Odrie Minor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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IB “TOK” Theory of Knowledge Syllabus     FALL 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

I.   Teacher Information  

Teacher Name: Dr. O. Minor                                    Room: 2106

Tutorial Days: Tues., Wed., Thurs., 3:30-4:30              Course Website: MJHS Website - Faculty/Staff

Teacher E-mail: ominor@atlanta.k12.ga.us                 School Website: http://www.atlanta.k12.ga.us/Domain/3508

School Phone #: 404-802-5200

Cell Phone 770-324-7539

Social Studies Individuals and Society/IB

11th Grade TOK Theory of Knowledge Year 1

The aim of all IB programs is to develop internationally minded people who, recognizing their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet, help to create a better and more peaceful world.

As IB Learners we strive to be: Inquirers, Knowledgeable, Thinkers, Communicators, Principled, Open-Minded, Caring, Risk-Takers, Balanced, and Reflective.

We focus on key Approaches to Learning, where students focus on the following skills: THINKING, COMMUNICATION, SOCIAL, SELF-MANAGEMENT, and RESEARCH.

In addition, the IB Approaches to Teaching skills are based on inquiry; focused on conceptual understanding; developed in local and global contexts; focused on effective teamwork and collaboration; differentiated to meet the needs of ALL learners; and informed by formative and summative assessment.

 

II. Course Description and Objectives

The course is structured according to the course outline found in the most recent found in IB Theory of Knowledge

Course Outline:

Themes

You are required to study the core theme: 

• Knowledge and the Knower – allows you to explore what shapes your own perspectives as a knower – where your values come from and how you make sense of and navigate the world around you. On top of thinking about the individual knower, you will be exploring the impact of culture and community on shaping an individual’s beliefs. 

Your teacher (or you), will then choose 2 additional themes that you must study, out of this list of 5:

• Knowledge and Technology – looks at the effect of advances in technology on the acquisition of information. It explores both the positive and negative sides of engaging with information online as it leads to unprecedented amounts of global interaction but may facilitate the spread of false information. 

• Knowledge and Language – naturally language plays a large role in communicating and sharing knowledge from person to person, but this theme looks even deeper at how language doesn’t just describe experiences but structures/creates those experiences. It is language that shapes what we know, not language that describes what we know. 

• Knowledge and Politics – discusses the practice of politics and allows you to engage in debates that we see in news all around the world (the existence of fake news, post-truth politics, etc.). It also looks at our own political views and values and questions where those come from.

• Knowledge and Religion – for many around the world religion is a large determining factor in how we see the world. This theme allows you to think about how religion may impact and infiltrate the way in which we view the world.

• Knowledge and Indigenous Societies – this theme would allow you to take a deep exploration of knowledge that is bound to a particular cultural group or society, focusing on knowledge that is embedded in the traditions of certain indigenous societies.

 

Areas of Knowledge

The areas of knowledge are structures to explain the way in which knowledge is organized. The IB outlines 5 Areas of Knowledge that you must study:

• History – involves exploration and looking into the past and how it may affect our perception of new knowledge being acquired.
   

• Human Sciences – looks at disciplines like psychology, economics, geography, and others. You may focus on if there are fundamental differences between human sciences and natural sciences in the validity of knowledge being produced in each of the disciplines
   

• Natural Sciences – looks at biology, physics, and chemistry and how we differentiate ‘scientific’ knowledge from ‘pseudo-scientific’ knowledge. You may also look at scientific discoveries and developments and how they may serve as a paradigm shift.
   

• Arts – includes disciplines like dance, music, visual arts, theatre, and film. You may discuss the function of the arts, limitations in what should be considered ‘acceptable’ within the arts, or the relationship between art and culture.

• Mathematics – is seen as the area of knowledge with a strong degree of certainty, but is the knowledge that we get from mathematics more accurate or correct than knowledge within,

 

 

 

 

The Assessment Methods:

The Exhibition

Past students had a presentation and an essay as their assessment methods. Whilst the latter remains, the IB has replaced the presentation. The aim of the exhibition is to show how the content above exists in the world around us! This will be through creating an exhibition of three objects (or images of objects) and connecting them to one of the 35 “IA prompts”. 

These include:

“What constraints are there on the pursuit of knowledge?”

“What is the relationship between personal experience and knowledge?”

“Are some types of knowledge more useful than others?”

“What makes a good explanation?”

“Are some types of knowledge less open to interpretation than others?”

