17. assessments

INTERNAL ASSESSMENT (IA): WHAT IS IT?
1. What does it look like?
1. A presentation on a Knowledge Issue (KI),
turned into a Problem of Knowledge (PoK)
taught to an audience.
2. Some form of realia or graphic organizer,
speaking.
2. How many people?
1. 3 people is ideal.
2. A presentation working as an Integrated
whole
3. Length of time?
1. 10-30 minutes (depending on the number of
team members)
4. Who is the audience?
1. Teacher and class first (diagnostic, formative
assessment)
2. Next semesters TOK students. Introduction
to the course for them. (Summative
assessment)

IA: CRITERIA (4 EQUAL AREAS, 5 POINT
SCALE)
A. Identification of Knowledge
Issue
• Did the presentation identify
a relevant knowledge issue
involved, implicit or
embedded in a real-life
situation?
B. Treatment of Knowledge
Issues
• Did the presentation show a
good understanding of
knowledge issues, in the
context of the real-life
situation?
C. Knower’s Perspective
• • Did the presentation,
particularly in the use of
arguments and examples,
show an individual approach
and demonstrate the
significance of the topic?
D. Connections
• Did the presentation give a
balanced account of how the
topic could be approached
from different perspectives?
• Quality of considerations

LANGUAGE AS WOK
P. 77-93
AIO: IS AUTISM A DISABILITY?
PHILOSOPHER PORTRAIT: LOCKE, J.L. AUSTIN, CHARLES PEIRCE
TED TALK: HTTP://TINY.CC/LANGUAGEHISTORY

WHAT IS LANGUAGE?
1. Language is rule-governed
2. Language is intended
3. Language is creative and open-
ended
4. Language is so much a part of
human activity that it is easily
taken for granted.
5. The issues related to language
and knowledge call for conscious
scrutiny in order to recognize its
influence on thought and
behavior.

THEORIES OF LANGUAGE
The following are three
theories of what distinguishes
meaningful words from
meaningless ones.
1. Definitions theory
2. Denotation theory
3. Image theory

DICTATION THEORY
The most obvious way of trying
to resolve confusions about
what a word means is to
consult a dictionary.
Define the following:
1. Triangle
2. Table
3. Love

HOWEVER…
• Now define ―red to a blind person.
• The main problem with the idea that the
meaning of a word is its dictionary
definition is not simple that most
definitions are vague and imprecise, but,
more fundamentally, that they only
explain the meanings of words by using
other words. If we are to avoid being
trapped in an endless circle of words,
language, must surely connect with the
world.

DENOTATION THEORY
• According to the denotation
theory what distinguishes a
meaningful word from a
meaningless one is that the
former stands for something while
the latter does not.
• France means something because
it stands for the country in Europe
• Jumblat is meaningless because
there is nothing in the world that
corresponds to it.

What is “Wisdom” according to Denotation Theory?

IMAGE THEORY
• The meaning of a word is the
mental image it stands for, and
you know the meaning of a word
when you have the appropriate
concept in your mind.
• Example: you know what the
word ―freedom means when
your associate it with the
concept of freedom.

LANGUAGE AS SUBJECTIVE TRUTH?
• If meanings are in the mind then we can never be sure that
someone else understands the meaning of a word in the
same way that we do –or, indeed, that they understand it
at all.
• The idea of ―red can be different for different people.

ACTIVITY: SURREALIST QUESTIONS
• Duration: 5 minutes
• Team of Two
• Each write down an open ended
question, something that can have
many answers, but specific enough to
develop real connections.
• Swap papers but DO NOT LOOK AT
YOUR TEAMMATES QUESTION!
• Write down an answer to a completely
unrelated question, try and be poetic
and/or creative with your writing
(metaphors, wisdom, etc.)
• Compare creations!

CHOOSE 1 PROBLEM OF KNOWLEDGE
1. What different functions does
language perform?
2. Which are the most relevant in
creating and communicating
knowledge?
3. What did Aldous Huxley mean
when he observed that ―Words
form the thread on which we
string our experiences ?
4. To what extent is it possible to
separate our experience of the
world from the narratives we
construct of them?

CHOOSE 1 PROBLEM OF KNOWLEDGE
5. In what ways does written language
differ from spoken language in its
relationship to knowledge?
6. Is it reasonable to argue for the
preservation of established forms of
language, for example, as concerns
grammar, spelling, syntax, etc.
7. Is a common world language a
defensible project?
8. What is the role of language in
sustaining relationships of authority?
Are there extenuating circumstances?
9. How does technological change affect
the way language is used and the way
communication takes place?

