TOK – Unit about knowledge

Students usually think that what they know is true and unchangeable – the aim of the second lesson (and a couple lessons after that) is to make them doubt that, to through them a little out of the comfort zone and make them think about knowledge. For this reason, I am using materials available under the Knowledge page.

  1. I use the adaptation of a lesson Map is not a territory with additional activities from Dombrowsky et al. book as well as a couple of videos and maps.
  2. Discuss what is more important – questions or answers – for this I use the comic I found in Quora. This usually leads to a discussion about the progress of knowledge and the nature of knowledge.
  3. Definition of knowledge vs. belief vs. information vs. wisdom
  4. Definition of truth, fact, theory, law and hypothesis
  5. Introducing the concepts of evidence and justification – I use materials inspired by Larry Ferlazzo (his blog is awesome!) lesson about Syria – if possible I find a more up to date topic although the Obama speech justifying interventions in Syria is so perfect for this lesson.
  6. Introduction of personal knowledge and shared knowledge.
  7. Introduction to perspectives – for this I use an amazing TED talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as well as activity inspired by the workshop I participated in led by Polish Humanitarian Action.

The first unit ends with a first assignment which is a 4 paragraph formative assessment task (essay) about personal knowledge and shared knowledge (past prescribe title).

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