Cargo Cults of Melanesia (Free Lesson)
The Cargo Cults of Melanesia make a fascinating case study (RLS) for AoK Human Sciences, Knowledge & Technology, and Knowledge & Indigenous Societies.
I've been using this case study for a few years, and I've found that it really helps to give the students a sense of the reality of knowledge construction.
Obviously the use of this case study has the potential to produce concerns of 'othering' - the treatment of apparent difference as the central defining feature of a person / group of people. I think that the best way to ward against this is to discuss the danger of othering with the students, that is to raise the awareness of normalisation of self and treating those beyond our perceived in-group as other.
I have always felt a little uneasy about the inclusion of "Indigenous Societies" on the ToK Syllabus. However, I can see the benefits of studying non-industrial societies in order to improve our own understanding of knowledge construction.
(free) Lesson Resources !
A link to resources & activities is here: https://sites.google.com/.../the.../cargo-cults-polynesia
More on the Cargo Cults can be found in this Scientific American article, and this article from The Guardian.
Art and Ethics
A lesson for DP1 Students on Art & Ethics which can be placed within Area of Knowledge The Arts, and any of the optional Themes, particularly Knowledge and Language, and Knowledge and Politics.
Lesson Objectives.
By the end of this lesson you should have:
Considered the relationship between artistic freedom and ethics.
Considered issues of denotation and connotation of knowledge.
An introduction to 3 of the main schools of Ethics.
Starter Activity.
Here we introduce 3 of the main schools of ethics.
Group Learning.
Each group will be given a case study.
Your objective is to prepare a short presentation (maximum 4 slides) answering the following 2 questions:
What are the ethical issues arising from the production, or display, of this artistic knowledge?
Is it possible to resolve these ethical issues ?, if so, how
Your Presentation should have the following slides:
Context (e.g. what is the artwork?, who was the artist?, When was it created? etc).
Controversy. (e.g. What & why was there controversy associated with this artwork? What were the ethical issues? etc)
Justification ? (e.g. Is the artwork justifiable in either artistic or ethical terms?)
Resolution ? (e.g. Is it possible to resolve an artistic & ethical conflict? and if so how?)
Group 1: Fountain (1917) by Marcel Duchamp
Resources:
Context & reasons for controversy from The Tate Gallery, London.
Short video explanation of controversy.
Extra hint: Part of the ethical issue here is about Gatekeepers & the context of art.
Group 2: Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995) by Ai Weiwei
Resources:
Clear explanation of what & why.
Context & a short explanation of controversy from The Guggenheim.
The case for Ai Weiwei's piece Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (Video)
Extra Hint: the ethical issues here relate to duplicitous values.
Group 3: My Bed (1998) by Tracey Emin.
Resources:
Context & Controversy (4 min read)
Tracey Emin explains the origin of My Bed, and its meaning to her (video).
Extra hint: The ethical issues here partly concern what the work means to the artist (connotation) vs how others interpret the work (denotation).
Group 4: Piss Christ (1987) by Andres Serrano
Resources:
Context & explanation by Andres Serrano
Context & controversy from Artland Magazine
Andres Serrano explains the piece in The Guardian
Extra hint: One of the ethical issues that the artist draws is between popular culture, meaning and that which is defined as art.
Group 5: Helena (2000) by Marco Evaristti
Resources:
Quick video explaining the work.
Explanation of the work, and intention of Marco Evaristti
Evaristti's explanation of his work (search down for "Helena).
Extra hint: The role of the viewer (or audience) is, arguably, the focus of this work.
Group 6: Statue of Edward Colston (1895) by John Cassidy
Resources:
Wikipedia article giving outline.
Guardian article giving context & controversy.
Interesting video of the outcomes of the controversy.
Extra hint: The issue of whether we should judge the past by the standards of today is salient here.
Group 7: The Parthenon Marbles (5th Century BCE) by Phidias
Resources:
Video explaining the Parthenon Marbles and the controversy.
Wikipedia article giving an overview
Extra hint(s): There are ethical issues concerning originality, and cultural appropriation here.
Balloon Game - Ethics & ToK version starter activity.
Most DP Students will have played the Balloon Game / Shipwreck Game by the time they reach DP. I think it's a great icebreaker, and pastoral activity to play with students of all ages.
In this starter activity we 'up-cycle' it so that it has a ToK twist, we use it as a game to introduce students to the 3 main ethical schools (Virtue Ethics, Deontology and Utilitarianism).
Why introduce ethics in this way ?
Ethics are a subset of the Knowledge Framework for all Areas of Knowledge ( a welcome change from the previous version of the ToK Syllabus). ToK students don't have to know the details of ethical schools, nor be able to explain ethical thought in any detailed way. They only need to know what the ethical issues are that could pertain to any of the Areas of Knowledge. However, rather than teaching the specific ethical issues arising from each area of knowledge it makes far more sense to give students a basic grounding in the main schools of ethics so that they can apply them to the AoKs.
The Balloon Game - Ethics in ToK version.
The Ethics in ToK Balloon Game Handout
The game is pretty straight forward. I put the students into groups, and allocate a school of Ethics to each group to make their decisions.
The PDF version of the file can be downloaded here.
An interesting aside...,
The words 'ethical' and 'ethics' are often in school's Mission/Vision/Values statements. I think they're alluding to some form of virtue ethics. As a ToK teacher I want my students to develop a more precise use of language relating to knowledge. So, I always ask my students to ask "what type of ethics are we referring to ?" when they see it in the school values statements. When we think about it a school aspiring to be deontological will do things very differently to a school aspiring to be utilitarian etc. I know it's a bit pedantic, but a spot of pedantry when it comes to how we behave towards each other may not be a bad thing !
Have a great day,
Daniel,
Lisbon, November 2022.
For more on Ethics you can check out this very clear BBC Site, and there's a lot of good content on the ToK2022 site.
ToK Exhibition Skills Builder Part 2
Today's post is the second half of a series of lessons designed to build the skills for the ToK Exhibition (thus it's a "ToK Exhibition Skills Builder")
The first lesson is linked here, if you’re yet to read that you can pop back, download the free resources etc.
FREE Lesson Resources !
The Presentation (showing the students what to do) is available at this link
All slides (student forms) as lessons resources are available for free from this link.
Lesson Aims - Building skills.
This lesson is specifically designed to help students to get higher marks on their Exhibition, it does that by developing the skills of:
Revisiting the Identification of the Personal Link to the Object
Constructing Perspectives on the prompt, and then
Linking objects to the prompt.
There is a slightly controversial alteration that we identified last year to IB’s recommendations. Rather than identify objects and then develop perspectives the ToK team that I worked with found it easier for students to develop perspectives on the prompt, and then to identify objects which exemplify those perspectives.
I have also built into the process the use of ToK Concepts (as recommended in the May 2022 Subject Report.
The Lesson Process
I have written my own prompt, the same prompt as used in the last lesson - Why does pre-existing knowledge change ? You, of course, can write your own prompt, or use one of the IB Prompts (obviously in the real Exhibition the students must use one of the prompts given by IB).
In the last lesson students linked objects to the prompt, and explained those links. In this lesson I want them to develop a Perspective (or argument) relating to the prompt - think of it as one of the ways to answer the prompt, our first aim is to get them to write 3 perspectives on the prompt.
So, here I have come up with two perspectives as examples for modelling. The first being
the pre-existing knowledge may change because the predictions made according to that knowledge have become less certain. The ToK concept here being Certainty.