“What role does imagination play in producing knowledge about the world?”

You can find a full list of the prompts on the IBO website as well as more about the syllabus changes!

Our advice is to start by thinking about which theme you’re going to root your exhibition in. The questions are clearly quite broad so it’s important to narrow your focus from the get-go. Make sure you recognise that the context of your objects is important – a picture of a woman from google is very different to a picture of your own Mum! Remember: this is an individual project and group work is not permitted so make sure you choose a topic that most interests you!

Whilst the 1600 word essay will be marked by IB examiners and will be worth 2/3rds of your TOK grade, the 950 word exhibition is marked by your teachers and then externally moderated (or checked) by the IB. 

The Essay

The TOK essay operates in much the same way as previous years. The IBO prescribes a set of six titles that all students must choose one of. Using the knowledge you have acquired across the TOK course, you have to write an essay focusing on specific knowledge questions to be explored via various areas of knowledge and real-world examples. We have a number of blog posts that breakdown titles from previous years. It would be worth your while to see what kind of analysis is needed to reach the top marks in this assignment!

So there we have it, an overview of what you can expect in TOK 2020! Still confused? Luckily, we’ve got elite IB tutors ready to guide you through any of the content or assignments over your IB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Ways of Knowing: Language, Senses, Emotion and Reason 

What are the Ways of Knowing

All knowledge comes from somewhere. Even if we say it is innate (comes from within us) we still have to say how that knowledge appears. The Ways of Knowing are w hat they sound like, the methods through which knowledge becomes apparen t to us. In the IB there are eight different ways of knowing: Language, Sense perception, Emotion, Reason, Imagination, Faith, Intuition and Memory. Although this might seem like a lot, the good news is that for the IB you’re only really advised to study four of them in depth (although it’s worth knowing how each of them works).

Language

Language is defined as a system of signs with meanings. These signs include, but are not limited to: letters, pictures, symbols, sounds and gestures. Language is everywhere, some aspects of it may even be universal. As well as being everywhere, language is crucial to our survival and success. However, despite its omnipresence and importance, language is full of potential problems. Problem areas crop up like sarcasm, ambiguity (when something isn’t clear), irony and translation issues. We all know how a joke in one language might not work in another! Language is really important for communicating knowledge, despite its flaws. As ToK students, we should think about how language communicates knowledge and some of the problems that might creep up when we try to pass on knowledge through signs as symbols. One fascinating topic that you might not have heard of is the debate over ‘linguistic determinism’. This is the idea that language determines the way we think. The idea is that because a specific community speak in a certain way, the way they think is structured accordingly. You could argue that using only a specific language, limits our ability to think! Others argue that the way we see things and the way we think about them are not limited to our culture, but are universal. This is an ongoing debate and a really interesting one to consider using in your presentation or essays.

Sense Perception

This Way of Knowing relates to the way a person uses and understands their senses. Traditionally these people have thought that we only have five senses: touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight. However, as time has passed more and more senses have been suggested. Other senses that it has been claimed that people have included the sense of heat, sense of pain, of movement, of balance and of hunger and thirst, even a sense of where our body parts are in space has been suggested. Some of these might seem a little unusual, but try this: in a moment, close your eyes and try to touch your forefingers together. Were you successful? I bet you weren’t far off! But only the sense of proprioception (where your body is in space) could have allowed you to do this. One of the big debates here surrounds the idea of empiricism. This term, which you might have heard of, refers to the theory that all knowledge comes from the senses. This is a historical view. Now, it is commonly believed that our expectations help shape our sense of experiences. Deciding how perceptions and beliefs influence each other is a fascinating topic for essays and presentations. Illusions are a good illustration of how the brain’s expectations influence our sense of experiences.

Emotion

There are two important views of emotion that tend to come up in ToK. One is called the naturalistic view of emotion. This view tells us that emotion is a result of our physical bodies, with physical causes and effects. Charles Darwin was one supporter of this view. One interesting implication of the naturalistic view is that emotions are seen as universal and experienced across cultures. The opposite view to this is that of social constructionists. These guys argue that emotions are socially constructed. This would mean that emotions come from our social environment. The social constructionists might point at to an emotion like shame and say that shame is an emotion based on social ideas of what is right and what is wrong. Without society telling you what actions were ‘wrong’ you might never feel shame. One question you might consider is whether the emotion is a help or a hindrance when it comes to gaining knowledge. You could argue that emotion is a problem when seeking knowledge. For example, you might argue that emotion hinders rational thought and thus distorts reality. However, someone might disagree with you. Somebody could tell you, for example, that without emotions it is difficult to make sense of cultural and social experiences. People with autism often struggle to understand social situations and to know what it is other people feel. What does this say about the universality of emo

