How do you discuss common sense in your classes? During my first few years of teaching I used to assassinate common sense as the enemy of sociology. But I no longer do.
Studies of cognition have shown that it is near impossible to learn new ideas until we are able to connect them to things we already understand (Bransford and Johnson 1972; Resnick 1983). This suggests that our intro level students are almost certain to connect the things you are teaching them to their already established common sense beliefs. Hostility to common sense then, threatens the very foundation your students will use to learn sociology (Mathisen 1989). Furthermore, interpretive theories and concepts like Weber’s Verstehen cannot be understood without considering how common sense is used to make meaning.
When we honor our students’ common sense understanding of the world, we show them respect and acknowledge where they are in the learning process. Today I treat my students’ common sense as their baseline for understanding. I start from what they already know and then move toward an empirical understanding of the world. If they are going to start with common sense anyways, why not join them?
REFERENCES:
- Bransford, John D., and Marica K. Johnson. 1972. “Contextual prerequisites for understanding: Some investigations of comprehension and recall.” Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 11:717–726.
- Maithisen, James A. 1989. “A Further Look At ‘Common Sense’ in Introductory Sociology.” Teaching Sociology. 17:307–315.
- Resnick, Lauren. B. 1983. “Mathematics and Science Learning.” Science 220:477–478.
Comments 5
Letta Page — November 3, 2014
It's so interesting - as an editor, I often see either the withering commentary "Sociology confirms the obvious!" or the somewhat trite intro, "Most people think... but sociology finds..." It's as though the only options for researchers are to debunk or "complicate," "interrogate," or "problematize" commonsense or taken-for-granted notions. It's definitely a great function of soc, but there's so much more out there; connecting and acknowledging lived experience, isn't that what the Thomas Theorem's all about?
Jeff — November 3, 2014
Hi Nathan, I'm just wondering if this has changed your thoughts on the utility of Duncan Watts's book in your classroom. Does using "Everything if Obvious" fit in to your new-ish way of teaching about common sense?
Nathan — November 4, 2014
Great question! And my answer is, not really. I still think that we (my students and I) need to interrogate common sense intellectually. However, instead of making it a villain of sociology, common sense is seen as something that is useful in certain situations, but limited in others. Watts makes the same point.
He argues that when making day-to-day decisions in the immediate here and now, common sense is fantastically useful. For instance, we rely on common sense when figuring out how to talk to our boss. Common sense, however, is dangerous when we try to use it to understand the behaviors of groups of people or predict what will happen in the future. This is especially true if the people you are trying to understand/prognosticate about have a very different social location from you. "But when would this ever happen?", my students often ask. Watts argues that when elected officials make public policy, they often use their common sense to do both of these no-no's.
So to answer your question, I will still teach Watts, but I will frame it in a different and less hostile way. I realize that my position on Watts has been evolving and some (but I don't think you were saying this) might argue that I'm contradicitng myself. And maybe I am, but like any good scholar I change my mind as new evidence comes in. I found Maithisen's article very persuasive and it changed my thinking on this issue.
Thanks for the great question Jeff!
Nathan — November 4, 2014
Preach!
Jeff — November 4, 2014
Great, thanks Nathan. I'm in my second year of teaching sociology and your comments over the years have been great for helping me think through my own teaching goals and processes. The day before I wrote this comment I added Watts to my intro class for the spring, based on your own comments and a glowing review in Contemporary Sociology (I also read it, but I like to see how others have used it too). I just wanted to make sure that you still find Watts useful for getting students to "think like a sociologist."