The second being that
pre-existing knowledge may change because it was created at an earlier date, and is no longer justifiable in modern culture. The ToK Concepts here being Culture & Justification.
I then gave students time to write their 3 perspectives on the prompt, in groups, each perspective to include at least one ToK Concept.
Identifying Objects
We then moved on to identifying an object that demonstrated the perspective. Note again we are writing the perspective, and then identifying the object. This reversal of the orthodox order came about after my first experience of the teaching the Exhibition. In that process we identified objects, and then tried to explain the link between the object and the prompt. Doing it in that order we found that there was a lot of similarity in the links described for the 3 objects. This made it far harder for students to score in the higher mark bands for the criteria of justifying the contribution that each individual object makes to the Exhibition.The students had to go back, write unique perspectives, and then select new objects. We soon realised that we needed to reverse that process - hence the Perspectives to object order.
Linking Objects to Perspectives
Then we ask the students to explain the link between the object and the perspective. Note - at this stage we are not linking the Object to the Prompt. We're linking the object to the perspective in order to ensure that the student explains the unique contribution of that object to the Exhibition.
Personalisation of the object.
Now I re-introduce the personalisation of the object. Again, this may at first seem to be the wrong way round, common sense tells us that it would be easier to start with the personal, and work to the general. However, my experience is that it is harder to move good knowledge arguments if we start with the personal. Students find it easier to move between themselves as knowers and the knowledge world if they’ve initially spent time considering objects in the abstract, it just reduces the incidence of anecdotal description - of course, your mileage may vary.
Explanation of the object's link to the perspective back to the prompt !
The final step is to link the explanation of the object’s link to the perspective back to the prompt. Lots of links, I know, but these steps are the operationalisation of the criteria that reads “justification of the particular contribution of that individual object to the Exhibition”. It is this criteria that students need to fulfil to be scoring 7-10 marks in the Exhibition.
The whole process took about 1 hr. If we repeat this process a few times, changing the prompt each time, students will be well prepared for the ToK Exhibition.
I hope that you found this useful.
Have a great day, and stay TokTastic!
Daniel,
Lisbon, November 2022
ToK Essay Tips
The most frequent ToK Essay Tips that I have to give to my students is to get them to change their writing from describing the real world to discussing knowledge. Today's post is just a little aide memoire that ToK Teachers can give to their students to remind them to write about knowledge. It may save you a conversation or two !
The image can also be downloaded as a PDF here.
Have a Tok-tastic day!
Daniel.
Writing Knowledge Statements: ToK Lesson
So how does knowledge manifest itself in the real world? And how do we develop different perspectives about how it manifests itself in the real world? These are key questions in understanding ToK, and knowledge construction as a whole.
I'm interested in creating ToK resources that make the subject accessible for students who find ToK more challenging or, to be honest, may not be particularly interested in ToK.
There's a video guide to the lesson below.
Writing Knowledge Statements.
Today's lesson is designed to help students build the skill of developing alternative perspectives for things they see in the real world. And start looking at how knowledge manifests itself in that real world. Both skills are central to ToK Exhibition & ToK Essay
Lesson Resources!
The lesson resource can be downloaded from this link.
We start by looking at a few real world scenarios and I ask the students to jot down as many possible reasons for the construction of that real world phenomenon. Give limited time, the focus here is on a soft element of competition to get as many reasons written down as possible. I've put a few real-world scenarios in the lesson, obviously you can change these up for things which are more appropriate for your context or your students.
Then I do a bit of up front teaching to explain how we move from The Real World to the knowledge world showing them an example from each of the real world scenarios used earlier. This is developing the skill of writing Knowledge Statements.
Then I ask them to do the same themselves, changing the reasons that they gave earlier into "ToK World statements", or knowledge statements. And I start to introduce the Pillars of Knowledge - that is how knowledge is constructed, why knowledge is constructed, how it changes over time and the evaluation of that knowledge. I introduce this to try to extend thinking at the end of this lesson.
Purpose
The purpose of the lesson is to get your students used to identifying the knowledge characteristics of real world phenomena and the idea of using knowledge statements to explain those real world phenomena. Essential skills that we're just creating at a nascent stage at this point in the course.
This lesson also links with
This post on how to write Claims & Counterclaims.
This lesson on building skills for ToK Exhibition.
If this lesson is useful for your ToK teaching, or you just enjoyed this video, then a Like, Subscribe, Comment to Share or subscribe are greatly appreciated
Have a great day!
Daniel,
Lisbon, Nov 22
Introduction: AoK The Arts
This lesson is designed to introduce AoK The Arts, it's skills based and participatory. The lesson is designed to be given early in the ToK course, in the first term of DP1. At this stage in the course I believe that we should be focussing on student's emotional orientation to ToK. We should be designing lessons so that they experience ToK as low stakes, low threat, easily accessible and fun. In my experience this means that we need to emphasis active participation, a gentle element of competition, and very little reading / writing. It also means that we should steer clear of watching videos, I find that students who are not excited by ToK become even less excited when we give them ToK-type videos to watch.
"Where's the rigour ?"
The participatory - fun approach of the lesson doesn't mean that it's not 'rigourous' (whatever that word means). It is based on sound and solid skills identification and skills development, but it tries to do this in a light-touch way which builds on student's pre-existing knowledge and skills.
The ToK Skills Map (developed in conjunction with Thailand ToK Teacher's Network). - we've tried to identify the specific skills that students need to enjoy success in ToK. This lesson has been developed from this map.
The skills specifically identified for development in this lesson may seem abstract when written in this form, but when operationalised as individual & group learning tasks they become far more accessible.
The Lesson.
The lesson is well described in the video linked below. I will just give brief details here.
Resources needed:
Paper, colouring pens / pencils, somewhere to display drawings (eg a whiteboard), some way to attach the drawings to the display (eg Blu-Tack).
Google link to the lesson presentation / instructions here.
PDF Version of the Lesson Is shown at the end of this post.
The content areas introduced in the lesson.
Anyway, I think that the lesson is fairly self explanatory. I hope that it shows that we can teach ToK without a heavy reliance on content, and that a focus on skills development can be fun.
If you have any questions or suggestions please don't hesitate to contact me at Daniel@TokToday.com
have a great weekend!
Daniel,
Lisbon November 22.
PDF version of the Intro to AoK The Arts Lesson.
Critically applying ToK Concepts to RLS
Today I have a quick mid-week ToK activity for you on the ToK Concepts which could be used as a starter, or could be a whole lesson.
The Lesson Resource is available here as a Google Slides presentation.
It’s free, ready to download here as a Powerpoint
This a development of a starter activity that I posted a couple of months ago designed to introduce students to ToK Concepts.
This activity is designed to:
Further familiarise students with The ToK Concepts, and help them to develop their skills in using those concepts in Areas of Knowledge,
It’s designed to help them to move from real world examples to make knowledge statements, to develop their skills in moving from their lived world to the knowledge world.
And finally it’s designed to develop their ability to apply the ToK Concepts in a critical (or evaluative) way. For those of you who remember legacy syllabi of ToK - this is the current version of developing knowledge issues.
The Lesson process:
We start by presenting the students with the ToK Concepts, and we ask them to apply 3 of the concepts to a real life situation arising from each of the Areas of Knowledge.
I start by modelling an example from AoK Natural Sciences for the students.
