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Knowledge Claims And Jtb
The document discusses different types of knowledge and ways of knowing through analyzing two video clips. It introduces the concept of a justified true belief (JTB), where a knowledge claim must be believed, justified as likely true, and shown to be true beyond reasonable doubt. The document asks the reader to apply the JTB test to claims made about each video clip watched.
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Knowledge Claims And Jtb
- 1. What do youknow? How do you know it?
- 2. Imagine you turnedthe television on one evening and saw this….. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=J0Qu6eyyr4c&feature=related
- 3. Make some knowledgeclaims about what you just saw. ( DO NOT take prior knowledge into account at the moment) What might be happening? Why?
- 4. How did youdecide on the answers to the last 2 questions? Make a list of HOW you know these knowledge claims
- 5. Now include priorknowledge Where was it? What happened? Why?
- 6. What different kindsof knowledge and ways of knowing did you use this time? Rank them in order of “reliability”.
- 7. Now look atthe following clip: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=RMINSD7MmT4
- 8. What knowledgeclaims can you make about what you just saw?
- 9. Problems of knowledgeWhat problems can you see with some of the claims made by class members regarding the “moon landing” clip? Why are there problems of knowledge?
- 10. One kind ofknowledge claim is called a Justified True Belief (JTB). You must believe it. You must be able to justify why it is likely to be true. You must be able to show that the claim is true beyond reasonable doubt.
- 11. JTB: 2 Planescrashed into the World Trade Centre on 11 Sept 2001. Do you believe it? Can you justify making this claim? Is it true beyond reasonable doubt? Is it a JTB?
- 12. Try the JTBtest with one of your claims about each of the two clips you have watched today. Which knowledge claims are JTBs? Do you think this is a guarantee of truth?
Editor's Notes
- #2 These activities should take about 45 minutes - 1 hour. The aim of the tasks is to get students to think about what they know and how they know it, 2. Start to understand what a Justified True Belief is. 3. Start using the term “knowledge claim” 4.start to understand the “problems of knowledge”
- #3 Students can do this exercise in groups of 3-4 Students can recount what they see and what they hear, (Sensory Perception is ONE of the WOK). If they make knowldege claims like “terrorists hijacked the planes” - ask how they know? They CAN’T know just from seeing and hearing the film clip.
- #4 If they make knowldege claims like “terrorists hijacked the planes” - ask how they know? They CAN’T know just from seeing and hearing the film clip. The class should come up with a range of things, e.g. It is a scene from a bad movie. It is a computer animation It is a news report of and accident. The idea is to make them really think about what they CAN know just from looking at the clip. We assume a lot of knowledge, based on surrounding information, but this is not always reliable.
- #5 This might include: Seeing Hearing. It cannot include prior knowledge, etc. This should engender a discussion about how hard it is to make decisions or be confident of the accuracy of a knowledge claim when we only have limited ways of gathering information. What are the dangers of this?
- #6 This should provide more answers (hopefully), although there will probably be some variations from group to group. Share and compare. Discuss students’ responses.
- #7 This should provide a much longer list. E.g. I read about it (knowldeg by authority - but some newspapers might be a more reliable authority than others!) Everyone says that… (urban legend - not necessarily true, but a claim that is widespread - often spread by internet these days) My teacher told me … (knowldeg by authority - but be careful of authority worship!) Group consensus - but is this a guarantee Intuition - I just feel that I’m right (but is this a guarantee either?)
- #9 In contrast to the first clip, students can provide any knowledge they believe they have (knowledge claims) There should be some variation, including those who might doubt that the moon landing ever took place - well can we be sure?
- #10 How can we be sure? Was anyone else there? Did anyone collect evidence? How do we know the “footprint” wasn’t made in a tray of dust in a Holywood studio? What methods, if any, do we have for verifying Armstrong’s claim that he walked on the moon? Should we believe film / photos? Did anyone have anyhtign to gain by being “the first on the moon”? - if so, wouldn’t that encourage them to falsify the evidence to support their claims? In which subjects might the manipulation of evidence be a particular problem? (actually any, really, although it is probably harder to do it in maths than history, for example.) Classic case for the sciences - the Korean doctor who claimed he had cloned human babies…
- #11 Try doing a JTB with a fairly sound claim to start with: e.g. Boiling water burns human skin. Most will believe it! You can justify it with examples of burns victims etc It is true beyond reasonable doubt because you can use “scientific method” to demonstrate it. Alternatively, choose a student from the class (or students) and make a claim about them - e.g. X is taller than Y. *****Students need to copy the steps of the JTB into their journals as they will need to come back to this idea frequently in the future.*****
- #13 Get students to do this in groups, then each group can share one JTB that they worked on, whether it is a JTB or not a JTB is worht discussing. This should lead on to looking at the differences between Information, Knowledge and Belief.