Here's what we found:
When we parsed through our interviews, several patterns and understandings emerged.
First (and most prominently), most people have no idea what’s happening to their body when they ingest caffeine. Nearly everyone drank a caffeinated beverage daily, but few had any idea what physiological effects it had. In fact, “It gives you energy” or “it perks you up” were the most common responses. These vocalized feelings suggest that people don’t care to know how caffeine works, which backs up what Daniel T. Willingham (2009) says in his book, Why Don’t Students Like School, about humans needing a problem to be solved in order to learn. When your cup of coffee gets you going in the morning, your problem has been solved. This corresponded to how our interviewees rated their confidence in their caffeine knowledge, as shown in the graph here to the right.
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Another understanding we came away with had to do with our interviewee’s perceived knowledge of caffeine content. When tasked with placing four items (black tea, black coffee, Coke and Redbull) in order from least caffeine content to most, only one person was able to get it right. Almost unanimously, our interviewees placed Redbull as having the most caffeine. We reasoned that this might have something to do with advertising agencies manipulating existing understandings of caffeine, aiding fantasia for those who believe Redbull is most caffeinated.
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Our final observation came accidentally. We asked if our interviewees considered caffeine to be a drug, then prompted them to explain why or why not. When they answered, their responses (and logic behind them) were fascinating.
“I don’t think it’s a drug, because I have it every day and I don’t do drugs.”
“It’s definitely a drug because you can get addicted to it.”
“I think it’s a drug, because it changes your mood and stuff.”
“It’s definitely a drug because you can get addicted to it.”
“I think it’s a drug, because it changes your mood and stuff.”
Although we attempted to elicit understanding about caffeine, we thought our single question about drugs was much more effective at getting at what people think they know about a certain topic, even if it wasn’t on purpose.
For our purposes as teachers, this research project illustrated what we’ve studied this semester about how students come to understand what they’re taught. It seems that the oversimplification of a concept, while appropriate for a short lesson, can often lead to misconceptions that become difficult to remove, especially as students work to construct meaning from what they already know. Our subjects understood the basic function of caffeine as a stimulant, but were reluctant to accept its status as a drug. How often do we encounter students who will understand a learning objective while rejecting information that challenges their previous “mastery”? Working with Shulman’s concept of “Amnesia”, what students are bound to forget, “Fantasia”, what students think they know is correct but isn’t, and “Inertia”, a lack of conceptual understanding of an idea, in mind becomes crucial to ensuring that students build a correct and lasting understanding of what we work so hard to teach.
Attributions:
Shulman, L. (1999). What is learning and what does it look like when it doesn’t go well. Change, 31(4), 10-17.
Willingham, D. (2009). Why Don't Students Like School. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Shulman, L. (1999). What is learning and what does it look like when it doesn’t go well. Change, 31(4), 10-17.
Willingham, D. (2009). Why Don't Students Like School. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.