My real world example is Duck Billed Platypus. The issue with the platypus is that it didn’t neatly fit into the taxonomy of life used by European scientists in the 19th C taxonomy (when they sent the first Platypus specimen from Australia to the Natural History Museum the esteemed scientists thought it must be a hoax). And I have applied the Concepts of Evidence, Interpretation and Objectivity to that example.
I then give real world examples from each of the AoKs for students to work on on their own. Now, some of these examples may need a little explaining to the students, or you could ask the students to do their own research on the examples, or you could replace the examples with ones that you or your students readily understand. I’ve used these examples purely because they work for me in my classroom.
And so, we have Forecasting from AoK Maths, some misrepresented knowledge from AoK History. Fairly well known examples from AoK Natural Sciences. The examples from AoK Human Sciences are two personal favourites of mine. I may explain them in a future blog post if readers are interested. Finally examples from AoK The Arts, which are fairly self explanatory.
It's a fast, free, easy, accessible & effective ToK Resource that you can use today, or tomorrow.
have a great day!
Daniel,
Lisbon, Nov 22
ToK Exhibition Skills Builder (part 1)
Building skills is the key to success in the ToK Exhibition.
If you're only going to read one document about the ToK Exhibition then the Subject Report May 22 is the document to read. It's the most definitive explanation of what the ToK examiners are looking for. I look at the contents of the subject report in this post, I mention it here because it informs this post.
This post is about building skills for the ToK exhibition. There is some mystique, chatter and a little confusion about the ToK exhibition. My starting point with any ToK assessment is that it's about skills so we need to identify and teach the skills required for the exhibition.
I'll just take this opportunity to plug the ToK skills map (linked here). Please have a look at that and feel free to suggest any skills that are yet to be added or developed on the map. I will also take this opportunity to beg for a like, subscribe, comment or share if you find these materials useful.
ToK Exhibition Skills.
So what are the TOK exhibition skills? I have developed the following map of the specific exhibition skills which we can use to guide us in our teaching.
At the top are the two meta-skills, these are the overriding skills needed to do about an exhibition I think these are developing an argument for the objects and justifying their argument. However these are fairly abstract skills you need to break them down into tangible things that students can do, practise and develop to do well in the exhibition.I have called these the foundational skills
Foundational ToK Exhibition Skills
The foundational skills are: identifying an appropriate subject, constructing a knowledge link of the object to self, constructing a knowledge link of the object to the prompt, identifying the unique contribution of the objects to the exhibition, and identifying evidence for the objects contribution to the exhibition.
Now that we've identified the discrete foundational skills required for the exhibition we can start to design learning tasks for each of these skills, and we can build these learning tasks into ToK teaching from early in the course.
Teaching the foundational skills.
I created a lesson to help students to develop these skills, the Student Skills Builder proforma can be downloaded here:
ToK-Exhibition-Skills-Builder_-Pt-1-1
The lesson is designed to be given in the first few weeks of the ToK course in DP1, so we can shortcut some of the gaps in knowledge that students will have at this stage of the course. This is done by devising my own prompt, and giving it to the students. In this case the prompt was why do we change pre-existing knowledge ? The main reason for giving them a prompt was that I could then guide the choice of objects in order to build the first skill: identifying an appropriate object. it also gets around any problems of academic honesty of reusing prompts later on etc.
I asked the students to bring an object which had either wowed them, or had changed the way they think about the world. by directing them I was helping them to develop the skill identifying an appropriate object.
We spent considerable time discussing the objects they chose, and why they chose those objects. I then went on to show them how to develop their personal link to the object into a knowledge link to the object. This is the gap of understanding for students at this stage in the ToK Course, That is moving from The Experienced world to the ToK world, their ability to do this will develop through modelling and familiarity with the contents of the course.
Moving from the 'real world' to the ToK World is the key understanding for ToK.
Modelling
Before we got onto to the contribution of the object to the exhibition (what I call the argument )I shared with the students the Exemplar that I have written which is also linked in the web post on this lesson.
The Exemplar Lesson:
ToK-Exhibition-Skills-Builder_-Pt-1_Daniel
At the end of the Exemplar there are a set of questions and annotation tasks which are designed to help the students to identify where in the Exemplar I have linked my own experiences to the knowledge world and the knowledge prompt. So I'm just trying to model that skill for them before asking them to do it themselves.
Now, at this stage we are taking things very slowly - I am modelling how to make the links, and then asking them to do it with their own objects. I am giving them a lot of verbal & written feedback on what they’re doing. This is really the process of creating the ToK Mindset - if you don’t know what that is I made an earlier video on it (linked here) - this is the heart of ToK, and once students have developed The ToK Mindset they have ‘cracked’ ToK.
The last skill that I build in this lesson is the identification & use of Evidence for the claim arising from the object. The Subject Report really clarifies what IB Examiners want as ‘evidence’ for the claim, and this is required to get into the top 3 marking bands.
I hope that you found this post & these resources helpful. If you have any requests for content or resources please don't hesitate to contact me (Daniel@TokToday.com).
Have a great week,
Daniel,
Lisbon, Nov. 22
ToK Subject Report "at glance".
My aim was to distill the May 22 ToK subject report down to only one page. I wanted to create the "Subject Report at a glance".
My aim was to distill the May 22 ToK subject report down to only one page. I wanted to create the "Subject Report at a glance". I then realised that it made more sense to have one page for The Essay, and one page for The Exhibition.
In the May 22 ToK Subject Report the section on the Essay is rather succinct. Earlier Subject Reports contain most of what needs to be said about the ToK Essay. The analysis of the Prescribed Titles gives us an interesting insight into how the examiners interpret the questions, but it is fairly question specific.
The section on The Exhibition is the really interesting part of the May 22 ToK Subject Report. Obviously, this is the first report with details about The Exhibition. It helps us to start to firm up many of the questions that we had earlier.
We get much clearer guidance on issues such as the appropriateness of objects, what constitutes justification, and what is evidence. The point that I made earlier about students having 3 different arguments (1 per object) seems to have been agreed in the report.
To be honest, it's very difficult to distill into one page.
I would strongly recommend that every ToK Teacher read the section on The Exhibition in the original form.
However, I completed my 'at a glance' versions as aide memoir. They could be useful to share with your students.
Get your ToK Subject Report infogram (PDF Version) at this link (it's free).
If you have any questions, or thoughts, about the May 22 ToK Subject Report please leave them in the comments below, or email me at Daniel@TokToday.com.
Check out the pre-subject report video that I made on The ToK Exhibition here, a post-subject report video will be coming out soon.
Have a great day!
Daniel,
Lisbon, October 22
May 23 ToK Essay Titles: Poll !
Good afternoon from sunny Lisbon, Portugal! Perfect to think about May 23 ToK Essay Titles.
I've spent the last two weeks writing notes for the May 23 ToK Essay Titles (you can see the titles on the page linked here), I will have these available on the site in the next week. (I'm just doing the finishing touches - proof reading, sprucing them up etc).
I will have Mind Maps for each essay title available for free to all site subscribers / members / followers - so please sign up (it's free) to the Wordpress site if you want these - I'll mail them out to all members next week. A subscription box is at the end of this post.
I will also be filming videos on each title, available for free, on the YouTube site (details will follow in the next few weeks).
In the mean-time I'd love to know your thoughts on the May 23 ToK Essays - so I have a little poll
Thank you for answering the poll - I will use the results to help guide where I focus my content. Of course I will publish the final results next week.
There are already some posts up on the site about writing the ToK Essay.