WORDS WITH FIGURATIVE QUALITY
1. Words have a primary meaning or denotation
2. Words have a secondary meaning or connotation
3. Connotation refers to the web of associations that
surrounds the word.
4. Connotations vary from person to person
5. Words like love, death, school, and priest may have
different connotations for different people.
6. Sometimes we use euphemisms for harsh words because
they have more acceptable connotations.

SOME GENERAL PRINCIPLES
1. There is an element of interpretation built into all
communication.
2. Rather than saying we either understand something or
we don’t, it might serve us better to say that there are
levels of meaning in language.

MULTIPLE LANGUAGES
Who does not know another
language does not know his
own. Goethe 1749-1832
What can you learn about
your own language by
studying a second language?

MULTIPLE LANGUAGES
1. If people speak more than one language, is what they
know different in each language? Does language provide
a different framework of reality?
2. How is the meaning of what is said affected by silences
and omissions, pace tone of voice, and bodily
movement? How might these factors be influenced in
turn by the social or cultural context?
3. What is lost in translation from one language to another?
4. To what degree might different languages shape different
self-concepts or world-concepts? What are the
implications of this?

COMMON LANGUAGE?
• There are approximately 3,000 different languages world
wide.
• We tend to think our own language fits reality.
• What realities do we experience because we speak
English?
• What would be the advantages and disadvantages if
everyone in the world spoke a single common language?
• In what ways does learning a second language contribute
to, and expand, your knowledge of the world?

THREE PROBLEMS OF TRANSLATION
What are related words
to the word “Chat”?

• Untranslatable Words: Every language contains words that have
not equivalent in other languages, and can only be translated by
lengthy and inelegant paraphrase.
• For example, the English word ―quaint has no very precise
equivalent in other languages.
• Schlimmbesserung (German), means ―an improvement that
actually makes things worse
• Rojong (Indonesian), ―the relationship among a group of
people committed to accomplishing a task of mutual benefit

• Give examples of words in your own, or your second
language that have no precise equivalent in English.
• How would you go about trying to translate the following
idioms into another language?
• David is barking up the wrong tree
• Samuel was only pulling your leg
• Daniela is resting on her laurels.

LITERATURE CIRCLES (LC): WHAT IS IT?
• What is the product?
• An informal presentation
convincing others to read
your piece of literature.
• How many in a Team?
• 4 students exactly
• Team Roles rotate every
week: Discussion Director,
Connector, Lit Luminary,
Illustrator
• Who is the audience?
• Current Juniors and
perspective TOK students

BRAINSTORM ACTIVITY
• Develop either rules for the activity or
compliment real life situation (RLS) with an
active scenario.
• Consider constraints such as:
• Team number
• Time limits
• Materials
• Transitions and Analysis
• Answer the following questions:
• What am I trying to TEACH with my activity?
• What will my activity look like during my
presentation? What will students be DOING?
• What will my students LEARN as a result of my
activity? In what ways will it enhance their
understanding/introduction of my PoK?

ACTIVITY 1: INCEPTION MAZE
• With a partner, take turns
creating mazes on paper.
• The objective is to design a maze
in two minutes in which it takes
more than one minute to solve.
• Which one has the faster time?
What does this mean?
• What does this test prove
regarding how intelligence is
developed? Measured?
• How might a maze be a fitting
metaphor for the acquisition of
knowledge?

TINY.CC/POK
• Annotate on a separate
piece of paper the
development of thinking
throughout the interaction.
• Identify how the teacher
leads the student into
developing a POK.
• Summarize at least 4 stages
in the student’s
understanding of the POK.
Where does he end up?

AN APPLICATION OF TOK
• TOK often feels a disengaged exercise of idea,
exploration, free-mindedness
• Our TOK Goals are:
1. To identify and apply reasonable boundaries
and categories of thought to everyday situations.
2. To navigate complex problems in society
without relying on bias, polemics, or simplicity of
current dialogue.
3. To communicate potential solutions; often
accepting multiple solutions to a problem while
recognizing different learning paths.
• Assessments are a way to apply our TOK learning
to particular topics that we are passionate about.

ASSESSMENT AS KNOWLEDGE
• Does TOK have answers?
• How can you assess such
diversity of idea with integrity?
• Two types of Assessments:
• Summative: Of Learning, by
teacher or expert
• Formative: For Learning, by
teacher and yourself
• Tasks and instruments:
• What ways are you assessed in
IB? What are the advantages and
disadvantages of each type?
Assessor Advantage Disadvantage
Teacher
Examiner
Self
Peer

HUXLEY FROM COLLECTED ESSAYS
• Your research, thinking, and
performance (presentation
and writing) will include a
combination of the following
elements:
• Personal: How do you relate
to the knowledge issue? your
position, experience,
narrative, change, priorities,
etc.
• Factual, Concrete: How does
the world relate to your
position? Evidence, scholar
consensus, experiments,
observations, terms of art,
etc.
Abstract, Universal
Factual, Concrete
Personal,
Autobiographical

MARK TWAIN ON PREPARATION
• It usually takes me
more than three
weeks to prepare a
good impromptu
speech.
• My apologies,would I
have had more time,I
would have written
you a shorter letter.

