WELCOME TO IB!

1. WELCOME TO IB! Welcome to ToK – Theory of Knowledge Please sit in your assigned seat, and then begin the work on your desk. Thank you!

2. THE IB Mission Statement • The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. • To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment. • These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.

3. WHAT IS INTERNATIONAL MINDEDNESS? • International Baccalaureate: The goal is to develop inquiring, knowledgeable, and caring young people who help to create a better world. • So…What do you think it means? • International mindedness means that we offer all students the opportunity to discuss major world issues and to realize they can help solve problems at the local, national, and international level.

4. INTERNATIONAL MINDEDNESS In today’s highly interdependent world, individuals and nations can no longer resolve many of their problems by themselves. We need one another. We must therefore develop a sense of universal responsibility… It is our collective and individual responsibility to protect and nurture the global family, to support its weaker members, and to tend to the environment in which we all live. (The 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet)

5. An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)

6. I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any of them. (M. K. Gandhi)

7. IB Learner ProfileThe aim of all IB programmes 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.IB learners strive to be: Inquirers Knowledgeable Thinkers Communicators Principled Open-minded Caring Risk-takers Balanced Reflective

8. The International Baccalaureate • A rigorous pre-university course. • 6 academic areas surrounding a core. • Maintains balance. • Encourages development in all academic areas.

9. Relationship of TOK within the IB. • TOK is at the core of the IB programme. • It sits alongside the extended essay and CAS. • It is designed to develop a coherent approach to learning which transcends and unifies the academic areas an encourages appreciation of other cultural perspectives.

10. What is TOK? • The TOK course “challenges students and their teachers to reflect critically on diverse ways of knowing and areas of knowledge…

11. What is TOK? • and to consider the role knowledge plays in a global society….

12. What is TOK? • The TOK course “….encourages students to become aware of themselves as thinkers to become aware of the complexity of knowledge…

13. What is TOK? • and to recognize the need to act responsibly in an increasingly interconnected world.”

14. The TOK Diagram • You are at the center of the diagram. • Your ways of knowing help you explore and interpret the world • The areas of knowledge are the disciplines knowledge is classified.

15. The TOK Diagram • You are at the center of the diagram. • Your ways of knowing help you explore and interpret the world. • The areas of knowledge are the disciplines knowledge is classified.

16. What do you KNOW? Make a list of 5 things which you know and 5 things you would like to know…

17. TOK STARTER—LOOK AT LIST of 5 Things….DECIDE: • Which items on your first list do you know through • School? Experience? Observation? Practice? • Reasoning? Religious means? Other means? (name them) • DISCUSS with a PARTNER NOW… • Which items on your second list will you: • Never know • Probably never know • Probably know at some point • Definitely know at some point

18. Key Questions. • How do I, or how do we, know that a given assertion is true, a belief is reasonable, or a given judgment is well grounded? In other words…. • How do we know what we know?

19. Some topic areas • The following slides show a few of the topics covered in the TOK course. • PEARL (Ways of Knowing) • Areas of Knowledge • Knowledge Issues

20. Ways of Knowing – Emotion

21. Ways of Knowing – Reason

22. Ways of Knowing--Authority

23. Ways of Knowing - Perception

24. Ways of Knowing - Language • It is very important that you learn about traxoline. Traxoline is a new form of zionter. It is montilled in Ceristanna. The Ceristannians gristeriate large amounts of fevon and then bracter it to quasel traxoline. Traxoline may well be one of our most lukized snezlaus in the future of our zionter lescelidge.

25. Knowledge Issues A knowledge issue is a question concerning knowledge where there are at least two plausible alternatives. They can include real life situations, “I am driving in my car when I arrive at a toll booth. There are two booths. One has a long queue of traffic, the other booth is empty. Should I join the queue or go to the empty booth? How do I know?” KI’s can also be more abstract, “How can we know if all our actions are freely chosen?” Or, “How is the knowledge we have in maths and science related to our own cultural paradigm?” Here are examples of KI’s from various areas of knowledge. In art, “How do we know what constitutes good art?” or in ethics, “Can we use reason to justified making judgements about another culture’s ethics?” or, “When making judgements about what’s right and wrong, should we rely more on reason or emotion?” KI’s are also relevant to ways of knowing.  In language, “Is it justified to claim that our thoughts are determined by our language?” or, “In one or two areas of knowledge, how far does our language describe the world or express our feelings about it?” Considering perception, “How far is our knowledge of the world limited by our sense perception?” Or considering reason, “Is reason the most reliable route to knowledge in the natural sciences and the human sciences?”

26. History - What is a historic fact? • What is history? • What is meant by “the history of the world is the history of the privileged few”? • Why study history? • What value judgements can be made from historic events?

27. Art and Artists – How do we know what constitutes “good” art?

28. Ethics. These two bear cubs are waiting to be boiled alive. Businessmen take package tours where they attend ceremonies in which bear cubs are boiled alive, slowly, and their paws are then eaten, the belief being that this makes male humans more virile. No comment. As of December 31,1999, the death penalty was authorized by 38 states and the Federal Government. Texas leads nation in the number of executions since death penalty was reinstated in 1976.Texas, California, and Florida have the largest death row populations.3,581 offenders were under sentence of death in the United States as of December 31, 2001.There are five methods of execution in the United States: lethal injection, electrocution, lethal gas, hanging, and firing squad.

29. Interdisciplinary and relevant to personal experience!

30. Helps you to think differently….

31. Questions how you see things…

32. Looks for different answers…..

33. Suggests a reasoned approach to personal decisions

34. Questions our ethical choices….

35. READINGS There is one required text for this course – that is the IB TOK book by Lagemaat.. I will also be handing various supplemental sources for our various discussions.

36. Terms to Keep, Consider, “Know” Epistemology Knower Ways of Knowing Areas of Knowledge Knowledge Claims Knowledge Issues Add to list as we go….

37. Assessment • Class participation • Readings, Discussions • Journal, debates, blogs (done online) • Presentations (one formal IB) • Essays • informal & practice for the IB formal EA • formal IB EA:1200-1600 words

38. Lesson Styles • MUCH less “Sage on the Stage” • Student input is mandatory • Discussions • Note taking • Exercises • Presentations • Research • Role-play • Music • Film • PowerPoint / Prezi /other

39. Mutual respect is paramount Disagreement is normal Tolerance is vital Openness is crucial Negotiation is vital Curiosity is good Don’t look to the teacher Not knowing and not understanding are ok Confusion is OK Changing positions is fine Participation is crucial Debates are NOT “win at all costs” Communication is ALL way Class Ground Rules for TOK TOK lessons are different to other lessons – skills based (writing, speaking, reasoning) rather than content.

40. Thank you for your time and concentration.IB is SWEET!IT’S GONNA BE A BLAST! The IB Department

41. How do I reach Dr. Bagby? • My email: • sonja.bagby@carrolltoncityschools.net • Can reach me via website (Teachers and Staff) • Websites • CHS • Edu 2.0 • School phone—leave a message • 770-834-7726 (Front office or ext 5031) • Stop by…. • 2:30—4:00 pm

42. Next Week… • The KNOWER: Lesson and Activities • IB TOK Lesson ONE • What Good Are Schools? • Handout—4 GROUPS