There are a couple of videos already on the YouTube Channel about the ToK Essay (many more to follow).
If you have any thoughts, or questions, about the May 2023 Essay Titles then please email me at Daniel@toktoday.com.
Don't forget to subscribe !
How do we avoid the use of Essay Mills?
Essay Mills are private companies that offer essay writing services to students. There has been a proliferation of these companies in recent years (see this Guardian article for example). Their main focus has been the higher education sector, however it can be assumed that their services are also available to IB Diploma students. The question for ToK Teachers is how can we deter our students from using Essay Mills ?
During, and after, the 'act' processes - do they beat essay mills ?
The use of the following processes to retain academic integrity is fairly widespread in ToK:
Using Construction monitoring tools such as Google Docs: The teacher can monitor the essay as it is being written by the student.
Plagiarism detection software such as Turnitin.Com: This software is best used by the student during the writing of the essay. Giving the student the power and freedom to use the software helps them to avoid any potential plagiarism issues. It also helps them to find papers that have been written using the same terms that they are using.
There are a couple of concerns with plagiarism detection software:
Using it after the essay has been submitted.
If it is only used after the student has submitted their essay it is being used as a cure rather than a prevention. The 'after-submission' method doesn't teach the student best practises for avoiding academic integrity problems in the future.
"What % is acceptable ?".
I often hear teachers (& students) asking what the "acceptable percentage" of similarity is when looking at a Similarity Report. This question demonstrates a misunderstanding of what the software is doing. A report can have a high similarity rating just because it repeatedly uses a phrase from the prescribed title which is often used in other papers. This doesn't necessarily mean that the student has plagiarised the essay, they are merely repeatedly referring to the Prescribed Title (which is good practice). Conversely, a report can have a very low similarity percentage yet the essay contains a whole paragraph which has been copied word for word from another source - this is a serious breach of academic integrity despite the report having a low similarity rating.
Writing in controlled circumstances: When a teacher suspects that an essay may not be the student's own work there is the option of asking the student to write a new essay under monitored & controlled circumstances. Obviously this is opens up a whole range of problems - the student is not developing the essay under the same conditions as other students, the student doesn't have a long period of time to develop the essay, and it is very demanding on school resources.
None of the "during & after the act' processes above avoid the problem of students using essay mills.
The essay monitoring system (sometimes called "Check Check out") is open to the student adding the milled essay piece by piece. Plagiarism detection software will only pick up an essay if it (or parts of it) has been copied from elsewhere. If the essay mill writes an original essay then this will not be picked up by the software (however, there is evidence that essay mills are recycling essays - which is obvious a great potential threat for our students). Finally, asking students to write under controlled conditions opens the school up to all sorts of allegations of unfair treatment etc.
There is only one viable educational method to counter the scourge of essay mills - the development of Self Regulated Learning Skills.
Self Regulated Learning definition: Self-regulated learning is a cyclical process, wherein the student plans for a task, monitors their performance, and then reflects on the outcome. The cycle then repeats as the student uses the reflection to adjust and prepare for the next task. The process is not one-size-fits-all; it should be tailored for individual students and for specific learning tasks (Zimmerman, 2002).
It's a fair assumption that we all know those students in our classroom who have self regulated learning skills and qualities. I don't need to describe how those students take charge of their learning in ToK. I think we can all agree that those students are not going to use Essay Mills. However, if you need more details see the end of this blog.
How do we teach Self Regulated Learning Skills in ToK ?
Most research shows that the basis of self regulated learning is critical reflection, and in turn the basis for critical reflection is self reflection. In order to integrate self, and critical, reflection into the ToK classroom we can use the basic teaching structure of David Kolb's Learning Cycle:
Kolb's Learning Cycle provides us with a framework for developing self regulated learning in the ToK classroom.
Time
We can't start to deal with academic integrity of the ToK Essay when the students start to write the essay (or even worse, after they submit the essay). We need to address it from the first day in ToK through the use of self reflection. Self Regulation does not appear over night, but over a long period of time.Domain Specific
Self Regulated Learning Skills are domain specific - therefore just because a student is a self regulated learner in another DP subject doesn't necessarily mean they will be so in ToK. We need to show them how to be a reflective and self regulated learner in ToK.Self Confidence.
Students turn to Essay Mills because they have low confidence in their own abilities to write The ToK essay. Therefore we need to ensure that our students have the self-confidence and capacity to write the essay. We do this by slowly scaffolding ToK Skills, and the use of self reflection throughout the course.
For more on ToK Skills see this blog (& video)
For more on using Kolb's Learning Cycle see this blog (& video).
In the coming months I will have more content showing the use of Kolb's learning cycle as the lesson framework for ToK lessons. In the meantime you may want to look at this lesson.
If you have any specific requests for resources please let me know at Daniel@ToKToday.com.
Daniel,
Lisbon, September 2022
References
Zimmerman, B. J. (2002). Becoming a self-regulated learner: An overview. Theory into Practice, 41(2), 64-70.
Characteristics of Self Regulated Learners:
What we know
Research (see reference list below) shows that teaching self-regulated learning skills enhances student learning. Self-regulated learning is:
a goal driven process
encompasses skills that can be learned through observations or modelling.
Self-regulation skills include:
goal setting
reflection
self-management of on/off task behaviour.
Self-regulated learners are aware of:
their strengths and weaknesses as a learner
the learning strategies that they can manage and use
strategies they can use to motivate their learning and stay on task.
(From Victoria State Education Dept) Like & Reference: at this website
ToK Essay Activator Questions
A set of questions to help students to develop their arguments at the beginning of the ToK Essay writing process.
The ToK Essay Activators are questions that students can use at the beginning of their ToK Essay Planning Process. They are a way to start to understand the essay title. They’re the foundation of thinking.
The video explanation of this resource is linked here, and below.
The beginning of the process
The firstl stage of thinking about the ToK Prescribed Titles is foundational for success later in the process. Unfortunately, this initial stage is often an overlooked activity. Giving students individual thinking time to form their own understanding of the ToK Essay is crucial. Forming a solid personal understanding of the essay early helps when they hear other people's interpretations of the essay in the later stages of essay writing. If students who don't have a solid personal understanding of the essay they may be tempted to use other people's interpretations. Accordingly they will then, probably, find it harder to develop in terms of analysis, evaluation and implications. The higher order analysis of knowledge arguments is easier for the student to develop if the original knowledge argument has been developed by the student themselves. This is why spending individual time at the beginning of the essay process is foundational for future success.
ToK Essay Activators are a set of questions that students can use to improve their understanding of the ToK Essay.
The ToK Essay Activators are questions that students can use to guide their thinking. They are useful at the beginning of the process. The questions help to develop personal knowledge arguments relating to the prescribed title.
The ToK Essay Activators are available (for free) at:
Students who are looking for more help to write the ToK Essay check out our Student Support Page, and the Ebook "How to write the ToK Essay in 6 easy steps".
Notes on May 23 ToK Essay Titles are coming soon (Mid September), and will be available from this link.
There are also some great tips at this blog.
If there are further resources that you would like me to develop do not hesitate to get in touch. I can also help with curriculum planning: Daniel@TokToday.com.
Daniel, Lisbon,
Aug 2022
What makes some ToK Essay Questions more difficult ?
What makes an IB ToK Essay question difficult, or easy ? Why are some questions more difficult than others ?
and conversely, what makes some ToK Essay Questions easier than others ?
