“Art is dialogue about difficult subjects”

Posted on June 25, 2018 | 3 comments

(Eileen Dombrowski, from OUP blog) “Only art has the power to build bridges between communities,” asserts an art historian in response to a current exhibit in Srinigar, Kashmir.  One of the hosts of the exhibition similarly affirms, “Art is dialogue and conversation about difficult subjects.”  As TOK teachers, we have a world of examples to bring to class on art as an area of knowledge.  However, this current one, treated in the following article with brief interviews and backstories, is powerful in prompting thought and discussion on the role of art in communicating and creating knowledge:  The Kashmiri art bringing Hindus and Muslims together. Continue reading →

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Want to download TOK resources? I’m getting myself organized.

Posted on June 8, 2018 | 4 comments

(Eileen Dombrowski) Well, SOMEBODY ought to get the benefit of my organizing my back files.  Maybe today it’s you.  You may have all my downloadable resources already – my overviews, guides to critical thinking, and classroom activities — contributions that supplement the TOK book.  But in the throes of getting myself organized (that illusive dream!) on a new laptop computer, I’ve just tidied and updated the list on the Resources page of this website. If there’s anything useful to you, please help yourself.

As I move my consciousness to a shiny new laptop, I confess that I do have an immense pang of guilt. My old one has been so reliable, worked so hard for me, and introduced me to so much interest and pleasure out there on the web! Its keyboard, which my fingertips have touched daily for nine years, has many of its letters worn off.  And it’s grimy with neglect. I feel downright unfaithful as I transfer my affections to a new laptop that’s slimmer, smarter, and faster. I wouldn’t like to be treated in this way myself! But leave it I will. And, with thanks, I’ll take its memory.

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Sense perception: Yanny or Laurel?

Posted on May 23, 2018 | Leave a comment

(Eileen Dombrowski, from OUP blog) Create a 5-minute buzz in TOK class over sense perception.  Which version of the words do your students hear? It seems that groups of people are truly split over how they interpret the sound file! The first video here (from The Guardian) simply gives the options – as you’ll want just to get your class going – while the second (from CNN) gives some variations and a bit of explanation. Continue reading →

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A TOK class for exam month: mathematics, nature, art, technology…and peaceful contemplation of beauty

Posted on May 14, 2018 | Leave a comment

(by Eileen Dombrowski, from OUP blog) May in the northern hemisphere.  The return of long daylight.  But also IB exams. Tired students. Tired teachers. Time to take a class into the calm and beauty of pattern, with gentle TOK reflection on the deep intersections of mathematics, nature, art and technology. This year, my favourite vehicle is the animated sculpture of John Edmark, especially with the video “Creating the Never-Ending Bloom” in which the designer is commenting on his work. Continue reading →

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“But then I checked the facts… “

Posted on May 7, 2018 | 1 comment

 

Getting the facts, changing your mind

(by Eileen and Theo Dombrowski, from OUP blog) Today, it’s time to lighten up – with a TOK cartoon and a smile. In recent months, we’ve been heavy on a cluster of inter-connected topics: confirmation bias, fake news (variously defined), fact-checking, “pushback” to opposing views, and class activities for self-awareness of cognitive resistance to changing our minds. But today – as May exams descend on IB students and teachers of the Northern Hemisphere — today we pull these threads together in way that should tax nobody’s mind!

Best wishes from Theo and me for a fine month of May! — Eileen

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Exercise for awareness: facts, feelings, and changing your mind

Posted on April 23, 2018 | 1 comment

(by Theo Dombrowski, from OUP blog) Here’s a challenge for your students. Are they open to changing their opinions if faced with contrary facts? Today we offer a class exercise – ready for you to download, to use directly or to customize – whose goal is student self-awareness. It demands reflection, research, and discussion, and should raise discussion on facts, feelings, values, opinions, and confirmation bias in accepting or rejecting knowledge claims. The formatted version is available for download at the end of this post. Continue reading →

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Biases, fallacies, argument: Would you argue with a T-rex?

Posted on April 9, 2018 | 1 comment

(by Eileen Dombrowski, from OUP blog) If you were the brontosaurus, what would you say back? The following cartoon sequence is designed for TOK to prompt examination of assumptions, emotional appeals, and fallacies of argument. Students will quickly see some real world relevance and echoes of common knowledge claims.

If you would find this activity useful with your own students, please feel free to download a formatted copy here (with permission given to teachers to use it in their own classrooms): Would you argue with a T-rex?  You’ll find commentary on the cartoon frames at the end of this post. Continue reading →

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(Dis)trusting statistics: a one-page guide

Posted on March 26, 2018 | 3 comments

dombrowski dracula 1 300(by Eileen Dombrowski, from OUP blog) A numbers expert declares he’ll sum up everything he knows about analyzing statistics on the back of a postcard. Could any TOK teacher NOT instantly spring to the alert? He’s inspired me to attempt my own lean summary: a single page mini-guide on (dis)trusting statistics, useful in our own educational context of Theory of Knowledge. Continue reading →

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Facts matter after all: rejecting the “backfire effect”

Posted on March 12, 2018 | 1 comment

(by Eileen Dombrowski, from OUP blog) Good news: counter-argument with factual support may not be doomed after all. The “backfire effect”, as widely discussed in the past few years, was a truly disheartening phenomenon for anyone who cares about critical thinking or reliable knowledge. However, recent studies illustrate how the human sciences work as they offer revised conclusions – and at the same time give us back some reasons for optimism.

Backfire effect

1 backfire

Continue reading →

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History: writing the past, drafting the future

Posted on February 26, 2018 | 2 comments

books_history(by Eileen Dombrowski, from OUP blog) History, it often seems to me, isn’t essentially about the past. In so many ways, it’s about the present and the future – the afterlife in records, interpretation, and impact on thought. In current news, I’m struck by what lives on from bygone days in three seemingly unlike examples: a controversial law (Poland), yet another statue (this one in Canada), and a day of national commemoration (Australia). What they share is an eerie sense that we’re watching a troubled past in afterglow – and hearing in echo the resonance of TOK knowledge questions.

Here we go again? History is one area of knowledge that is keenly attuned to repetition, with variation! The knowledge questions from the current TOK Guide take another turn upon the stage: Continue reading →

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