Popular Post Keel Posted March 24, 2011 Popular Post Report Share Posted March 24, 2011 (edited) Skip to these useful links: 1. ToK Presentation Guide by Keel 2. How to pick your TOK presentation title by Sandwich 3. Past TOK Presentations - what people chose ToK Presentation GuideKnowledge Issues 'Knowledge issue' i.e. issues about knowledge. It would be appropriate here to consider what ToK is all about. Many naturally assume that anything philosophically based is ToK. Understandable, but wrong. ToK is based around three main questions: What is knowledge? How is knowledge acquired? How do we know what we know? In layman’s terms, a knowledge issue is a very general question which aims to explore the problems of knowledge and evaluate it. Thus, knowledge issues are usually formatted in the form of ‘How do we know…?’ (this deals with question 3) However, there are other forms such as ‘What is the role of [a way of knowing] in [an area of knowledge]?’ (this deals with question 2). The knowledge issue must be stated in the introduction of your presentation as it is what your presentation is all about.For example, ‘To what extend is euthanasia ethical?’ is not a knowledge issue as it does not attempt to answer any of the three basic questions. ‘What ways of knowing can aid us in determining whether euthanasia is ethical?’ is not a well formed main knowledge issue because it is too specific, but at least it is a knowledge issue which deals with question 2. ‘Derived / Sub-’ Knowledge Issues These are knowledge issues in themselves but are connected to the main theme or main knowledge issue of the presentation and are possibly more focused in nature.For example, if your main knowledge issue is ‘What is the role of reason in History?’ a linking knowledge issue you could explore would be ‘How can we use Historical knowledge and inductive reasoning to predict future events?’ Your entire presentation should be based around the main knowledge issue and your main theme, but this sub-knowledge issue will allow you to explore one small aspect of 'the role of reason in History'.Claims and Counter-claims These are statements which are answers to your knowledge issue or sub-knowledge issues. They are then proceeded with evidence that supports such a point. In a way you can treat this as a paragraph in an essay, its structure is similar to the Point Evidence Explaination (PEE) or Statement Evidence eXplaination (SEX) which you may be familiar with.For example, for the knowledge issue ‘How do we know whether homosexuality is ‘natural’?’ A claim would be ‘deductive reasoning can tell us that it is not natural. the natural goal of all living things on earth is to reproduce; homosexuality does not allow the possibility of biological reproduction; therefore homosexuality is not 'natural'. A counter-claim would be that ‘deductive reasoning has its limitations in aiding us to determine whether homosexuality is natural.’ A discussion on the flaws of premises and reliability of deductive reasoning would then take place.Real Life Situation A real life situation is a realistic event, object or scenario that allows you to extract knowledge issues from it or supports your claim, a possible answer to your knowledge issue, by providing evidence. Real life situations can be drawn form anywhere ranging from the news to a book your read to an event that happened on the school playground. The possibilities are endless. Always try to make your real life situation related to you in some way; an incident which happened to you would be perfect.For example, for the knowledge issue ‘How reliable are our sense perceptions in determining what is true.’ For the claim/counter-claim: ‘Sense perceptions have their limitations in determining what is true,’ a real life situation would be, ‘The time when I was small and saw a ghost’s face appear in the curtain, upon further inspection, it was the folds of the curtain that had shaped into something similar to a man’s face. With the combination of flawed inductive reasoning, sense perception had hindered my knowledge of truth.’Getting Started There are two main ways to get yourself started. is to find a real life situation which really interests you. You will extract one knowledge issue from it and simplify it to make it into your main knowledge issue your presentation will be based on. From there you find sub-knowledge issues and more real life scenarios to support your claims and counter claims. is to think of a broad knowledge issue, derive sub-knowledge issues which you wish to explore and find real life situations from there. There are many ways to do your presentation. It can be a simple lecture, a power point presentation, (if your are in pairs) a dialogue, a role play ect. The entire presentation should be like a verbal essay, with a focused introduction introducing the main issues, your methodology and how the presentation is structured. A claim should be given first, evidence to support the claim, then the limitations of the claim or a counter claim. The conclusion should sum up the main points in the presentation, it is an opportunity to give your opinion (great for scoring marks on the Knower’s Perspective criteria).Presenting As with any presentation, practice makes perfect. Make sure you can be heard clearly and that you articulate yourself well. The nice thing about the presentation is that since it is verbal it allows you to create a lot of links. E.g. ‘referring back to the first slide of the presentation’, ‘this scenario is very similar to the tax the government is enacting next month isn’t it?’ Create a set of notes to aid you so that you know what you will be discussing next. With power points do not cram everything onto the slide, each slide should only have a max of 5 points, they should not be sentences. When showing pictures, make sure it covers the entire slide, what’s the point of having a picture when it's of minute size shoved in the corner? Most people are scared of the questions at the end, don’t be. The questions asked by your teacher are there to help you. If you’ve missed something in your presentation that is key to answering the knowledge issue, this is the opportunity to gain back marks. If you can’t answer the question simply make a statement or give an opinion. A classic way of avoiding questions is to make your own question, ‘That’s a very good question, but I think the main issue here is….’ But try to answer them because they are very likely to be beneficial. Secondly, the audience can ask questions too. Do not plant a question in the audience; it is obvious and creates a bad impression.© Keel, http://www.ibsurvival.com Edited June 20, 2016 by Keel 38 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Sandwich Posted October 21, 2011 Popular Post Report Share Posted October 21, 2011 How to pick your TOK presentation title RIGHT this post is being made because there's an almost endless supply of people who pick very bad TOK presentation titles and it's always for the same reason: they don't really understand what the TOK presentation is about! SO listen up everybody and pay close attention to my attempts to dispel the TOK myths and stop people putting loads of effort into a presentation which is doomed from the start! 1. What do they mean when they say to pick a Knowledge Issue? The answer is frankly that the phrase 'knowledge issue' is very misleading, in my opinion. I certainly didn't have any idea what one was for most of the time I did TOK. Just think of 'knowledge issue' as a complicated way of saying 'a topic which can be analysed using the TOK pentagram thingy'. What is the TOK pentagram thingy? Well by that I mean the Ways of Knowing (emotion/reason/sense-perception/language) which in the IB diagram is surrounded by the Areas of Knowledge (Humanities, Human Sciences etc). If you've never been forced to draw the TOK pentagram in a lesson, you can view it in all its rubbish glory by clicking here. So a 'knowledge issue' is any topic which can be discussed or analysed in the context of the Ways of Knowing (and the Areas of Knowledge). Confused? You may well be. Keep reading! Or just skip the next heading and go to no. 3. 2. Do they mean to pick an ethical dilemma? No, no and NO. Thousands of IB students misunderstanding TOK up and down the land seem to have a thought process which (understandably but also wrongly) goes along the lines of: TOK = Philosophy = ...ethics = are things right or wrong?? This is not good. TOK is supposedly a branch of Philosophy but that's as far as it goes. A knowledge issue is not "is _____* right or wrong?" * = abortion, nuclear war, creationism... and so on. Don't write about ethics, don't touch ethics, don't go near ethics. Ethics and TOK are like oil and water. They do not mix. An area of knowledge may well be ethics but I guarantee you that almost anybody trying to put ethics into their TOK presentation will fail to write about the TOK aspects and just start writing about ethics. So take Kant, Utilitarianism, Relativism and anything else you may have proudly learnt the rudiments of, and stuff them in a bag for later. Or if you take IB Philosophy, they'll go down well there 3. Okay so what DO they want from me?? This is the best question because it's not about what they MEAN by knowledge issue etc. that is going to help you do well, but rather what they want from you which is the key to success and being able to pick a good TOK presentation title. Always think of it in these terms and you'll be able to tell whether you're on the right lines or drifting dangerously off course. Effectively they want you to answer the following question: How do we know what we know? specifically using their method of the Ways of Knowing/Areas of Knowledge in your explanation. 4. So... what do they mean by how do we know what we know? How do we know what we know about X? = using the 4 ways of knowing (reason, sense-perception, emotion, language), how do these 4 things interact and come together to form the knowledge that we have about subject X. For instance, how do we know that this pen is yellow? This isn't an endlessly deep philosophical question (in this instance) because this is a TOK lesson so they want you to copy/paste from the TOK pentagram. So think to yourself: what are the 4 ways of knowing and how do we use those to know the pen is yellow? Well, maybe somebody told you it was yellow (language), maybe you were told that it was the third colour of the rainbow (reason), maybe you were just shown it (sense-perception). I'm not sure how you'd emotionally find out it was yellow, but you get my gist - basically you are applying the 4 ways of knowing to something and then claiming that those ways of knowing form the "How" of the question "How do we know what we know?". 