students who learn in ways different from the professor than students who learn similarly to that professor. How do teachers bridge the gap? How do students cross the bridge? In fact, most students do make that leap, sometimes because of the teacher, sometimes in spite of the teacher.

I believe good teachers invite students to participate in a joint project as equal partners with different resources and responsibilities. To ascertain what students need, we should look to them to give us clues about how to build the bridge. What are they doing to translate, understand, integrate, and apply the material? How can we use this information to improve our communication with students?

Translation aids

Students who use commercial or "grapevine" study aids may provide one clue. Many students use these materials to help them identify basic vocabulary and simple relationship patterns, or to help them sort major concepts. The teacher who believes students who use study aids are lazy overlooks the reality that many students need resources to consult that reinforce or clarify their understanding from a different perspective and in different words.

In my experience, students may benefit from using study aids as a tertiary source, to confirm or illuminate their understanding of the material or the process of analysis that they encountered in reading for class and in class discussion. It often helps to see something simplified so that the primary elements are identified more easily when they are applied to another context or in another problem. Going over the terminology and concepts in a somewhat different form also provides a review. A discrepancy between their professor's presentation and these other materials motivates students to learn more in order to clarify or resolve the contradiction.

The process of "translating"

However, for some students who need to translate, study aids are not effective. I recall one student who tried a number of study aids at the urging of his study group, but he succeeded only when he started analytically flow-charting his courses. Another student came to see me because she was having difficulty outlining. She needed to have a visual image of analyses. She loved to flow-chart. In fact, it was so much fun for her to use that process that she assumed it was wrong. Everyone she knew was working on outlines, and all the organizational models she had seen were in outline form, so she thought she needed to work harder to make outlines. When she could visualize the material through a flow-chart, her grades shot up.

In the classroom, visually oriented students need to take the professor's oral message and translate. For these students, charts or visual schematics showing the relationship of the different elements of a concept can be helpful. Encouraging students to work through the development of a flow chart or decision tree in class can reinforce concepts. Asking them to apply their visual structures to hypotheticals will help them to refine their conceptual framework.

Other students learn better auditorially. A useful translation aid for these students is to let them tape-record classes. For this type of learner, taking notes interferes with the learning process, but without a record of what happened in class, they cannot do the next important step of learning: reviewing. Handing out an outline of important class points at the beginning of class also can free students to use their auditory learning by listening with their full attention.

A realistic problem method makes the material more useful and concrete for many students. They learn by using and applying the material. These learners usually want to be able to see how something works. They want to know when and how it is used. Problems, role-plays, and small-group tasks help these students to translate.

Other ways to facilitate "translating"

Some students need a framework or overview to have a context within which to put details. Their process of translating involves relating cases to the big picture. Without the big picture for reference, they are often confused and have a difficult time sorting through all the information. Giving an overview and assigning materials that provide a brief synopsis of the material to be covered and its relationship within the course are beneficial for these students. Other students find overviews so shallow as to be meaningless without the factual situations that give the general principles depth. Providing a summary when finishing a section helps them bring the material together.

"Translating" for exams

I have found that students who need to translate what a professor has said in order to make it meaningful within their context need to be careful about accuracy when translating back on exams. Not surprisingly, those students with the greatest need to "translate" often find themselves hard-pressed to get this process accomplished within the time limits imposed by most exams. Also, their class preparation often includes translating into their understanding, which takes more time than just reading the next day's assignment.

The more congruent the student's learning style is to the professor's, and the more the student and professor have in common, the more likely it is that the student will share and understand the professor's constructs and examples. The challenge in a diverse classroom is finding ways to communicate with students who have dissimilar experiences, interests, and learning styles. Bridging that gap is a significant reward of teaching.