The May 2023 ToK Essay titles are out, students are choosing their preferred title, and teachers are giving their advice. We often implicitly know that some titles will be more difficult than others, I decided to try to articulate some of that 'implicit knowledge'.
The video about this post is linked here, and below.
The relativism bit.
I feel obligated to get the "relativist" bit out of the way at the beginning of this post:
how difficult a student finds a question will vary by student.
how difficult it is to support a student writing a particular question will vary by teacher & student.
more popular questions may be marked more stringently by some examiners
Terms such as 'easy', 'difficult', 'challenging' are relative.
OK, with the relativist bit out of the way, we're going to pretend that our world view is a close representation of other people's world view - just for the sake of simplifying(ish)the world.
NB - IB own the copyright to all PTs, and don't allow them to be reproduced without written permission. Therefore I have attenuated, or changed the PTs presented here. The points made about the original PTs remain the same despite this, but if you want the actual full PT you will need to see the TRM on the PRC.
6 Factors which influence the difficulty of a ToK Prescribed Title:
1. "Closed Ended" vs Open Ended.
We know that all the questions are open ended questions (the command term is usually "Discuss"), but the Knowledge Question, or Claim, upon which they are founded is not always open ended. For example May 2022 #3 "Is there solid justification for regarding knowledge in Natural Sciences more highly than knowledge in [another] AoK?". In this case the student can start thinking about the essay in terms of answering "yes there is...," or "no there isn't...,". This makes writing claims and counterclaims far more straightforward, especially for those students who struggle with ToK.
The most 'closed ended' PT's contain absolute statements (eg #3 Nov 21: “There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact” (Arthur Conan Doyle)). This absolute statement gives the student a fairly stable base on which to start developing their essay. For example with #3 Nov 21 students can start to think what Doyle meant by an "obvious fact", and therefore think about why it might be the most deceptive thing. It's a fairly solid base from which to develop the essay.
2. Assumptions.
Some of the PTs contain assumptions, sometimes these assumptions are explicit, sometimes they're implicit. Further some PTs contain both explicit and implicit assumptions. For example:
Explicit assumption: #3 May 2020: Does it matter that your personal circumstances influence how seriously your knowledge is taken?
Implicit assumption: #5 Nov 2021: “If all knowledge is provisional, when can we have confidence in what we claim to know?” (implicit assumption that we ever have confidence in what we know).
Both explicit & Implicit assumptions: #1 Nov 2021: "Why is it so difficult to identify a clear line between accepted and disputed knowledge within a discipline?"
OK, these dividing lines between explicit & implicit assumptions may not be as stark as shown here, but I assume that you get the idea.
The potential problem of assumptions is whether students should tackle them in the answer, and whether they NEED to tackle them to form their answer. The guidance is that students need to focus on the PT as given, and not change it. Therefore to spend too much time tackling the assumptions would be a diversion from the PT (as given), it's a loss of the required focus on the PT.
However, the higher marking bands of the assessment rubric also requires students to develop arguments pertaining to the KQ inherent in the PT. It is in this area that, with some PTs, students have the latitude to challenge the assumption(s) in the PT. The greater challenge comes when there are multiple assumptions in the PT. For example:
#3 May 2021: “Labels are needed* in the organization of knowledge, but they also constrain our understanding.”
Assumptions:
1. Labels are used in the organisation of knowledge.
2. Understanding can be constrained .
3. That there is organisation of knowledge.
In such circumstances I have advised my students to state which assumptions they are accepting as given, and which assumptions they will be critically interrogating. Further, if they have sufficient words they could give a rationale for their approach. This strategy has seemed to have worked well over the years.
Posing rhetorical questions within responses.
One of the particular holes that weaker students can fall into when dealing with a PT containing multiple assumptions is to write the assumption as a question in their response, and then to leave that question unanswered. For example, a student answering #3 May 21 (above) may pose the question "how do we even know that knowledge is organised, or is knowledge construction the organisation of disorganised data ?". In this instance we have a number of problems. The first being that PT isn't primarily about the organisation of knowledge (nor data), but about labels. As such the student is moving their focus off the PT. The student needs to directly link that question to the PT (about labels) for it to 'add' to the response. Secondly, by leaving a question hanging the essay reads like an incomplete, or incoherent, piece.
3. Quotes
Some of the questions contain a quote, often from a renowned writer. Eg #2 May 2022 "there’s a world of difference between truth and facts" May Angelou. Whilst this does not automatically make the question more difficult I have often found that it can introduce extra (confusing) variables into the process, particularly for students who find ToK difficult.
Obviously the student is required to interpret the quote in terms of ToK, and then to look at arguments pertaining to their ToK-interpretation of that quote. However, I have found that some students can get hung up on the author of the quote, and spend time trying to find a contextual meaning for the quote by investigating the life and works of the author. I assume that such students are bringing well learned skills and expectations from Grp 3 subjects such as History, or Global Politics, to their ToK. Of course, in some cases the quote can be a good platform for the student, but more often than not I have found it an added obstacle for students who are challenged by ToK.
4. Definitions.
Invariably the PTs require the student to develop definitions of concepts and key terms. Let's look at ToK Concepts first. ToK concepts should be easier for the student to define well (having studied the ToK course) than non-ToK concepts. Further some of the ToK Concepts will be easier to define than other ToK Concepts when they are readily apparent / clear in the corresponding AoK Knowledge Framework. For example in May 2022 #5 the concept of Interpretation in the Arts and one other AoK should have been relatively easy to draw from the Knowledge Framework. However, some ToK Concepts may not have been readily apparent to students even with interrogation of the corresponding knowledge framework eg #1 May 2022 the concept of Culture within AoK Maths will have required some further thought by many students.
However, this can become far more challenging when considering the need to define concepts/terms which are not included in the 12 ToK Concepts (which is not to say that they're not ToK concepts, it's just that they're not on the list on 12 defined by IB). A few examples: # 4 May 2022 - Stories. #6 May 2022 - Acceptable. #4 Nov 22- Indisputable. In these cases I often find that students will initially reach for a dictionary definition of the term, which usually takes them away from a ToK interpretation of the concept, and restricts the depth of their response. Further, weaker students find it difficult to apply the non-ToK concept to Knowledge Framework of the chosen AoK. The classic resent example was the concept of Story in #4 May 22. Many students found it difficult to interpret the idea of a story in Human Sciences, and to develop the notion of story in AoK History.
5. Clear claim or unclear claim?
All of the PTs include at least one 'claim', some PTs have multiple claims. Some PTs contain a single, clear, directional claim eg #5 Nov 2020: "Reliable Knowledge can lack certainty". In this case the student only has to deal with a single proposition, and the direction indicated by that proposition is clear. However, some PTs contain multiple claims Eg . #6 Nov 22: “If artists have freedom to interpret the past in ways that denied to historians, is this a benefit or barrier to our understanding of the past?" Discuss with reference to the arts and history (slightly changed to avoid copyright problems). With this PT the claim is a question in itself, that needs to be dealt with alongside the main thrust of the PT, namely the asset or obstacles to understanding the past. On top of this is the implicit assumption that an (the ?) aim of artistic knowledge is an understanding of the past.
Prescribed titles with a single, straightforward, claim tend to be easier for students to answer than those with multiple claims.
6. Freedom of Area of Knowledge.
Until May 2022 most Prescribed Titles give students a free choice as to which AoKs they want to write about, ostensibly this 'freedom' would seem to make it easier to answer these PTs than those that specify one (or sometimes both) PTs to be considered. However, in my opinion, the PTs which specify a PT are usually easier than those that give a free choice.