GANDHI ON ACTIONS AS KNOWLEDGE
We do not need to
proselytise either by
our speech or by our
writing. We can only
do so really with our
lives. Let our lives be
open books for all to
study.

• What does it look like?
• A presentation on a Knowledge Issue (KI),
turned into a Problem of Knowledge
(PoK) taught to an audience.
• Some form of realia or graphic organizer,
speaking.
• How many people?
• 1-5 people, 3-4 is ideal. Integrated whole
is the goal.
• Length of time?
• 10-30 minutes (depending on the number
of team members)
• Teacher and class first (diagnostic,
formative assessment)
• Next semesters TOK students.
Introduction to the course for them.
(Summative assessment)

IA: CALENDAR OF APPLICATION
• Week 5:
• Synthesize Notes from Sem. 1
• Develop team, brainstorm KI, make PoK
• Create learner profile posters
• Week 6:
• Make individual calendar for research,
internal team deadlines
• Research skills: Pedagogy
• Week 7-15:
• Research Skills:
1. Exmplar Grading
2. Revisions and peer editing
3. From Outline to Structure
4. Refrencing, Formatting, and Discernment
5. Language Clarity and Definitions
6. Presentation skills

FOR FRIDAY, 9/15/14
• Bring all of your notes for
synthesis.
• Bring in a list of 5
Knowledge Issues that
interest you for the IA

EXTERNAL ASSESSMENT (EA): WHAT IS IT?
• What is the product?
• 1600 Word Essay
• What is the topic?
• A prescribe list is available on
Managebac
• Who grades it?
• Formative: Peer editing, one
formal instructor editing, one
follow-up read with general
direction notes.
• Summative: Expert Grader
submitted electronically

EA: CRITERIA (4 EQUAL AREAS, 10
POINT SCALE)
A. Understanding knowledge
Issues
• Relevant Knowledge issue
relating to the prescribe
title
• Depth and Breadth of WoK
and AoK connections and
distinctions
B. Knower's Perspective
• Connect to your own
experience as a learner,
including culture, society,
and academic tradition
C. Quality of analysis of
knowledge issues
• Justified True Belief
• Counterclaims (Toulmin)
D. Organization of ideas
• Use of language clarity and
definitions
• Accurate factual
information
• Proper Referencing

4 C’S FOR EA SUCCESS
CONTENT (A): Show thinking about
the knowledge issues
CREATIVITY (B): Show
individual/personal insights, that you
can think for yourself
CRITICAL THINKING (C): Show
thinking about arguments and
counter-arguments, that you not
only understand the theory involved,
but also the weaknesses of these
theories.
CLARITY (D): Show that you have
done a great job editing your essay;
you have structured it so well that
it’s easy to understand and accurate

EA: CALENDAR OF APPLICATION
• Week 4
• Prescribed titles discussion
• Brainstorm worksheet
• Week 5
• Select title
• Begin consolidating research
• Essay Outline
• Week 6 - 11
• Essay grading
• Essay Structure
• References and discernment
• Language clarity and definitions
• Peer Review dates:
• 9/24, 10/23, 11/6
• Instructor Review dates
• 11/16, 12/16

LC: CRITERIA/IMPORTANCE
• Organization ___/10
• Effort ___/10
• Knowledge ___/10
• Speaking ___/10
• Creative/Fun ___/10
• 5 quality slides.___/50
• Portfolio ___/100

LC: CALENDAR OF APPLICATION
• Week 3
• Begin Reading your Novel
• Week 4
• Rotation 1
• Week 5
• Rotation 2
• Week 5
• Rotation 3
• Week 6
• Rotation 4
• Week 7
• Presentations

RESEARCH METHODS:
EXEMPLAR GRADING
CALP AND OUTLINING
LIT CIRCLE 1
SEM. 2, WEEK 5: 9/9/13-9/13/13

EXPECTATIONS FOR FRIDAY
• Have a solid outline of your TOK IA
presentation
• This includes at least a brainstorm of
your IA activity/teaching strategy.
• This includes your PoK final draft and at
least 3 KI developments.
• Literature Circle Rotation 1 due
• Be able to discuss your Novel based on
the agreed upon page number and be
able to connect it to TOK.

