The crucial and most difficult part of TOK, arguably, is making the leap to seeing Knowledge Issues in daily life. As a part of the course work, this skill becomes very important for internal and external assessment. Like any skill, it becomes easier with habitual practice.
This week each student brought in an article and briefly discussed a knowledge issue present in the article. I was continually impressed by the creativity of the selections, and how personal each choice was. Could each of you summarize your article in one or two sentences (not a paragraph!) and record in the form of an open question the knowledge issue you have found.
Due: 25 March
Friday, March 18, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Variety in Presentations!
The TOK Presentation is a not an easy task, it cannot be thrown together after reading something hurriedly. It must be personal, well-researched and well-structured, addressing a real-life situation and focussing on the inherent knowledge issues.
The Guide to the course says that "presentations may take many forms, such as lectures, skits, simulations, games, dramatized readings, interviews or debates. Students may use supporting materials such as videos, MS Powerpoint presentations, overhead projections, posters, questionnaires, recordings of songs or interviews, costumes or props. Under no circumstances, however, should the presentation be simply an essay read aloud to the class" (page 47).
Keeping this in mind, be creative! Take a look at this film on teen dating made by a group of TOK students in California. It is a real-life situation and the students are focussing on Knowledge Issues. Write a reaction (250 words) to the short video below by Monday, March 21.
The Guide to the course says that "presentations may take many forms, such as lectures, skits, simulations, games, dramatized readings, interviews or debates. Students may use supporting materials such as videos, MS Powerpoint presentations, overhead projections, posters, questionnaires, recordings of songs or interviews, costumes or props. Under no circumstances, however, should the presentation be simply an essay read aloud to the class" (page 47).
Keeping this in mind, be creative! Take a look at this film on teen dating made by a group of TOK students in California. It is a real-life situation and the students are focussing on Knowledge Issues. Write a reaction (250 words) to the short video below by Monday, March 21.
Friday, March 4, 2011
More on Knowledge Issues / The TOK Presentation
For the TOK Presentation and Essay students must clearly and directly address specific knowledge issues. What does this mean?
In the first semester we explored the inner part of the TOK diagram, that is, the Knower(s) and the Ways of Knowing (language, sense perception, emotion, and reason). We observed that human beings have many ways of knowing and understanding, and that each way has distinct advantages and disadvantages, possibilities and limitations. When we seek to understand through written or spoken language, this imposes possibilities and limitations. Our senses permit us to receive information, but this too can be delimited or expanded depending on different conditions. Emotion can color our sense perception and reasoning. Reason itself can be logical or illogical, deductive or inductive, and it can be mislead through the logical fallacies. All of these Ways of Knowing interact.
For the TOK course a knowledge issue will be formulated in relationship to these issues as well as to issues of belief, certainty, culture, evidence, experience, explanation, interpretation, justification, truth and values. It also can be focused on one of the Areas of Knowledge (Natural Sciences, Human Sciences, Mathematics, The Arts, and Ethics).
The IB does not prescribe but recommends that knowledge issues are:
The challenge of TOK is to assimilate a new way of understanding how we know. The presentation must deal with a real-life situation and then discover in this a clear and explicit knowledge issue. For example, Al Gore has been campaigning for the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions in order to reduce the greenhouse effect. In the documentary An Inconvenient Truth we see him presenting his argument to myriad audiences around the world. That is a real-life situation. But if we simply debate on carbon dioxide emissions, this would not be sufficient. For TOK it is not enough to debate the persuasiveness of the argument. The knowledge issue must be expressed at a higher level of abstraction. The knowledge issue, expressed as a question, becomes: What makes a scientific explanation persuasive?
The challenge is to express the knowledge issue at this level of abstraction and then to keep the examination of the knowledge issue in focus and grounded in real examples. One must demonstrate an informed and critical understanding of the knowledge issue. Keep in mind, as we continue in preparing the first presentation, the four areas in which you will be assessed (I have given you these criteria in class):
In the first semester we explored the inner part of the TOK diagram, that is, the Knower(s) and the Ways of Knowing (language, sense perception, emotion, and reason). We observed that human beings have many ways of knowing and understanding, and that each way has distinct advantages and disadvantages, possibilities and limitations. When we seek to understand through written or spoken language, this imposes possibilities and limitations. Our senses permit us to receive information, but this too can be delimited or expanded depending on different conditions. Emotion can color our sense perception and reasoning. Reason itself can be logical or illogical, deductive or inductive, and it can be mislead through the logical fallacies. All of these Ways of Knowing interact.
For the TOK course a knowledge issue will be formulated in relationship to these issues as well as to issues of belief, certainty, culture, evidence, experience, explanation, interpretation, justification, truth and values. It also can be focused on one of the Areas of Knowledge (Natural Sciences, Human Sciences, Mathematics, The Arts, and Ethics).
The IB does not prescribe but recommends that knowledge issues are:
- "Formulated as open questions that allow more than one possible answer
- Explicitly about knowledge itself and not subject-specific claims
- Expressed in the language of TOK
- Precise in terms of the relationships between these concepts."
The challenge of TOK is to assimilate a new way of understanding how we know. The presentation must deal with a real-life situation and then discover in this a clear and explicit knowledge issue. For example, Al Gore has been campaigning for the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions in order to reduce the greenhouse effect. In the documentary An Inconvenient Truth we see him presenting his argument to myriad audiences around the world. That is a real-life situation. But if we simply debate on carbon dioxide emissions, this would not be sufficient. For TOK it is not enough to debate the persuasiveness of the argument. The knowledge issue must be expressed at a higher level of abstraction. The knowledge issue, expressed as a question, becomes: What makes a scientific explanation persuasive?
The challenge is to express the knowledge issue at this level of abstraction and then to keep the examination of the knowledge issue in focus and grounded in real examples. One must demonstrate an informed and critical understanding of the knowledge issue. Keep in mind, as we continue in preparing the first presentation, the four areas in which you will be assessed (I have given you these criteria in class):
- Identification of Knowledge Issues
- Treatment of Knowledge Issues
- Knower's Perspective
- Connections
The first semester, we can see now, is fundamentally important in highlighting the issues in knowing. As we go ahead with focusing on the specific Areas of Knowledge, we must also begin to apply these concepts and questions to life. This is what makes the TOK perennially fascinating and relevant.
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