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
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.
Women in STEM: Core Theme Knowledge & The Knower
This could be used as Starter or as a whole lesson. This activity is written for students in the first few weeks of the ToK Course. It is based in the Core Theme Knowledge & The Knower, and it starts to explore the difference between that which is known to the knower in comparison with that which is known to the knowledge community (previously 'the difference between personal & shared knowledge'). It could also be used to introduce the idea that knowledge is created for a purpose.
Knowledge Questions:
Can other people know us better than we know ourselves?
Is the truth what the majority of people accept?
Are there types of knowledge that are specifically linked to particular communities of knowers?
ToK Skills:
Identifying Knowledge Issues
Interpretation & Analysis
Evaluation
The Scenario:
You are a reporter for a news outlet. You have been given a 30 second time slot to report on the under-recruitment of women to STEM subjects in university. In your research you have interviewed 4 different groups, however you only have time to show 1 interview in your news report.
What to do:
Read the Interview summaries below and then discuss the questions as a group, and jot down your group answers.
Interview Summaries (NB - these are all fictional !).
DP Students who are applying to university.
This group (both male and female) felt that women were encouraged to apply for STEM subjects. The young women felt empowered in their choices, and supported if they wanted to apply for STEM.Vice Chancellor at an 'elite' STEM university.
The Vice Chancellor said that she wanted to make more offers of places to women applying to study STEM, but her university did not receive enough applications from women. In response they are spending money on encouraging more female school leavers to apply, and running a girls only summer school with STEM admissions tutors for G10 and G11 students.CEO of Pharmaceutical Company
The CEO doesn't care whether his company recruited male or female graduates, he just wants the best graduates. However, he felt that the elite STEM university should not be spending money on trying to get women to apply, they should be using that money to improve research at their university.Government Statistician.
The statistician has analysed a lot of data, and has found that women are less likely to apply to study STEM than men. However, they have found that women who do apply for STEM are more likely to be offered places at more competitive universities than men with the same grades.
ToK Questions for your group to consider:
a). Which interview provides you with the most valid knowledge relating to female applications to study STEM at university ?
b). Which interview provides you with the most reliable knowledge relating to female applications to study STEM at university ?
c). Comparing interviews 1 and 4, they are contradictory, is one wrong ?
d) What are the wider knowledge implications raised by your answer to c) ?
e) Which interviews are more representative of the views of the knower, and which are more representative of the knowledge community ? (place them on a continuum)
Truth, Justification and Perspective in The Arts and History
Knowledge Questions:
Is the truth what the majority of people accept?
Are moral and aesthetic judgments more a matter of taste than a matter of truth?
Watch the video Art - does it blend?
If you want to find out more about this artist (Marco Evaristti) click on the article linked here.
Your group will be allocated an area of inquiry, click the button below, and follow the instructions on the inquiry sheet:
Truth & Perspective in AoK History.
Knowledge Questions:
Is truth the goal of all historical inquiry?
Activity 1.
In your group individually write accounts of a major event in which you all shared (this could be a school event, local event, or experience of a national or international event).
Now compare your accounts - are there similarities / are there differences between the various accounts ?
Reflection
If there are differences why might they have occurred? Who is best qualified to write the best account of the event and why?
What do the similarities / differences tell us about Historical Knowledge?
Activity 2.
A single historical truth vs multiple historical truths.
Brainstorm arguments for each side of the debate of whether there is a single historical truth or multiple historical truths.
Activity 3.
Synthesis: Bring together your answers to the Reflection in Activity 1, with your answers to Activity 2.
(i) Develop a Thesis Statement relating to the KQ: Is truth the goal of all historical inquiry.
(ii) Explain the argument(s) supporting your thesis statement, include examples as appropriate.
(iii) Explain the arguments(s) against your thesis statement, include examples as appropriate.
(iv) write a concluding paragraph which states your resolution, and the reasons for your resolution.