EXPECTATIONS FOR WEEK, 9/16-9/20
• Monday: IA Activity brainstorm, Grade
Exemplars (http://tiny.cc/ibgrade)
• Grade exemplar TOK Essays (EA)
• 6 essays, partner read (Rotate through at least 3)
• Individual grade, consensus grade, review of
expert/final grade.
• Summarize findings to class
• Tuesday: Mrs. Lopez, EE update
• Grading, Round 2
• Wednesday: Construct your IA class activity.
Discussion as a class, take notes on pedagogy
and modifications.
• Thursday: Full EE/IA Work day.
• Suggested benchmarks: EE Section 1 complete,
IA Development 1 detailed outline (Content)
• Friday: Lit Rotation 2

EXPECTATIONS FOR 9/22-27
• Monday:
• My Extended Essay Development (I
promised!)
• Grade TOK Essay 3 together
• Tuesday:
• Introduction to the EA Title Questions
for 2014
• Wednesday:
• IA: Activity Development
• EE Workday
• Thursday:
• Full Work Day
• Friday:
• IA Activity Development Due
• 3 TOK Essay

MY THESIS
• History is the fabric of the past woven together by the
styles and capabilities of both contemporaneous and
future histiographers. The concept of historical identity as
it relates to border disputes over time often reveal a
pragmatic theory of truth due to the continuing effects of
the dispute. When disputes are resolved, or recede in time,
coherence theory of truth seems predominant in
histiography; particularly as it relates to the fields of
ancient scientific and historical knowing.

EXPECTATIONS FOR 10/4
1. Lit Rotation 4 (final)
2. Prep with your IA (5
minutes)
3. 2 minute intro public
speaking activity.
4. Due:
1. EE draft
2. EE checklist (advisor sig.)
3. TOK Essay Title
Development

ACTIVITY: LANGUAGE TRAIN
• Duration: 10 minutes
• Team of Two (6-7 people each)
1. Line up in two rows of desks
2. Player 1 in the back receives a word.
3. When signaled, Player 1 taps Player 2 and
acts out the word (Charade).
4. Player 2 taps 3 and has to sign the letters.
Confirms with writing.
5. Player 3 taps 4, needs to draw the word.
6. Player 4 taps 5 has to write a synonym.
Confirm in writing.
7. 5 writes the word on 6’s back.
8. Player 6 shouts the word out to win!

What is Due this Friday?
1. Literature Circle Presentations
1. 10 minute presentation of your
novel.
2. Relate to TOK. PoK to lead
Socratic Seminar.
2. Extended CALP List for your IA
(20 words).
1. What words would you like your
audience to learn?
2. How will you be teaching these
words?
3. EA detailed outline

EXPECTATIONS FOR 10/7-11
• Monday:
• EA Detailed Outline
Explanation
• Tuesday:
• IA CALP List development
• Friday:
• Literature Circles Student-Led
Socratic Seminar.
• Introduce 2nd Literature Circle
Assignment.

SOCRATIC SEMINAR: LIT. CIRCLES
• You have completed several rotating
roles within the analysis of a popular or
informative novel.
• In your Socratic Seminar, consider the
following:
1. From the quotes, images, and other
observations, extract a Problem of
Knowledge question.
2. Discuss how the PoK is addressed within
the novel, making connections to our
TOK studies and to other classes.
3. Make a connection to one or more EA
titles questions. How might your topic
relate to those motions?

• Monday:
• Research Methods Activity
• Potential Crossover regarding
EA or IA
• Tuesday:
• Introduction to Indigenous
Knowledge Issues (IK)
• Potential IK Issues regarding
EA or IA
• Friday:
• EA Draft 1, peer edit
• Intro to Lit Circle 2

PROBLEMS OF KNOWLEDGE:
RESEARCH AND LANGUAGE
1. How does the interaction between
personal content language skills and
intuition effect one’s search for both
proper and correct research sources?
1. “I seem to KNOW something is true, but I
might not have the words to find GOOD or
VALID sources as evidence”
2. To what extent does personal and
communal bias play in the acceptance
of valid research and source
information?
1. “I WANT something to be true, because it
effects me, so I worry that I may be
predisposed to rejecting answers I don’t like.”

