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Wednesday 9 December 2009
Thursday 3 December 2009
Tuesday 1 December 2009
Assignment help, Good TOK
Last week I was trying to give you advice on how to spot good TOK opportunities. These opportunities can be used in your TOK presentations or within your TOK essays due in January 14th (Chemists and Physicists), or 15th (Biologists). Where to begin?:
Firstly - finding inspiration. As your critical thinking skills develop you will begin to read about or follow on media such as youtube and ted.com more thought provoking material. Watch out for dogmatic statements people make (over confident in the self assuredness of the claim), watch out for so called conspiracy theories, pseudo-science and ethical disputes. My friend Nicola in her book "a new you" talks about all of us activating our "scooby ears" - it's that internal alarm going off - "how do they know that"?
Have a look at www.youtube.com and my "scooby ear" videos are stored under user: ultimatefrizbee - watch one or two and ask yourself - why is this here? How does it raise questions or challenge a certain viewpoint or paradigm? Then attempt to make the issue interesting.
Start reading broadsheet or alternative newspapers once a week. Try www.thefirstpost.co.uk remember whilst the articles here often challenge the consensus they are still open to further critical analysis by you.
Secondly. When you find a source/claim/issue that is intriguing,dogmatic or sounds spurious (lacking substance or truthfulness), work yourself your own angle of enquiry. Use the socratic method we have learnt. Ask the 4 wives and a husband type questions. Why, What,Who, Where and How?
Using my last post as an example:
Hollow Earth theory:
Example Good TOK questions:
Who is making such claims? Who else?
What is the theory challenging? What evidence do we need to get nearer to the truth claim behind this theory? What evidence can disprove or prove such a theory?
Where can I find counter-evidence, counter claims? Where is this theory being published? Where is the substatiated proof?
How can we know if the Earth is hollow? How can we ever know the full extent of the history of our planet? How satisfied should we be with our current understanding of our planet?
All these questions lead to more questions and therefore good TOK. However you still need to find some creativity yourself in how you present your questions, make them relevant, thought provoking and occassionally amusing. Why not? My hollow earth theory could mean ten years from now we are on an expedition inside the earth hunting Wooly Mammoths and Spacemen and wondering why we all found the theory stupid in 2009!
Firstly - finding inspiration. As your critical thinking skills develop you will begin to read about or follow on media such as youtube and ted.com more thought provoking material. Watch out for dogmatic statements people make (over confident in the self assuredness of the claim), watch out for so called conspiracy theories, pseudo-science and ethical disputes. My friend Nicola in her book "a new you" talks about all of us activating our "scooby ears" - it's that internal alarm going off - "how do they know that"?
Have a look at www.youtube.com and my "scooby ear" videos are stored under user: ultimatefrizbee - watch one or two and ask yourself - why is this here? How does it raise questions or challenge a certain viewpoint or paradigm? Then attempt to make the issue interesting.
Start reading broadsheet or alternative newspapers once a week. Try www.thefirstpost.co.uk remember whilst the articles here often challenge the consensus they are still open to further critical analysis by you.
Secondly. When you find a source/claim/issue that is intriguing,dogmatic or sounds spurious (lacking substance or truthfulness), work yourself your own angle of enquiry. Use the socratic method we have learnt. Ask the 4 wives and a husband type questions. Why, What,Who, Where and How?
Using my last post as an example:
Hollow Earth theory:
Example Good TOK questions:
Who is making such claims? Who else?
What is the theory challenging? What evidence do we need to get nearer to the truth claim behind this theory? What evidence can disprove or prove such a theory?
Where can I find counter-evidence, counter claims? Where is this theory being published? Where is the substatiated proof?
How can we know if the Earth is hollow? How can we ever know the full extent of the history of our planet? How satisfied should we be with our current understanding of our planet?
All these questions lead to more questions and therefore good TOK. However you still need to find some creativity yourself in how you present your questions, make them relevant, thought provoking and occassionally amusing. Why not? My hollow earth theory could mean ten years from now we are on an expedition inside the earth hunting Wooly Mammoths and Spacemen and wondering why we all found the theory stupid in 2009!
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