Reason

Most people would tell you that they are reasonable, but definitions of reason vary greatly amongst the general population. Do you know what reason means? There are three things you should know about to get started in understanding the reason: First is the ability to use logical deduction This allows us to go from starting ideas (premises) to reach valid conclusions. Here’s a simple example: Premises 1: Rex is a dog. Premises 2: All dogs have fur (remember this doesn’t have to be true) Question: Does Rex have fur? Valid Conclusion: Yes Rex has fur. Going from premises to conclusions like this is called logical ‘deduction’. Earlier it was noted that deduction leads to valid conclusions. This does not mean that the conclusions are true. What it means is that if the premises are true then the conclusions will be true. Here’s another example. Premises 1: Peter is a man Premises 2: All men have eight legs Question: Does Peter have eight legs? Valid conclusion: Yes, Peter has eight legs. Remember that this might not be true, people don’t usually have more than two legs! However, the conclusion is still logically valid because it follows from the two starting premises. Second is the ability to use logical Induction When we used deductive logic above we made general statements (about men and about dogs). We used these to show something specific about a man (Peter, showing he had eight legs) and a dog (Rex, showing he had fur). With inductive logic, we take a specific example to tell us something about the general. For example, you might have noticed that most windows are made of glass. We could say the following Step one: All the windows I have seen are made of glass Step two: Therefore all windows are made of glass Notice that inductive reasoning can involve probability. You might think that because you’ve seen so many windows and they were all made of glass, that all windows are made of glass. However, there is nothing stopping a window from being made of plastic or of jelly. You should know something about logical induction: it is what we call ‘inferential’. This is that it makes a statement which is not strictly provable. There’s no way I can prove that all the windows in the world are made of glass. The idea that they are is just inferred from my experience. This notion of inference helps separate deductive and inductive reasoning.

You’re halfway through the Ways of Knowing. Hopefully, you found some of that interesting, although it can be a lot to pick up all at once. If you think you understood most of what was in this post then you’re well on your way to being able to talk confidently about the Ways of Knowing and ace your presentations and essay! If you need more tailored support, click HERE to read about our online private tutoring! In our next blog post (part 5) we’re covering the remaining Ways of Knowing: imagination, faith, intuition and memory. These are going to be really interesting, and once you have a grip on them you can happily say you know about all the Ways of Knowing. Good job keeping up with your Theory of Knowledge work, soon you will be a ToK master

 

 

 

Types of Knowledge: Shared and Personal

Divide and conquer!

One good way to understand something difficult is to break it up. In ToK we are asked to look knowledge and try to understand how knowing works. One way the IB suggest we think about this is by breaking up knowledge in to categories called ‘shared’ and ‘personal’. You can tell the two types apart by how they are expressed. When someone is using shared knowledge they say ‘we know because’. When they are using personal knowledge they use the phrase ‘I know because’. There is a bit more to it than this though!

Shared knowledge

The best way to tell if knowledge is shared is to look at whether other people can check and correct it. Let’s take one of your IB subjects as an example. Ask your physics teacher what the fastest thing in the universe is and they will likely tell you that light moves faster than anything else. It moves at an impressive 1080 million kilometres every hour through a vacuum! But suppose a study showed something moving faster than light. What would happen?

Other scientists would try to replicate the study, and check it themselves. If they found that indeed, something could move faster than light, what would happen? Our scientific knowledge would have to be corrected. This example shows that science as an academic subject is a matter of shared knowledge. You can use to find out whether knowledge is shared or personal – shared knowledge can always be checked and corrected by the community.

Personal knowledge

Personal knowledge is different. Feelings are an example of personal knowledge. Emotional statements can’t be right or wrong, like scientific statements can. Personal knowledge can’t be checked for accuracy or corrected in the same way shared knowledge can.

Skills and abilities also count as personal knowledge. Imagine trying to describe to someone what it is like to ride a bike. You peddle, of course, and the wind rushes past you as you go fast. But does this really describe what it is like to ride a bike?

Knowing such things is personal knowledge – you have to experience it yourself to know it at all. Personal knowledge can be really hard to communicate. The same is true for other skills, like sports, cooking and so on.