VALID RESEARCH METHODS:
TERMS DEFINED
• Best Available Research Evidence:
• Studies, experiments, and practices that
have the strongest, largest, and most
rigorous body of evidence supporting it.
• Experiential Evidence
• Professional insight, understanding, skill,
and expertise that is accumulated over
time and is often referred to as intuitive
or tacit knowledge
• Contextual Evidence:
• Factors that address whether a form of
evidence is useful, feasible to implement,
or accepted by a particular community.
Best Available
Research
Evidence
Experiential
Evidence
Contextual
Evidence

THE POINT OF STRONG RESEARCH
THE GOOD, BAD AND THE UGLY
• Reinforcing previously known
information to further an argument
and develop the thought further.
• Redirect and disprove a hypothesis,
or cause one to reconsider other
factors affecting a position
(particularly in cost-benefit
negotiation)
• Debunk insidious lies or
misinformation about a topic,
including the INCORRECT
summarizing of valid research.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
THE WHAT AND THE HOW
• What to look for in research:
1. Identify what you already
Know about a topic.
• Consider key words and
phrases that will help
narrow your research
question and your search
queries.
2. Identify what you want to
Know about a topic.
• Has your question been
addressed in the same
exact way? Most of the
time it hasn’t.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
THE WHAT AND THE HOW
• How to look for research:
• Have you considered the
following types of research?
1. Desktop research (peer-
reviewed, full text).
2. Interviews
3. Surveys (qualitative and
quantitative)
4. Community Investigation
5. Case Studies

HOW TO CITE RESEARCH
IA AND EA
• Avoid the following:
1. Excessive quotations, particularly long paragraphs
of information.
2. Over-reliance on a single source, particularly one
that might be seen as an outlier in the research
community.
3. Utilizing popular media of any sort (unless the
subject is of study).
• Make sure to do the following:
1. Make a list of extended quotations as part of your
outlining process (cite fully for future reference).
2. Select several (not all) important and diverse
sources to cite directly in your writing.
3. Mostly synthesize the information and analyze in
your own words, often qualifying sources
appropriately.

EXEMPLAR GRADING:
TINY.CC/EXEMPLAR 1
1. Monday: Grade Exemplars
(http://tiny.cc/ibgrade)
1. Grade exemplar TOK Essays
(EA)
1. 3 essays, partner read
Individual grade, consensus
grade.
2. review of expert/final
grade.
3. Summarize findings to class

WEEKLY AGENDA 10/05/15
1. Mon. 10/05:
1. Discuss IA Activity ideas w/group.
2. How will you present the content? Materials?
Time? Questions?
3. Annotate tiny.cc/exemplar3
2. Tue. 10/06:
1. Practicing your IA Activity and developing a
script. Relate to PoK.
2. You need to be persuasive and convincing!
Rhetoric and pedagogy counts!
3. Thur. 10/08:
1. Lit. Rotation 3: Discuss relevant EA/IA research
from the week based on discussion questions.
2. Present research to class. QA w/Morris

WEEKLY AGENDA 10/05/15
1. Mon. 10/11:
1. Go on tctok.us and review everyone’s MESH Posts from the
year.
2. Discuss with your team 5 concepts that overlap with any of
the title questions.
3. Construct a draft outline inspired by the connections in the
MESH posts.
2. Tue. 10/12:
1. Go to the TOK web review
2. Jigsaw the areas and ways of knowing.
3. Present your Section to the class
3. Thur. 10/14:
1. Review EA Audio notes from TOK Mastery course.
2. Lit. Rotation 4: Discuss relevant EA/IA research from the
week based on discussion questions.
3. QA w/Morris

`
Thur. 10/14:
1. Review EA Audio notes from
TOK Mastery course.
2. Lit. Rotation 3: Discuss
relevant EA/IA research from
the week based on
discussion2 questions.
3. TOK Web Review Prezi
4. TOK exemplar 6
5. QA w/Morris

• Monday 10/19
• Indigenous Knowledge Systems
(IKS) and Faith as Way of Knowing
• Tiny.cc/tokfaith, choose 3 articles
• Create 6 annotated notes for
each article. Construct 1 POK for
each article.
• Tuesday 10/20
• Indigenous Knowledge Systems
(Cont.)
• Faith as Way of knowing
• Thursday 10/22
• Article Discussion and
Presentation

INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE (IK)
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO IK ISSUES FROM A GLOBAL AND LOCAL PERSPECTIVE

DISCUSSION QUOTE
• “Our world is fast
succumbing to the
activities of men and
women who would stake
the future of our species
on beliefs that should not
survive an elementary
school education.”
Sam Harris, The End of Faith:
Religion, Terror, and the Future
of Reason

WHAT IS IK?
• Indigenous knowledge is
the information base for a
society, which facilitates
communication and
decision-making.
• Indigenous information
systems are dynamic, and
are continually influenced
by internal creativity and
experimentation as well as
by contact with external
systems
http://www.unesco.org/most/bpindi.htm

IK AS AN AREA OR WAY OF KNOWING?
• IK is often studied as Cultural
Anthropology.
• However, IK is an important
applied body of knowledge with
certain ethical ends:
1. Poverty alleviation
2. Preservation of endangered
languages/cultures
3. Understanding/tolerance of
religious worldviews
4. Health/well-being
• To what extent do we all engage
in indigenous knowing?

