1. TOK ACROSS THE IB CONTINUUM

2. Retreat Overview  What is TOK ?  The TOK diagram  TOK inquiry - Perception  TOK across the DP curriculum  TOK across the IB continuum  Teaching for understanding  Obstacles to TOK - students  Obstacles to TOK – faculty  Group discussions

3. What is TOK ? “TOK encourages critical thinking about knowledge itself to try to help young people make sense of what they encounter. What makes TOK unique, and distinctively different from standard academic disciplines, is its process. At the center of the course is the student as knower.” TOK Subject Guide, 2006 TOK Subject Guide, 2006

4. TOK - 1 TOK - 1  The primary goal of TOK is to engage students in a critical reflection focusing on: 1> the nature and limits of human knowledge, 2> the socio-cultural context of knowing, 3>the social, political and ethical dimensions of knowledge and knowing  A second goal of TOK is to help students become effective communicators

5. TOK - 2  These goals are pursued by way of active inquiry, written work, group discussions and oral presentations  International mindedness and the IB learner profile frame subject matter and pedagogy  TOK respects the inherent dignity of the person by fostering critical thinking as a means to autonomous agency

6. The TOK Diagram

7. TOK THINKING - 1  Does the knowledge-claim contain problematic terms?  What assumptions are being made?  What knowledge issues are involved?  What WOKs/AOKs are involved in the knowledge issues?  What evidence/support is provided for the knowledge claim?  Is the evidence relevant, fair and true?

8. TOK THINKING - 2  What counter-claims can be made to the knowledge claim presented?  How might the knowledge claim be viewed in other cultures?  How is knowledge constructed in the subject under review?  What social, political, cultural and ethical consequences are connected with the claim?  What are your views on the knowledge claim presented?

9. STARTING A TOK CLASS True or False? …the law of gravity will be in effect tomorrow? …the sum 18 + 7 = 26? …Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon in July 1969? …education weakens religious belief? …genetic engineering is morally wrong? …art is whatever you want it to be …a number is either odd or even …how do you know?

10. TOK inquiry Perception as a WOK

11. TOK across the DP  Possible approaches to TOK in: Mathematics Mathematics Ethics Ethics Natural Science Natural Science History History Language Language Art Art

12. Mathematics  Our brains, it appears, may not be engineered to cope with extremely large or extremely small values.  Douglas Hofstadter coined the term “number numbness” to describe this syndrome, and many of us suffer from it.  Compared to a trillion, a billion is peanuts.  This fact is important when considering statistics.

13. Depicts 426,000 cell phones, equal to the number of cell phones retired in the US every day

16. Depicts 60,000 plastic bags, the number used in the US every 5 seconds

18. Questions - Mathematics  Why do we associate certainty with mathematics?  Can a mathematical statement be true before it has been proven true?  What counts as understanding in mathematics?  If mathematics is a product of the mind then why is it so well-suited to describing the external world?  Was calculus discovered or invented by Newton?  Is ability in mathematics linked to intelligence?

19. Ethics “Ethics involves a discussion of the way we ought to live our lives, the distinctions between right and wrong, the justification of moral judgments, and the implications of moral actions for the individual and the group.” TOK Subject Guide, 2006 TOK Subject Guide, 2006

20. What do “you” see? Ethical questions?

23. Questions - Ethics  Is selfishness incompatible with being moral?  Are the ten commandments morally right because God commanded them or did God command them because they are morally right?  What role do emotions play in moral deliberation?  Should the pursuit of knowledge be guided by moral principles?  If moral relativism is true then can we condemn genocide or FGM?  Do non-human animals have moral experiences?  Can something be morally good and also morally wrong?

24. NATURAL SCIENCE In 2001 Joseph Cloutier, a native of Montreal, went to see his cardiologist in Houston, TX. Over the course of the previous 10 years prior to this trip, Cloutier had 2 heart attacks, an angioplasty and a quadruple bypass. His trip to Houston was recommended by his family doctor because tests had shown his arteries were once again almost completely blocked.

25. NATURAL SCIENCE While in Houston Clouthier went to a nearby church to pray to Brother Andre. When he returned to his hotel room he suddenly felt a warm rush of energy throughout his body. He later said that he knew, at that moment, he had been healed. The following day his cardiologist informed him his arteries were “like new”. Montreal Gazette, October 7, 2001 Montreal Gazette, October 7, 2001 Was Clouthier’s healing a miracle?

26. Questions - Science  Do cause and effect relationships actually occur in nature or are they human constructs for understanding experience?  If induction is unreliable then how can science make accurate predictions?  Using digital technology, it is now possible to recreate pictures from light that we cannot see. Is this seeing? Can we say that we have seen a distant galaxy when we look at a picture constructed from radio waves?  What does “law” mean in science?

27. QUESTIONS - HISTORY  “Historians are dangerous people. They are capable of upsetting everything” Nikita Khrushchev What might Khrushchev have meant when he said this?  What is the difference between known facts, like the exact date of a battle, and the background “facts” of what caused the battle?  What problems are posed for the study of history by changes in language and culture over time?  Can the study of history be scientific?  Can history help us understand the present?

28. QUESTIONS - LANGUAGE  How do words acquire meaning?  Can non-human animals think?  Does the language we use affect our experience of the world?  Does it matter if languages disappear?  If a particular word has a different meaning in two different cultures is one of these wrong?  Was Henry the VIII a “sexist”?

29. QUESTIONS - ART  What are the roles of emotion and reason in the arts?  Does an artist have a moral obligation to use his/her art to confront issues in his/her culture?  What is art? Is it important?  Should the state subsidize the arts?  Should art respect religious beliefs?  Can propaganda be art?

30. Teaching for understanding  Identify something which you understand really well: How did you come to understand this? How did you come to understand this? How do you know that you understand this? How do you know that you understand this? How would others know that you understand this? How would others know that you understand this? How can you foster the development of understanding in your students? How can you foster the development of understanding in your students?

31. Involving students in TOK  Journals  TOK-ifying experience  Portfolios  TOK jar  Q-Q-I  Essays  Debates  Audio casts/videos/drawings  Student generated questions

32. THE VALUE OF TOK - 1 The value of philosophy is to be sought largely in its very uncertainty. The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the co-operation or consent of his deliberate reason. To such a man the world tends to become definite, finite, obvious; common objects rouse no questions, and unfamiliar possibilities are contemptuously rejected.

33. THE VALUE OF TOK - 2 Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of the questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation; but above all because, through the greatness of the universe which philosophy contemplates, the mind also is rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good. Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, 1910 Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, 1910

34. THE ROAD TO KNOWLEDGE