5. I get it now, but how is "this pen is yellow" a knowledge issue? Yeah, it's not a knowledge issue. Or rather, technically it is, but it's such a simple one that you couldn't do a presentation on it. Now that you've got the hang of the fact we're looking for SOMETHING to which to apply the 4 ways of knowing, we can look for a proper issue to get your teeth into. My advice is to think of something which is either an assumption or a decision that we make relatively unthinkingly. For instance, "How do we know which charity to donate to?" or "How do we know whether literature is 'good'?". THEN think your way through the 4 ways of knowing to see whether you can apply them (in which case, congratulations, you're going down the right lines!). Can you think of a way in which we use that way of knowing to come to a conclusion about your new 'knowledge issue'? 6. How does it become an 'issue' exactly? I seem to just be narrating things... In many ways this is the crux of the presentation and the whole point of TOK (to get you to consider this). This is the point at which you say "Well, I know about whether literature is good or not via reason because I assume that anything which has sold 10,000 copies MUST be good..." and then go "actually wait, reason requires things to follow logically - but actually, does this logically follow?". Well that's what you have to discuss! Your argument as it stands is: 1. People only buy books if they're good 2. 10,000 people have bought this book 3. Therefore the book is good. ...but does number 1 really make sense? What about advertising? 10,000 people might buy a really bad book if they see loads of adverts for it. Was the book a set text for the national curriculum? Plenty of people would have to buy it then And so on. Basically it's looking at the knowledge we have and checking it for mistakes and THAT is why it's an 'issue' and why TOK is meant to be helpful. If you're the kind of person who never questions why they think things, or thinks "hang on a sec, maybe I'm just assuming something which might not be true..." then TOK may be a revelation to you. This is where you go crazy with stuff like appeals to emotion, bias, censorship etc etc. and start looking into how the way in which we have come about the knowledge might fail to give us a complete picture of the 'truthful' version of that knowledge. Reason, emotion, sense/perception and language have a lot of issues in terms of ways in which they can help and hinder you, and it is now your job to suss these out and make them into a presentation! Essentially: How do they help you/let you down in terms of finding the 'truth' for the knowledge you've chosen as knowledge issue? BUT make sure you talk about the 4 ways of knowing (or however many apply, you might not need/be able to use all 4) and not just about bias/censorship/any key words other than the ways of knowing if you want to get your marks! 7. So do all TOK titles have to be in the format "How do we know what we know about X?" Nope, have free rein and go wild. Just make sure you can apply the 4 ways of knowing and that you're examining HOW we come to know about the issue. 8. Link it to a real-life scenario/example wherever possible. Okay, this isn't a suggestion, this is a command. Find an example, invent an imaginary example, whatever. You get bonus points for this, so do it 'cause it's easy. For the "How do we know what literature is good?" scenario, I might look at the real-life scenario of literature picked to be taught in schools or literature put in the 'Classics' section of a bookshop, or perhaps literary prizes. All scenarios where we have to ask about good literature, and all real-life examples which you can theme your presentation around. The TOK examiners get very sad when they realise that TOK is essentially just another random overlay of bull**** onto real life, so they are made VERY happy indeed by seeing you give a real-life example to prove that TOK is indeed relevant to reality. Even if it isn't. If you fail to link the TOK pentagram to a real-life issue, you can wave goodbye to a hefty chunk of marks. Bonus points if it's a personal example of an issue or uses personal experiences (even if you make them up) because if there's anything the examiners love more than pretending TOK is relevant to real life, it's pretending that TOK is relevant to YOUR life in particular. You definitely need to do this in the essay - for the presentation, you don't have to use a personal example necessarily, but every little helps. 