IS IK BENEFICIAL?
GENERAL ADVANCEMENT THEORY

IK AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
1. What parameters should
exist in the research and
validity of IK issues?
Particularly as it relates
to health and well being?
2. Does conducting primary
research undermine the
preservation of the IK
subject?

AIMS OF TRADITIONAL MEDICINE
RENOVATION
• To explore traditional medicine,
its practice and organization
• To review the utilization of
traditional medicine
• To examine the legal aspects of
traditional medicinal practice,
including criminal and civil
liability and protection under
the law
• To sensitize policy-makers and
scholars about previous and
ongoing research in traditional
medicine
• To provide recomennedations
to guide future policy

ARTEMISININ
1. Artemisinin, which is extracted from Artemisia
annua or Chinese sweet wormwood, is the basis for
the most effective malaria drugs the world has ever
seen.
2.
Western researchers first became aware of the
compound in the 1980s, though it had long been
used in China to treat malaria.
3. But it wasn't until 2004 that the WHO endorsed its
use worldwide. Much of this delay was because of
the skepticism about the drug, and different
research groups spent years validating the claims of
Chinese traditional healers.
4. Artemisinin is proving useful against other diseases
too and has been shown to have great potential in
treating cancers and schistosomiasis.

THE COMPLEXITY OF KNOWLEDGE
• In general, traditional knowledge
systems adopt a more holistic
approach, and do not separate
observations into different disciplines
as does Western science (Iaccarino,
2003).
• Moreover, traditional knowledge
systems do not interpret reality on
the basis of a linear conception of
cause and effect, but rather as a
world made up of constantly forming
multidimensional cycles in which all
elements are part of an entangled
and complex web of interactions
(Freeman, 1992).
• Of course, there is always the risk of
oversimplifying by reducing the things
of interest to essentials and/or
dichotomies.
Mazzocchi, Fulvio. “Western Science and Traditional Knowledge: Despite Their Variations, Different Forms of
Knowledge Can Learn from Each Other.” EMBO Reports 7.5 (2006): 463–466. PMC. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.

UNDERSTANDING SUSTAINABILITY
• Traditional knowledge has developed a concept of
the environment that emphasizes the symbiotic
character of humans and nature. It offers an
approach to local development that is based on co-
evolution with the environment, and on respecting
the carrying capacity of ecosystems. This
knowledge—based on long-term empirical
observations adapted to local conditions—ensures
a sound use and control of the environment, and
enables indigenous people to adapt to
environmental changes.
• Moreover, it supplies much of the world's
population with the principal means to fulfil their
basic needs, and forms the basis for decisions and
strategies in many practical aspects, including
interpretation of meteorological phenomena
• Medical treatment, water management, production
of clothing, navigation, agriculture and husbandry,
hunting and fishing, and biological classification
systems (Nakashima & Roué, 2002).

IK LOCAL APPLICATION ACTIVITY
• I want you to design and
conduct research in a local IK
issue effecting our school or
community.
• Consider what sorts of
inherited knowing exists
within your age group. Ideas
that persist as a result of
culture, etc.
• Consider how your findings
might change the way you
approach either your IA or
EA.
• Due Thursday, 11/3

TOK ACTIVITY: SECRET LEADER
• Objective: Make sure
guesser is unable to see
who leads the team
actions.
• Guesser leaves the room.
• Team selects a leader
• Team starts an action
(clapping, snapping, etc.)
• Guesser returns and
begins.

PHILOSOPHY OF DEATH
THEORIES ON THE NATURE OF EXISTENCE AND NON-EXISTENCE
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/death/

WHERE WE ARE GOING THIS WEEK
• Monday, 10/28:
• Philosophy and Death
• Tuesday, 10/29:
• Draft 2 Peer Review
(Pseudonym, full
participation!)
• Thursday, 10/31:
• Halloween Activity
• Friday, 11/1:
• No class, Submit IK Local
Application Activity via
Managebac
• Presentations on Monday.

DEATH IN 4 QUESTIONS
1. What constitutes death?
• It is clear enough that people die when their
lives end, but less clear what constitutes the
ending of a person’s life.
2. In what sense might death or posthumous
events harm us?
• To answer this question, we will need to know
what it is for something to be in our interests.
3. Are all deaths misfortunes, or only some?
• Is death always evil, or is it better, on some
level, than immortality?
4. Can the harmfulness of death be reduced?
• Is it possible/good to adjust the conception of
our well-being to eliminate the threat death
poses us?

1. WHAT CONSTITUTES DEATH?
• Death is life's ending. Let us
say that vital processes are
those by which organisms
develop or maintain
themselves.
• These processes include
chemosynthesis,
photosynthesis, cellular
respiration, cell generation,
and maintenance of
homeostasis.
• Then death is the ending of
the vital processes by which
an organism sustains itself.

