TOK Current Event - #4 Name_____________________________________________________________________Date_______Class________ 1) Summarize the article. The article should be closely tied to 1 of the TOK Themes. Themes=Knowledge and The Knower. Knowledge and Politics. Knowledge and Language. Knowledge and Technology. Knowledge and Indigenous Societies. Knowledge and Religion. – Your summary should be about 1 paragraph in length.. The article is a presentation of Malala a youth education activist. She is presenting to the UN and listing the previous goals that she had worked with the UN to set in order to reach her goal of providing education to everyone by 2030 Malala then goes on to show what a divide and halt that covid has put within her plans and the worlds plans to make education more widespread. The article provides multiple points of view from multiple activist’s within countries such as Nigeria which go on to reinforce the vision of Malala and the hope that they also share to spread education within their countries. The article goes on to show that education has not only been impacted in developing countries but also in large cities such as LA where remote learning took place as far as into mid 2022. The article was published by the associated press in September 19 2022. https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-09-19/at-un-leaders-confront-covids-impact-on-global-education 2) Connect 3 AOK’s to the article – you can pick any that you feel has the strongest connection to the article. AOKs = Human Sciences. Natural Sciences. History. Art. Math AOK How it relates to the article Human sciences Human sciences relate to how the mind works and how people interact with each other. The AOK of human sciences delves into the idea of mental health which is a major reason why the world is lagging so much in education. History Historically covid has been one of the most traumatic events that impacted the entire human population in modern society which insinuates that the effects of covid on society have been extremely impactful Natural sciences The natural sciences can be used to further describe the pandemic which has initiated this issue of delayed education within the world. Pick 2 of the remaining “TOK Themes” and connect them to your article. Themes=Knowledge and The Knower. Knowledge and Politics. Knowledge and Language. Knowledge and Technology. Knowledge and Indigenous Societies. Knowledge and Religion Theme How it relates to the article Knowledge and The article discusses how the governments and officials of different countries will come together to politics promote education to everyone and overcome the hurdle that covid has set on educating the entire population. Knowledge and technology Technology has become increasingly involved in the education process after covid. Covid pushed everyone into their homes and the main source of communication was provided through technology this allowed technology to also become a major reinforcement to teaching children during the time period of remote learning. 3) Using your summary, and the connections to AOKs and TOK Themes, now write three knowledge questions that could come out of the article. – Don’t know what a knowledge question is? Scroll to the last pages of this document, to get an explanation. Knowledge Question #1: How will greater education transform current society? Knowledge Question #2: How can the use of society be further harnessed to benefit the world in regard to education? Knowledge Question #3: How has living through the pandemic changed the perspective of society towards everyday instances? 4) Choose 1 of your knowledge questions and attempt to answer/ explore it, in a short answer. Include TOK language (examples: knowledge, personal or shared, AOKs, belief, certainty, truth, justification…..) and evidence. 5) Choose 3 of the I.B. Learner Profile traits and describe how this article helps your development in that area. Traits: Inquirer-Knowledgeable-Thinkers-Communicators-Principled-Open-Minded-Caring-Risk-takers-Balanced-Reflective Trait Open minded How investigating the article helps develop that trait Investigating this article has allowed me to gain a greater perspective on how the worded is more connected than what we truly perceive. The article shows that the world has truly experienced similar issues due to covid and that allows for greater connectedness which fuels a more open mind Reflective The article has allowed me to reflect on aspects of life that I take for granted such as education. The article shows that the education is viewed as a luxury in some places while within in the U.S it is taken for granted. Inquirer The article has allowed me to inquire which other ways has covid impacted individuals on a global scale and has covid created a sense of union within the world or a sense of division. 6) Create a general question (doesn’t have to be a knowledge question) about the article, that you would like to discuss with the class: If education weren’t a right and not a privilege within the united states with there be any difference regarding the education system and the troubles that teachers face. Knowledge Claims and Knowledge Questions Knowledge claims In TOK there are two types of knowledge claims. • Claims that are made within particular areas of knowledge or by individual knowers about the world. It is the job of TOK to examine the basis for these first-order claims. • Claims that are made about knowledge. These are the second-order claims made in TOK that are justified using the tools of TOK which usually involve an examination of the nature of knowledge. Here are some examples: • “There are an infinite number of prime numbers.” This is a first-order knowledge claim because it resides firmly inside the area of knowledge mathematics. It is established using the method of mathematical proof. “Mathematical knowledge is certain.” This is a second-order knowledge claim because it is about mathematical knowledge. We establish this by examining the methods of mathematics themselves using the tools of TOK Knowledge questions TOK is primarily concerned with knowledge questions. This phrase is used often in describing what is seen in a good TOK presentation or a good TOK essay. An essay or presentation that does not identify and treat a knowledge question has missed the point. It also occurs in the assessment descriptors that examiners use to mark the essay and that the teacher uses to mark the presentation. To put it briefly, the whole point of the presentation and essay tasks is to deal with knowledge questions. Knowledge questions are questions about knowledge, and contain the following features. • • • Knowledge questions are questions about knowledge. Instead of focusing on specific content, they focus on how knowledge is constructed and evaluated. In this sense knowledge questions are a little different from many of the questions dealt with in the subject classrooms. In this way, they are considered second-order questions in TOK. Knowledge questions are open in the sense that there are a number of plausible answers to them. The questions are contestable. Dealing with open questions is a feature of TOK. Many students encountering TOK for the first time are struck by this apparent difference from many of the other classes in their school experience. Many find the lack of a single “right” answer slightly disorienting. Nevertheless, knowledge questions underlie much of the knowledge that we take for granted. Much of the disagreement and controversy encountered in daily life can be traced back to a knowledge question. An understanding of the nature of knowledge questions can allow a deeper understanding of these controversies. Knowledge questions should be expressed in general terms, rather than using subject specific terms. For example, instead of a question focusing on a specific model in development economics, such as the Harrod-Domar model, a knowledge question might focus on the reliability of modelling as a method of gaining knowledge in economics. Figure 3 Examples of knowledge questions You can find knowledge questions underlying almost any issue. They are sometimes difficult to formulate precisely but they often lurk underneath popular and often controversial subjects that are discussed in the media, for example. It is a very useful exercise to try to tease out knowledge questions underlying articles in the media. Here are two examples of a topic that has been discussed in newspaper articles and possible knowledge questions associated with the topic. Example - Future population growth in Africa • Not a knowledge question: “How can we predict future population growth in Africa?” This is not a knowledge question because it is a technical question within the discipline of population studies. • Good knowledge question: “How can a mathematical model give us knowledge even if it does not yield accurate predictions?” This is now sufficiently general and explores the purpose and nature of mathematical modelling.