The Prescribed Essay Titles are actually asking students to engage in a discussion about The Knowledge Framework of the Areas of Knowledge. They are asking students to draw upon the knowledge issues arising from the Scope, Perspectives, Methodology and Ethics sections of the Knowledge Framework. Arguably, some knowledge issues are more 'obviously' relevant to certain AoKs than they are to others. When the Examiners are directing students towards a specific AoK they are , in effect, telling us that this knowledge issue is most pertinent in this specific AoK. It's directed guidance which makes it easier for the student to focus on the title, and make relevant links to the essay title. As such it makes it easier for students to access the higher marking bands, especially those students who struggle with ToK. Let's look at a couple of examples:
#5 May 2022: 5. In what ways* can we distinguish between good and bad interpretations? Discuss with reference to the arts and one other area of knowledge. (slightly altered for copyright reasons).
Obviously all AoKs involve interpretation of knowledge, however arguably interpretation is a more salient issue in AoK The Arts than in some other AoKs. In The Arts Interpretation of both the artist (the knowledge producer) and the audience (the knower) is it at the heart of the knowledge production process and knowing (the audience). By asking students to contrast AoK The Arts with one other AoK the examiners are giving students a big hint that they could write an essay contrasting an individualised approach to knowledge (The Arts) with a more standardised approach to knowledge (eg Mathematics, or Natural Sciences). The students could look at the function of the Area of Knowledge, or the acceptability of individualised interpretation within each AoK. They could look at standardised protocols of interpretation in an AoK such as Maths vs less standardised protocols in The Arts etc.
Prescribed Titles that direct students to at least one AoK for consideration give students a greater chance of focussing on salient issues. Therefore such PTs tend to be 'safer' (& maybe 'easier'), particularly for students who struggle with ToK.
A few side swinging Googlys (as in the cricketing sense of the word):
No explicit directive link to ToK:
In the past we used to see the occasional question that had no explicit directive link to ToK. These are becoming more rare in recent sessions, but I thought I'd include this warning here, just in case they reappear in future sessions. An explicit directive link to ToK is a phrase telling the students what to do with the stimulus, eg "Discuss this with reference to two Areas of Knowledge". Here are two examples of PTs that do not have an explicit directive link to ToK:
#2 Nov 2021
“Knowledge gained through direct experience is powerful but can be* problematic.” To what extent do you agree with this statement?
#2 Nov 2020
“Too much of our knowledge revolves around ourselves, as if we are the most important thing in the universe” (adapted from Carlo Rovelli). Why could* this be problematic?
Neither of the PTs above explicitly tell the students that they need to refer to the ToK framework, specifically the Knowledge Frameworks of the AoK. I know that teachers will make this clear to the students, but it's still very possible that students may write a more descriptive and anecdotal essay, particularly those students who find ToK more challenging.
Truth.
I used to have a general rule that students should avoid using the word "truth" in my ToK classroom, and in their ToK Essays / Presentations (as they then were). The concept of truth introduced so much complication, and would often be used interchangeably with objectivity or validity. Now that Truth is one of the twelve core concepts in the current guide the truth can no longer "be avoided".
In May 2022 PT #2 put the concept of truth at the heart of the essay title, and many of my students chose to write this title. I had to do some significant extra teaching to help them to develop a range of definitions for the word "truth", and to develop a set of critical approaches to truth. My caution about the concept of truth is that many students treat is an external fixed reality. May 2022 PT #2 was getting to the heart of that mistake, and asking them to interrogate the idea of a separation between external 'truths' ("facts") and internal knowledge ("truth"). Those that chose this essay title did fairly well.., but I remain cautious when it comes to the "truth" !
Existential-type questions
Some PTs refer to the Knower, as such these questions could be interpreted as asking the student to comment upon the Knower as well as the construction of knowledge within an AoK. Commenting upon The Knower is, of course, a laudable aim (The Knower is after all the Core Theme in the current guide). However, for some students who struggle with ToK discussions about The Knower can easily become self referential and anecdotal. They can also fall into being a commentary on relativism - which rarely helps students to achieve a good grade in ToK. In the most concerning incidents discussions about The Knower can lead to 'existential type' responses which question the nature of being, and our function in the universe.
Examples of PTs which invite discussion of the knower:
May 2016
3. “The knower’s perspective is essential in the pursuit of knowledge.” To what extent do you agree with this statement* ?
May 2020
3. Is it of concern* that your personal circumstances influence how seriously your knowledge is taken?
If you want to watch a video on questions which will help students to understand the ToK Essay title click here.
Students who are looking for more help on how to write the ToK Essay can check out this Ebook.
Summary.
These general observations about factors which make PTs more, or less, challenging for ToK students have been gathered over many years of teaching & supervising the Essay, and marking it for IB. They are very broad generalisations, and of course there are going to be PTs, and students, that don't conform to the observations above. However, I hope that these observations help ToK students and teachers a little more when making the judgment about which ToK PT to write.
Do you agree, or disagree, with my observations? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.
Daniel, Lisbon, Portugal.
August 2022.
this is not the original word in the PT, it has been changed to ensure that we don't break IB copyright, however the substituted word has broadly the same meaning, arguably.
Critical Thinking - how to teach it.
Kolb's Learning Cycle is the fundamental model that I use to plan ToK Lessons. It is an effective structure for developing critical thinking skills because it builds self reflection.
Before we get into how to teach critical thinking it may be useful to tell you that this is the third blog in this series. The first looked at Knowledge Issues in ToK, the second is a starter lesson activity connecting knowledge issues and ToK Concepts. The third post proposes The ToK Mindset. You may want to jump back & read those posts to contextualise this one.
Critical Thinking - a jumping off point.
OK, I'm not going to be able to cover the whole of how to teach critical thinking in one blog post, but it's an essential topic to start to cover on these pages. Firstly, critical thinking is one of the Aims of ToK (3rd bullet point on Pg 7 in the current ToK Guide). Secondly, all of the aims implicitly rely on the student's ability to think critically. Thirdly, it's at the heart of The ToK Mindset - which is the foundation to improving grades in ToK.
The ToK Mindset is 4 domains of understanding which underpin success in ToK. These 4 domains are a good starting point for defining the type of critical thinking required by ToK students.
Reflection is not distraction.
When IB brought in the current version of the Extended Essay they gave 17% of the total marks available to Reflection. Concerned about the subjectivity of this criteria I asked the workshop leader how he recommend we teach 'Reflection', he skirted around the issue. I asked him the same question a few more times (yes, I'm THAT workshop participant), he told me that teaching reflection wasn't part of the workshop, and gave me a few other fob offs. IB hadn't defined how Reflection was to be taught in the DP, therefore I decided that I needed to define the process for my team of DP teachers.
Much of the literature places self reflection as the first stage of developing critical thinking skills. There are many different strategies for developing Self reflection, just a few are:
Journalling (keeping a ToK journal is a popular activity in many ToK classrooms).
Think - Pair- Share.
Two Stars and wish.
Reflection Breaks during the lesson.
Visible Thinking. Routines.
It's not my place to tell you which method of reflection you should use, whatever methods work best for you and your students is the way you should go. The function of this blog is to look at the role of reflection in developing critical thinking skills.
Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle.
David Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle (aka "Kolb's Learning Cycle") is based on gestalt psychology. The Learning Cycle has been demonstrated to be significantly effective under empirical testing. It has been widely used for over 30 years in inquiry and constructivist models. MY EE workshop leader (mentioned earlier) should have directed me towards Kolb's Learning Cycle. This is the basic model that I use to plan ToK Lessons. It is an effective structure for developing critical thinking skills because it builds self reflection. (You can find out more about the cycle from David's own website: Learningfromexperience.com)
Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle can be used as an effective framework for planning ToK lessons which improve personal self reflection, and therefore improve critical thinking skills.
Kolb's Learning Cycle in ToK Lessons.
We can place the 4 stages of the learning cycle into a 'typical' ToK Lesson:
Concrete Learning.
This is the challenge that we start the lesson with. It could be a Knowledge Question drawn from the syllabus, or related question we've drawn up ourselves. We give the students a concrete experience to use to start to explore this question eg: a drama activity, a card sort, analysing text, building a model from newspaper etc.
Reflective Observation
During this period we ask the students to reflect upon the processes used to solve the challenge set at the beginning of the lesson. This reflection can be both individual and group reflection. It is usually very effective when it is integral to the original challenge. For example if the original challenge is holding a round table debate the adjudicators of the debate can lead on the reflective observation. The last stage of this observation is to identify some learning principles which we will take into the next stage of learning.
Abstract Conceptualisation
This is the 'teacher inventiveness' stage. We need to find a way to show the students how the learning from the first two stages applies in the abstract and conceptual ToK World. This could take the form of modelling an application of findings from the first stage in the ToK World. Alternatively it could be done by providing the students with a heavily scaffolded task.
Active Experimentation
This is the stage when the students take the real world experience (of stage 1), and apply it in the ToK World. This is the stage when we set the "ToK World task", which is more likely to be a knowledge question from the ToK Guide. The students take the principles arising from the reflection in stage 2 and apply them in this stage.
We have to teach students to translate real world experience into the ToK World.
Kolb's Learning Cycle helps students to move from "the Real World" to "the ToK World". This is a key step on the way to developing The ToK Mindset. If Kolb's Learning Cycle is used repeatedly as the underlying model for ToK lessons more students will be able to successfully transition their knowledge from the real world to the ToK World.
In the coming months I will post lessons that follow the structure of Kolb's Learning Theory. At this stage you can see the lesson linked here on Art & History which uses the learning cycle as its framework. A video on teaching skills in ToK (a wider perspective) can be found here.
If you would like me to develop specific materials for a particular topic/AoK/theme/purpose please don't hesitate to contact me at Daniel@TokToday.com.
Daniel,
Lisbon, August 2022
What is the ToK Mindset? and how do we create it?
If we can build understanding in 4 crucial areas for the ToK Mindset we will improve understanding, and grades, in ToK. The challenge is how we build that understanding.
It's a warm Thursday afternoon, the last period of the day, and you have DP1 ToK in a warm and stuffy classroom. Attention is wandering, some students are drifting between drowsiness and distraction. You're trying your best, they're trying their best. However, three students, sitting near the front have steel like attention fixed on the task at hand. They're engrossed in lively conversation about the difference between perceived knowledge and evidential knowledge, they keep calling you over for clarification. They want you to explain some of the finer points of Kantian Transcendental Realism even though they know it's far beyond the demands of this course. These students have developed the ToK Mindset (and some!).
The challenge for the ToK Teacher is to help all students to develop the ToK Mindset. OK, we don't need all of our students to go as far as the 3 Neo-Kantians ! Our challenge is to get our students to a point where they can apply a rather abstract framework and set of principles to the lived world.
This is the third Blog post in this series, the first concerned Knowledge Issues, and the second is a lesson starter activity that you can use to link ToK Concepts with Knowledge Issues. Both previous posts will help to build background understanding for this post.
What is the ToK Mindset?
The ToK Mindset is the ability to apply the ToK Framework, and principles of ToK, to the world that we experience.
an experienced ToK Teacher.
How do we create the ToK Mindset?
4 areas of understanding need to create the ToK Mindset.
We can try to identify what it is that those students who understand ToK have that the other students have less of. I think that there are 4 areas of understanding:
Making the familiar unfamiliar means questioning taken for granted assumptions. Simon Sinek coined the phrase "asking why not what", and we can repurpose that for ToK. This is why I teach my students that the first rule of ToK is to "Question the question".
Three key concepts: Perspective, Context and Extrapolation, allow the students to understand their their lived reality is not a standardised and universal experience. These concepts allow them to build conceptual and abstract models. These are the thinking skills which enable students to understand that "other's with their differences may also be right".
The BLURS mnemonic helps students to develop arguments that are nuanced, and have the combination of complexity, depth and analysis required in ToK.
An understanding that knowledge is constructed. This seems self evident, but it is more complicated than it seems. Students can often say that knowledge is constructed without necessarily appreciating what that means. I come across this most frequently when we're looking at AoK History or Maths. In both AoKs students will refer to "the truth", or "what actually happened". When I remind them that "knowledge is constructed" they often don't see the inherent contradiction.
Conclusion.
If we can build understanding in the 4 areas for the ToK Mindset we will improve understanding, and grades, in ToK. The challenge is how we build that understanding. In the next blog post in this series I will look at the underlying framework for teaching which helps to build that understanding. It may also be useful to look at the ToK Skills Map (I welcome any feedback / suggestions on the Skills Map).
Daniel,
Lisbon, August 2022.
Connecting ToK Concepts & Knowledge Issues- ToK lesson starter activity.
This starter activity is designed to:Help the students to learn the ToK Concepts.Help the students to develop their own definitions of the ToK Concepts.Link Hexagon Subjects with ToK.
This blog post is a development of the earlier post What no Knowledge Issues?, you may wish to read that for more context. This post describes a ToK lesson starter activity that improves student understanding of ToK concepts.
I find that my students often arrive in my ToK class with the modus operandi of other subjects, namely that they're eager to find 'right answers' and arrive at solutions. As such, I try to use starter activities which tune them into ToK ways of thinking (complexity and incongruence are allowed). My starter activities tend to be content-light rather than reading complex tracts of text.
Today's starter activity is designed to:
Help the students to learn the ToK Concepts.
Help the students to develop their own definitions of the ToK Concepts.
Link Hexagon Subjects with ToK.
Knowledge Issues.
As explained in the earlier blogpost Knowledge Issues have been replaced in the current ToK Study Guide (first exams 2022) by ToK Concepts. However, students will still be learning about problems of knowledge construction (aka "Knowledge Issues") in their Hexagon subjects. The types, and names, of these knowledge issues will vary by subject (eg in Psychology they may learn about Ecological Validity, in Language A Intertextuality, in Visual Arts Expression as Truth etc etc). The challenge for the ToK teacher is to help students to place those subject based knowledge issues under the ToK Concepts.
If we are able to place the subject based knowledge issues under the ToK Concepts we will be increasing the integration of ToK into the Hexagon Subjects, and vice versa.
Student Activity.
This graphic organiser places the ToK Concepts on the left & right borders of the page, and puts Knowledge Issues in the centre of the page.
The instructions to students are to draw lines linking the Knowledge Issues to the ToK Concepts. You could make this more specific, for example requiring each KI to be joined to at least 2 ToK Concepts etc. Or you could limit the number of connections that they can make.
Obviously, you can swap out the knowledge issues for whichever ones are most suitable for your context. You could make it specific to a particular AoK, for example if you're studying The Natural Sciences just use Knowledge Issues which are relevant to The Natural Sciences etc.