The interaction

It is true that knowledge can be understood by breaking it into ‘shared’ and ‘personal’. However, the two types of categories do interact. Shared knowledge can have a strong impact on how we view the world. Somebody who studies economics might view their weekly shop quite differently because of their academic knowledge. Their personal knowledge had been affected by the shared knowledge they had picked up on in class. We can view this relationship as an intersection, where the two types of knowledge meet.

Hopefully you now feel comfortable with the ideas of personal and shared knowledge. You should feel satisfied that you can identify which kinds of knowledge are being described. Make sure you make use of this in essays and presentations to show that you really know your stuff!

 

Essentially, the WOKs are trying to answer the question “How do we know what we know”

In total, there are 8 different WOKs that the IBO includes in the TOK syllabus yet in reality you just need to concern yourself with the first 4.

Below is a list of the 8 ways of knowing which will be outlined in this blog post.

 

1. Language

2. Sense Perception

3. Emotion

4. Reason

5. Imagination

6. Intuition

7. Memory

8. Faith

Before we begin, do bear in mind that obtaining knowledge rarely ever happens through 1 WOK alone, it almost always involves multiple.

 

1. Language

 

In terms of TOK, language is defined as a system of symbols or signs that have a particular meaning. Language is always based on certain rules. For example, the word “Dog” means the same thing to everyone who speaks the english language because we all share the same vocabulary (which is essentially a set of rules). On top of this, language is always intended, meaning that we always intend to send some sort of meaning when we use language. 

While language can be confined to only a select group of people (eg only those who speak German), language can also be universal. For example, imagine if you had to communicate the meaning “yes” to someone that only spoke a foreign language to you, you could simply nod your head up and down! 

As with all ways of knowing, language has limitations, which is important to consider in TOK. The main function of language is to communicate knowledge, which is sometimes imperfect. Think about translating something into another language or conveying sarcasm over text, It’s not always easy! 

The main thing you should take from this way of knowing is that we can’t function as a society without it, but that there are flaws to it.

 

2. Sense Perception

 

Sense perception is all about how we experience the world around us, using our senses.

 

Now you probably know the 5 basic senses; sight, taste, touch, smell and hearing, but you should be aware of the fact that there are actually a few more. For example, if you were to close your eyes and have a friend pull your hand up or down, you would probably be able to tell which way your hand is moving, this is due to what is known as proprioception in medical terms.

 

Sense perception is obviously also essential to our survival as it allows us to interact with ourselves and the environment. However, sense perception is limited in a few ways. First of all, we can only use the WOK to know about things that are biologically able to be sensed. For example, we would never have known about distant galaxies unless we had developed powerful telescopes that could go beyond what is within our realm of sense-perception. Secondly, our senses and perception can easily be manipulated. Think about an optical illusion where the eyes can be tricked into seeing what is not actually true. Again, the key here is simply to be aware of the limitations of the way of knowing! 

 

3. Emotion

 

Emotion is a way to make sense of ideas experiences and behaviors. As a way of knowing it is extremely powerful, as we tend to make most of our day-to-day decisions based on our emotions. However, this WOK is limited by the fact that it can only really bring knowledge to an individual, and never to a group of people. For example, two individuals may experience the same stimulus but achieve very different emotional responses, so although it is a powerful WOK, it is not necessarily reproducible, or consistent. 

 

4. Reason 

Reason allows us to form knowledge without relying on our senses. With reason, we take the knowledge that we already have and then synthesize new knowledge therefrom. Reason allows us to deduce what we can not immediately experience for ourselves. For example, if you are sat indoors, and hear that there are no clouds outside, you can reasonably deduce that it is also not raining. Hence, you are obtaining new knowledge through the assimilation of other pieces of knowledge! 

 

5. Imagination

 

This is when we form new images, ideas or concepts that aren’t actually there in the real world. However, imagination is often crucial for the development of new knowledge. For example, many companies or products are created by the founder imagining them and then later attempting to bring them to life. A major limitation to our imagination is however that the extent to which we can imagine something is limited by our real world experiences. For example, it can often be difficult to imagine what life would be like for someone that grew up under very different circumstances to oneself.

 

6. Intuition

 

This is when a knower has a gut feeling, which is often based on past experiences which can not be explicitly identified. For example, when a doctor with many years of experience sees a patient, he or she might be able to come to the correct diagnosis with seemingly less information than what a junior doctor would require, simply because they can detect very subtle clues which are seemingly invisible to others! 