1. WHAT CONSTITUTES DEATH?
• However, life's ending is one
thing, and the condition of
having life over is another.
‘Death’ can refer to either.
• Denouement Death: Death can
be a state (being dead)
• Threshold Death: the process
of extinction (dying)
• Integration
Death: physiological systems
of the body irreversibly cease
to function as an integrated
whole

1.1 THE PERMANENCE OF DEATH
• To what extent is the
concept of life defined by
the possibility of death?
• Would a computer, with all
the psychosocial attributes
of persons really be alive?
• What if life stops
temporarily for a creature,
and later revived?
• Difference between life
“stopping” and dying.
• Suspension vs. Reassembly

1.2 DEATH AND WHAT WE ARE
• Three Main views of
Human Life:
1. Animalism: We are
physical human beings
2. Personism: creatures with
the capacity for self-
awareness
3. Mindism: We have minds
separate from the
mechanisms of the body.

1.2 DEATH AND WHAT WE ARE
• If we are animals, with the
persistence conditions of
animals, our deaths are
constituted by the irreversible
cessation of the vital processes
that sustain our existence as
human beings.
• If we are persons, our deaths
are constituted by the cessation
of the psychological formation
so identity and memory.
• If we are minds, our deaths are
constituted by the irreversible
extinction of the vital processes
that sustain our existence as
minds.

1.2 IMPLICATIONS?
These three ways of
understanding death
have very different
implications.

1.3 DEATH AND EXISTENCE
What is the relationship between
existence and death? May people
and other creatures continue to
exist after dying, or cease to exist
without dying?

http://energy.gov/articles/zombie-replicants-
outperform-living

1.4 CRITERIA FOR DEATH
• In the United States, The Uniform
Determination of Death Act
(developed by the President's
Commission, 1981), which says that
“an individual who has sustained
either
• (1) irreversible cessation of
circulatory and respiratory functions,
• (2) irreversible cessation of all
functions of the entire brain, including
the brain stem, is dead. A
determination of death must be made
in accordance with accepted medical
standards.” In the United Kingdom,
the accepted criterion is brain stem
death, or the “permanent functional
death of the brain stem” (Pallis 1982).

DEATH AS NATURAL? OR DISEASE?
• Epicurus believed death to be
a natural function at the end
of one’s life.
• It is not harmful since one no
longer exists to be harmed.
• Presuppositions:
• Denouement Death, not
Threshold Death in view
• Potential grief about familial
grief irrational
• Grief at not reaching one’s
potential irrational

DEATH OR IMMORTALITY?
• What cost/benefit is
developed between death
and immortality?
• How do we perceive of
living as immortals? Can
we view our lives beyond
our own evolution?
• How does time relate to
immortal persons?

DANSE MACABRE: A HISTORY
• The Dance of Death is an artistic
genre of late-medieval allegory on
the universality of death: no
matter one's station in life, the
Dance of Death unites all.
• The Danse Macabre consists of the
dead or personified
Death summoning representatives
from all walks of life to dance along
to the grave, typically with
a pope, emperor, king, child, and
labourer.
• They were produced to remind
people of the fragility of their lives
and how vain were the glories of
earthly life. The Abbot, woodcut from the Dance of Death
series, 1523–26, 6.5 x 4.8 cm by Hans Holbein
the Younger.

JUNGIAN ARCHETYPES AND FEAR OF DEATH
• One reason we fear death may
be based on the subconscious:
1. Our anxiety over unfulfilled
desires, aggression,
uncertainty will manifest
themselves as visual images,
or connections to real events
(such as one’s death).
2. Dreams are often where the
“archetypes” of the
subconscious play out as films
behind our sleeping eyelids.
3. As we death, we are often
powerless to stop the film.
Time and control are the deep
worry of a sentient being.

CONDITIONAL AND UNCONDITIONAL DESIRES
• Conditional Desires:
• Pillars of survival: eating,
sleeping, sex, etc.
• Inherently do not satisfy
meaning, nor assuage
anxiety. “to live to keep on
living” is irrational.
• Unconditional Desires:
• “Higher order” concepts:
raising a child, completing a
project/charity, etc.
• Require our existence to
complete.
• These “categorical” desires
are what drive our identity.
•Nagel, T., 1979. “Death,” in Nagel, T., Mortal Questions, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

REDUCING DEATH’S HARMFULNESS?
1. A balance between fearing
death due to our
unconditional desires, while
tempering those desires with
attainable expectations.
2. Do not take on more burden
that what you can reasonably
accomplish in your lifetime.
3. Do not focus solely on
conditional desires to the
point where death holds no
meaning.
•Williams, B., 1973. “The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality,” in
B. Williams (ed.), Problems of the Self, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