You can get a PDF copy of this graphic organiser at this link.
The learning.
The students will have to come up with working definitions of both the ToK Concepts and the Knowledge Issues as they try to link the Knowledge Issues with each concept.
Of course, the real learning comes when they explain the links they made to the rest of the class, and compare their links with other groups in the class.
Of course (2), an argument can be made to link any of the Knowledge Issues with any of the ToK Concepts - the learning is in the arguments made for the link. As students become more au fait with ToK you can ask them to bring their own knowledge issues from one (or more) of their Hexagon Subjects.
Here's an example of a 'linked up' set of ToK Concepts & Knowledge Issues. Your students should come up with something which looks like this, or is even messier than this !
You can get a PDF of this filled version here, but remember it's not 'the right answer', it's just one of many answers.
As with so many of these "Starter Activities" they can quickly expand to take up the whole lesson. I'm usually happy to let them take up the whole lesson if learning is taking place. Especially, if the students are enjoying them.
If you use this (or any other of my activities) I'd be really interested to hear how they go, and how they may be improved. You can contact me at Daniel@TokToday.com.
If you have any requests for further activities or ideas please do get in touch.
Daniel,
Lisbon, Aug 2022.
What, no Knowledge Issues? (link to ToK Concepts?)
Are Knowledge Issues still relevant in the current IB Theory of Knowledge Course ?
Should Knowledge Issues have a specific role in the current ToK Course. In this short blog I argue that Knowledge Issues still serve a specific and crucial role in ToK.
The latest version of the ToK Study Guide (first exams 2022) replaced the idea of "Knowledge Issues" with 12 ToK Concepts. The concepts are fused throughout the course, and can be applied in all Areas of Knowing and Themes. The Concepts help students to develop a deeper, and more critical, understanding of knowledge construction and the issues associated with it.
However, underlying the 12 ToK Concepts there are further issues of knowledge construction. In former iterations of the ToK Guide we called these "Knowledge Issues". I think it's still useful to teach the students about some of these knowledge issues, and ideally for them to bring those knowledge issues across from their Hexagon Subjects. These knowledge issues are useful because they help students to further understand how the concepts influence the construction of knowledge, how the concepts are limitations and constraints on that construction, and to understand why we develop different types of knowledge.
On the left are a few examples of Knowledge Issues, this is by no means an exhaustive list - there are many many others. I only include this list so that you get some idea of what I'm referring to when I use the term "Knowledge Issues".
It is well note that the IB does not use the term 'Knowledge Issues' in the current Study Guide, and that there is no expectation that we teach students either the term, nor the processes indicated here referring to that term. However, the 'Knowledge Issues' can be fairly domain specific, and students will be learning about these in their Hexagon Subjects. Therefore, if we want to help students to identify the ToK aspects of their Hexagon subjects it is useful to unpack the ToK Concepts in terms of the knowledge issues inherent to those hexagon subjects.
Knowledge issues connect knowledge construction issues in the Hexagon Subjects with the 12 ToK Concepts.
Ideally, we would encourage (equip) students to identify the knowledge issues that are apparent in their Hexagon Subjects and bring those across to their ToK studies. We can help them to do this by working alongside their hexagon teachers because often students don't realise that the knowledge issues that they are learning in the hexagon are also relevant in ToK. Those hexagon based knowledge issues can then be grouped under the ToK Concepts, thus integrating ToK and the Hexagon (which is both the aim of ToK, and something that we have to find evidence for when it comes to IB / CIS Evaluation).
You may be wondering why I'm not just posting content. If so here's a quick video explaining my views on content.
In the next blogpost I will show you a simple lesson activity to connect the Hexagon Knowledge Issues with the ToK Concepts.
Daniel,
Lisbon, August 2022
Photos to Concepts - Lesson Starter Activities
the two starter activities that I present today meet the criteria of super-low cost in terms of planning, stress and brain power. Simple they may be, but they can also be very powerful in helping students to learn ToK.
I like lesson starter activities to be fairly low cost for both students and teachers alike, low cost in planning time, stress and brainpower. If I try to start a lesson with an article from an esteemed publication (like Nat Geo or The Atlantic) I find student energy can dip down pretty quickly.
My students sometimes need to be 'eased' into the ToK Mindset at the beginning of the lesson.
So, the two lesson starter activities that I present today meet the criteria of super-low cost in terms of planning, stress and brain power. Simple they may be, but they can also be very powerful in helping students to learn ToK. Their power comes in the ensuing discussion rather than in the complexity of the planning. - Take a rest ToK Teacher !
Picture - Concept Lesson Starter Activity.
This starter activity is super straightforward. You simply show the students a random photo of anything (you can use a random picture generator such as this), and ask them the question
"Which ToK Concepts are represented by this photo?"
Of course any ToK Concepts can be linked to any photo if you are able to construct a good argument, and that is the essential value of this activity. This very simple, no planning, activity has led to some of my best ToK lessons over the years.
"Which ToK Concepts are represented by this photo?"
Obviously the learning comes from how you develop the discussion about why the students chose certain concepts rather than others..
Develop discussion.
Learning:
Students become familiar with ToK Concepts.
Students learn how to link concepts to objects (exhibition)
Students learn how to use ToK Concepts in arguments
The close up Macro lesson starter.
Like the starter above, this starter activity is pretty self explanatory. You start the lesson by showing students a close up macro photograph, you ask them to guess what the object is. As you slowly reveal more and more of the photo the students write their guesses down, as the object is slowly revealed. It’s useful for them to look back, once the object has been revealed, to see how many different things they thought that object could be.
Example of super macro image on the right, and 'revealed' object on the left.
There are some great examples of the type of objects that can be used on this website.
This simple activity can be used to teach perspective, of course every student knows that if you look at things from different angles your experience of them changes, (your knowledge of them changes). This activity could be used to ask why, if we know about perspective, do so many of us cling to absolutes in many circumstances ? Perspective is a much more complex concept than it first appears. Perspective changes knowledge. This activity is just rooting the word perspective in ToK, it’s making it domain specific (a big thing in the Self Regulated Learner literature).
Perspectives are the basis for arguments - which are one of the key ways to access the higher marks on ToK Essay & Exhibition.
So, here are 2 apparently simple activities, but they have the potential to take students a long way in ToK knowledge & ToK thinking. In my experience these starters can often extend across the whole lesson. They are simple activities which have the potential to be very complex.
There's another ToK lesson starter activity for you here.
If you try either of these starter activities I'd love to know how they worked out, and how they could be improved for the future. If you have any requests for other learning resources please let me know (Daniel@TokToday.com).
Daniel,
Lisbon, August 2022.
ToK Words Graphic
a graphic of keywords that are used in ToK. These words go 'beyond' the 12 ToK Concepts.
Just a simple little post today. Whilst scrolling through my Drive today I came across this little ToK words graphic that I made last year. I used to paste this onto learning materials that I used with my class, and put it into presentations etc. It's a graphic of keywords that are used in ToK. These words go 'beyond' the 12 ToK Concepts. We also used it as a "bingo card" a few times (students had to mark each word when they heard someone use that word during a lesson, or presentation).
I thought it would be a nice little resource to share with you, you may use as you wish (link to JPEG is here).
For an activity to help students become familiar with key words try this link.
As always, if you have a request for resources, or help developing lessons / units please don't hesitate to get in touch (Daniel@TokToday.com).
Daniel.
