Do we expect to understand art and the natural sciences in the same way? Today, here’s a cartoon to open a comparison in class discussion, with questions and a download at the end. I hope it gives you not only material for class but also a smile. “How am I supposed to appreciate it?” cartoon […]
Read moreAuthor: Eileen Dombrowski
Dear TOK teachers — Again this year, I’ve gathered into a single document my year’s blog posts on Theory of Knowledge so that you can skim them easily, looking for ideas for your own teaching. Note the Table of Contents at the beginning for an immediate overview. Please feel free to download this resource, and […]
Read more
As 2017 comes to a close, what impression will our students have of the world in which they live? Is it of an angry and threatening place? If they follow the news – even if only through social media – they might benefit from ending 2017 or starting 2018 by stepping back from the predominantly […]
Read more
Distinguishing Experts from Imposters has always carried a lively edge when their conclusions matter in the real world. Yet it’s still a bit of a novelty when views get applause simply because they reject experts! “Those bully experts, telling the rest of us a lot of stuff — just ’cause they actually know! How unfair!” If […]
Read more I learned something important from my friend Lynx – something important for how I think about TOK and knowledge. It was almost seven years ago. I was interviewing her, as an experienced New Zealand Sign Language interpreter, on how signed languages worked and what they tell us about the nature of language. I was keenly […]
Read more “Absurd.” “Archaic.” These are surely not descriptions most of us would apply to the world’s most celebrated prize in science. The Nobel Prize, conferring millions of Swedish krone (more than a million American dollars) and everlasting fame upon its recipients, honours the year’s highest achievements in knowledge. Yet even as it grips our imaginations, could […]
Read more
With a laugh, I pass on to you today a couple more cognitive biases, ones that students are likely to enjoy. We could, of course, despair over how deep our biases seem to go and what a challenge it is to achieve an open mind, but I find it curiously entertaining to learn about the […]
Read more The Franklin Expedition just gets better and better. The present narration, I mean, not the actual expedition in the 19th century. No, that was a wreck in the icy north, costing the lives of all the men! But it’s a splendid example for Theory of Knowledge of the way the past can be reframed by […]
Read more “Alone we go fast, together we go far.” So goes the proverb quoted by a leading neuroscientist involved in a major new project bringing together 21 labs in Europe and the United States for research on the brain. The international team aims to discover “where, when, and how neurons in the brain take information from the outside world, make sense of it, and work out how to respond.” What’s interesting for the Theory of […]
Read more
Standing at the centre of the world: it’s a compelling image. But just who or what is at the “centre”, and what does planting that centre do to our knowledge? Clearly, this question of “centrism” threads through the Theory of Knowledge course, and there are plenty of good entry points to take students into discussion […]
Read more