As regular readers know, one of the classes I teach is an IB Theory of Knowledge course.
I’ve just received parental and student permission to post a couple of good videos of ones from this year. You can see them both at our class blog, as well as see the entire process I use in that class. I also thought I’d post one here that I think is particularly good.
I’d also love to hear feedback from other TOK teachers about it. In many ways, unless you get “audited” by IB, a Theory of Knowledge teacher may not know if he/she is on the right track with what they’re doing. So let me know in the comments what you think are the strengths and weaknesses of this presentation:
I found this presentation interesting!
I did have difficulty moving past the initial statement that Asperger’s Symdrome is a mental illness, but rather a developmental disorder.
After that, the supports in the AOK of History, Ethics & Art coupled with the WOK of reason, perception and emotion were well done. I kept wanting to hear about language (connotations) since the definitions of passion, madness, and insanity were read. This was a part of the presentation that could have supported their premise that madness is man-made.
The counter claims were well done and I could appreciate the personal examples from the Shaman and the uncle who suffered from PTSD to the examples of famous historical figures who were viewed by their contemporaries as crazy, but historically as geniuses. There could have been a bit more exploration of the mentally ill geographically. Criterion B would get good marks from me! The students were engaged in the presentation and you could tell they did quite a bit of research and independent thinking.
The bit on lateral thinking, prison of consistency and metaphorical blankets for comfort were all well done.
The end of the presentation with mentioning that we all have a bit of insanity in us is something to which I could agree. Again, language becomes an important focal point…is it madness, insanity, passion? Passion has the most positive connotation of them all.
Thanks for the feedback!
I’m a new TOK teacher, and I am confused about the grading that I will be doing later this semester for the TOK presentations. The presentation instrument gives me Levels out of 5 and marks out of 10, but what is the criterion mentioned above? And why do I see examples on YouTube of presentations that received grades of 20? Still very new at this. I would like to show this to my students, but want to make sure it is still valid under new guidelines. Thanks!
Ellen,
I’ve written a number of posts about TOK, and TOK scoring. Look at my Best lists and you’ll find several on TOK.
Larry