 

This way of knowing is limited by its inability to make very precise predictions and is often very difficult to obtain. Hence, only very few people can produce reliable knowledge using intuition.

 

7. Memory

Some students are confused by how memory can act as a way of forming new knowledge, surely if you remember something, you are simply recalling old knowledge from experiences or ideas?

However, in order to form new knowledge, you often have to rely on concepts from your memory! Think about when you tried to understand how to read; you were forced to use your memory of the meaning of letters, to understand how words and then sentences are formed, it’s all interconnected!

 

The major disadvantage of memory is that it is often unreliable. Research has shown that your memory of past events is influenced by many different factors including your emotional states at the time of forming the memory, as well as environmental factors (eg what others thought of the same event you are remembering). 

 

Hence although memory is important, it should be employed with caution. 

 

8. Faith

 

Faith is a WOK that is often disputed and by some not regarded as a way of knowing. This is due to the nature of faith itself, which is complete confidence in something based on spiritual conviction. This WOK doesn’t necessarily need to involve religion, as many students believe, as faith can also be based on a person, organization or movement. One limitation of faith is that it can not be proven and that it can often clash with evidence.

 

 

 

III. Materials and Supplies

• 5 Subject Spiral Notebook  Computer

 

 

IV. Course Outline/Curriculum Overview

 

V. Primary Text

 

 

VI. Grading Policy:

Formative Pre-Assessment

0%

Pre-Test/Diagnostic Test/Pre-SLO

Assessment During Learning

25%

Performance-based Assessments/Quizzes

Group/Independent Practice (In Class)

40%

Classwork/Projects/Labs/Group work

Homework

5%

Homework

Summative Assessment

30%

Culminating Projects/Unit Tests/Final Exam/Post-SLO

Grading scale               A:  90-100         B:  80-89           C:  70-79           F:   0-69

 

Grading Systems-Grading Expectations [See Board Policy IHA-R (1)]

2.1.    Students shall receive report cards after the end of the 9th, 18th, 27th and 36th weeks of the school year. The report cards received after the semester midpoints (9th and 27th weeks) will be considered progress reports for all students.

2.3.    For grades 6-12, evaluation of student mastery shall be cumulative for the semester.

2.4.    All students shall receive interim progress reports at least four (4) times per year—4.5 weeks into the school year and midway between report card issuance dates.

           

VII. Assessment Calendar

 

VIII. Classroom Expectations:

Come to class prepared to focus only with the mentioned material. Be on time and be prepared to learn. At all times everyone in this classroom will conduct himself or herself in a professional manner. ANY deviation from acceptable behavior shall require immediate attention up to and including referral to an administrator. Any student receiving a grade of 70% or below on any graded work is expected to see me for assistance.  Come prepared to discuss how to improve your performance.

 

Class Rules:

1. Be in your seat when the bell rings. Students not in their own seats, with supplies out, when the bell rings will be considered tardy.

2. Treat each other and the teacher with respect.

3. Raise your hand if you have a question or comment, do not interrupt instruction.

4. Be prepared for class that includes notebook, pen/pencil, textbook, markers and glue.

5. It should be advised that all students should follow all other rules of Maynard Jackson High School and the Atlanta Public School general rules regarding conduct and discipline.

 

Notebooks/Note-taking:

            Interactive notebook-5 Subject Spiral Notebook/ Electronic Notebook

Quizzes:

            Will be announced

Make-up Policy

MAKING UP MISSED ASSIGNMENTS OR TESTS It is the student’s and parent’s responsibility to make arrangements for make-up work. Students should ask their teacher for any missed assignments on the first day they return to school.

Deficiency Notices and Progress Reports

The student will periodically receive from the teacher GRADE PROGRESS reports and DEFICIENCY NOTICES.  You should review with your parent(s) or guardian(s) AND they must sign and return both the GRADE PROGRESS REPORT and DEFICIENCY NOTICE on or before the assigned due date.

Academic Integrity

The Atlanta Board of Education recognizes that academic integrity is the foundation of academic excellence and student success. It is the responsibility of every student and employee to exhibit honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility in academic work at all times to support a positive learning environment in the school.  Violations of board policy JFA Academic Integrity shall be handled as violations of the student code of conduct and addressed via the progressive discipline guidelines in the Student Handbook. 

Parent Expectations

Parental communication and involvement is essential to the success of all students.  We fully welcome your involvement. Parents are encouraged to contact the teacher for updates and concerns. If a parent requests a conference, one will be scheduled as soon as possible.