Saturday, April 2, 2016

The women denied rights to own land - BBC News

                                                     
Students are reminded that there is a difference between topics for discussion and defining the TOK Knowledge Questions which are embedded in Real Life Situations.
One way to approach this challenge is to use questions to explore the data and perspectives in any RLS. Students should make full use of the excellent Michael Dunn videos to help them understand the difference between a topic, a first order KNOWLEDGE QUESTION and a second order KQ.
If you do not persevere until you acquire these competencies your journey in TOK will be incomplete and your assessment outcomes will be compromised.
One of the most important aspects of Knowledge as a construct is to always look at the source.
There is no 'perfect' source but students should know that not all sources are equally authoritative or credible. While healthy and respectful disagreement is part of a democratic discourse and critical thinking, learners should expect higher standards of CREDIBILITY from say the websites of reputable universities and respected media organisations.
Not all sources are of equal authority.
Does this apply to all websites and organisations such as the websites of the Flat Earth Society.
http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/cms/
These are sincere people and their views should be debated with respect and without rancour.
However, if we apply critical thinking we can see that their views are based on a denial of the shared knowledge of the mainstream academic world.
Now back to the BBC video above:
For example:
Watch the video. You will have a response. Is your Way of Knowing about this video affected by your own personal knowledge and the shared knowledge of your culture, class or society.
Is there any bias you can identify in your reaction.
Now after reflecting on your personal response and talking and listening to your classmates, be open-minded to other points of view and perspectives.
Now look at the images and language of the video. Is it fair and balanced?
Now progress to a more TOK approach to the video, using the KNOWLEDGE FRAMEWORK to read/listen closely to the language of the text.
KNOWLEDGE QUESTION
How can we know to what extent does gender imbalance in land ownership impact food production in some countries. What limitations does the commentary suggest with the phrase "in countries where data exists"?