TOK SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES
Monday:
1. Local IK Discussions
2. Internal Assessment
Workshop
Tuesday:
1. Review: Logic and the Game
of Clue!
2. Research Skills: Language
Clarity and Definitions
Friday:
1. LACMA field trip or alternative
assignment (for those who
can’t come)
Upcoming due-dates:
1. 11/5 IK Observations due on
MB
2. 11/11 IA presentation rough
draft (high res pictures and
titles)
3. 11/12 EA Peer Review Analysis 3
Due
4. 11/18 Lit Circle 2 Socratic
Seminar
5. 12/2-6 Rehearsal and Public
Speaking for IA
6. 12/9-13 IA Final
7. Final Instructor EA Review
(12/16)

TOK SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES
Thursday 12/4: Emma,
Annie, Klynn
Ethical Reasoning
Monday 12/8: Esme, Andrew
x2,
Social Media and Truth
Blake, Kabir, Zach, Emily
Technology and Ethics, Need
Tuesday 12/9: Deanna,
Bithiah
Scientific Uncertainty and political
inaction
Upcoming due-dates:
1. 11/5 IK Observations due on
MB
2. 11/11 IA presentation rough
draft (high res pictures and
titles)
3. 11/12 EA Peer Review Analysis 3
Due
4. 11/18 Lit Circle 2 Socratic
Seminar
5. 12/8-9 Rehearsal and Public
Speaking for IA
6. 12/15-17 IA Final
7. Final Instructor EA Review
(12/16)

OVERVIEW OF GRADING
• Presentation marking form
• Comments will be geared
towards three areas:
1. How clear is the language
and pacing?
2. How well is the subject
taught?
3. How appropriate are the
ideas and seamless with
the presentation?

OVERVIEW OF GRADING
• Your team will receive a
single marking form, but
the final draft will be
individual.
• I will debrief with the
other students after each
presentation for a few
minutes.
• I may stop you, coach you,
and time you throughout
the presentation.

OVERVIEW OF GRADING
• You are expected during
your presentation to do
the following:
• Complete a seamless lesson
on your problem of
knowledge
• Take notes in real time on
how to improve your
presentation prior to the
final lesson
• Progress monitor
throughout the classroom
to engage your audience.

FINAL PRACTICE TIME
The reminder of your time
today should be spent
completing the following:
1. Practice your opening lines.
2. Divide up the time of your
presentation, and practice
sticking to your slide times
3. Divide up your speaking in
a way that is quick and
seamless between ALL
teammates
4. Encourage each other to
talk LOUDLY and with HIGH
INTEREST. Suggest to one
another casual yet effective
language to teach with.

TINY.CC/TOKROSTER ADD YOUR GMAIL!
remind.com/join/2016p0tok Tiny.cc/tokroster

WELCOME, INCOMING TOK STUDENTS!
• Activity! Introductions
1. Name
2. reason for being in IB
3. dream college/major
4. career goal
5. Communication
• What we are doing today:
1. Overview of Presentations
2. Overview of Assessment
requirements
3. Winter Assignment

YOUR GOAL AS AN AUDIENCE
• Listen carefully
• You may be asked to complete
assignments, get into teams, and
conduct activity/experiments.
• Move quickly and efficiently
• Everything needs to go quick. Be
willing to move around.
• Participate thoroughly and ask
questions.
• While teams present, you should
be writing down questions and
notes to ask at the end.

• What does it look like?
• A presentation on a Knowledge Issue (KI),
turned into a Problem of Knowledge
(PoK) taught to an audience.
• Some form of realia or graphic organizer,
speaking.
• How many people?
• no more than 3.
• Length of time?
• 10-30 minutes (depending on the number
of team members)
• Teacher and class first (diagnostic,
formative assessment)
• Next semesters TOK students.
Introduction to the course for them.
(Summative assessment)

WINTER ASSIGNMENT:
PLATO AND A PLATYPUS WALK INTO A BAR…
1. After reading the book, consider and analyze
1 concept in each of the following areas:
Philosophy, epistemology, reason, religion,
and ethics. Sift each concept into a single,
overarching question (avoid being simplistic,
your question should be open-ended and
nuanced to allow for a conversation, not a
definite answer).
2. Next, articulate your own view about these
topics according to your prior knowledge.
Include specific examples from your own life,
especially any arguments or interactions you
have had with people who differ from you.
3. Lastly, discuss how the concepts presented in
the book changed or reinforced your current
understanding of each topic. Include a
prediction towards areas of interest in the
future as a conclusion.

17. assessments

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17. assessments