9. Did I mention... DON'T TOUCH ETHICS!!!! Because honestly this is the hardest one for people to accept. TOK teachers might ask you ethical questions in lessons because they're trying to engage you and make you interested (and let's face it, once you stop pretending it's relevant to ethical dilemmas it becomes about 110% less interesting...), but they WILL NOT AWARD YOU MARKS for talking about ethics rather than TOK - no matter how insightful and interesting your presentation on ethics may or may not be. In Short... In summary, the answer to the question "Is this a good TOK presentation title?" can be solved via a simple litmus test. - Can you attach it to a real-life example? - Can you discuss it in the context of the 4 Ways of Knowing? (Or if not all 4, in the context of a few of them). If yes: Excellent work! If no: Think again, find a new topic. Go to jail, do not pass GO, do not collect £200 etc. and give up on this idea with immediate effect. MOST IMPORTANTLY: Do not select an ethical dilemma! ...or if you do, can't say I didn't warn you and work your little socks off to make sure you definitely talk about TOK and not ethics. Hopefully this helps. TOK is quite a big and ill-defined subject so if anybody has any other ideas or techniques to get good TOK presentations, please do contribute them and I'll add it in. This is just my version. I apologise that the format of this is perhaps not so useful, but if you DO read all the way through it in order, then it does make sense. I promise. Oh and remember ALWAYS READ THE MARKING CRITERIA! Now please kindly read this thread which has loads of helpful tips for getting on with your TOK Presentation after you've come up with a title! - TOK PRESENTATION GUIDE http://www.ibsurviva...entation-guide/ Oh and one final thing - if you send me a PM asking me how you'd approach this great TOK title you came up with "How do we know whether literature is 'good'?" or for any other examples you've nicked off this thread, you should expect in advance to receive no reply. For obvious reasons! Do a bit of your own work, chum, or at least don't insult me by asking for my feedback on my own ideas. This has happened - I am not amused. 45 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Avan:) Posted December 10, 2011 Popular Post Report Share Posted December 10, 2011 Thank you! I'm finally done with my presentation and here are some websites I found useful: How TO and how NOT to chose a knowledge issue: http://mrquale.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/TOK-Knowledge-Issues.pdf Just awesome advice: http://www.scribd.com/doc/14173907/ToK-Essay-and-Presentation-Introduction Fun oral presentation guide https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:39selyjuv5AJ:sctok.wikispaces.com/file/view/Prince%2BAlfred%2Bcollege%2Bguide%2Bto%2Bpresentations.pdf+tok+presentation+guides&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiy-RZOxWvSWpNP3FfExomONXZ_MWsZXC9PQrDEi52GHkz6cOHjwP0qxPe-FJSHbXHwXQCLLQPMP0HjQRDt03UnGiOJeNeyv8WusdcCByO1dOeK76SWOOBawaQXWi0lFyah3uJx&sig=AHIEtbQlgSJL1nPQtsQq4ANhOJQXTHMr3w 9 tips: http://www.adastranet.net/forum/48/alchin48.htm Beautiful checklist: https://docs.google.com/viewera=v&q=cache:6E3zN9GokxUJ:georgetowndistricthighschool.com/ibsite/pdf/current/Theory%2520of%2520Knowledge/TOK%2520Presentation%2520Guide.pdf+tok+presentation+guides&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiA_n_vnQ7hlApFMWARfk9_q3UUUR5leOfcbr2q9zMFERgzv26m6_JohmYvobF0gO56L3q9M-HoPDIWsIVWcVW2RjqYHZkQcohBeSOZpySyl-8b-bWyHhHfq0Sids0tqbcKAJw6&sig=AHIEtbR5BxOwzw12WDQXUDTzjMqmGN7djg Wikibooks, rough overview: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/IB_Theory_of_Knowledge Exemplar materials: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:NXB2iVwLZMoJ:henricowarriors.org/phillips/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/oral-presentation-sample-comments.doc+tok+presentation+sample&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiyhfTUpITHtpeotcL-mm52vgZ-uFziL9aqr8rPQ5JTOi4-J4PixUxWId-NrdwWp2msd7msx-pthAND9XtGkv8qXi6mtoHpiGyR6XRO9lzSm16H8XBufTLmNuQyxfpaWbVn9JE9&sig=AHIEtbSn35PHR4QB4HoTkfG1_ZKFKwgfAA I think that's all you really need, coupled with the above amazing guide. 11 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
drummermcjohn Posted January 10, 2012 Report Share Posted January 10, 2012 Here's a good example that you guys can try to analyze for practice! It's a companion for the actual analysis that real students did. 18/20 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
louisaaaa Posted February 29, 2012 Report Share Posted February 29, 2012 does the presentation have to relate directly to a WoK or AoK or can it be more general and just refer to them? Still trying to come up with my original idea... Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emmi Posted February 29, 2012 Report Share Posted February 29, 2012 does the presentation have to relate directly to a WoK or AoK or can it be more general and just refer to them? Still trying to come up with my original idea... Your presentation does not have to be explicitly about a WOK or AOK. Keel's example KI, "How do we know whether homosexuality is ‘natural’?" does not relate to any of these. However, if you don't focus on a specific WOK or AOK, like in the example "What is the role of reason in History?" you need to reference WOKs and AOKs in order to score well. Which you have to do anyways, it's a TOK presentation. Good luck! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annan Posted March 26, 2012 Report Share Posted March 26, 2012 (edited) Sandwhich, I have past the last several hours browsing the internet for something to help me choose a suitable ToK topic. This has by far been the most helpful. Thank you. Edited March 26, 2012 by Annan Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danbo Posted April 19, 2012 Report Share Posted April 19, 2012 Sandwich this is amazing! Thank you so much for the tips Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giubi Posted April 29, 2012 Report Share Posted April 29, 2012 Hello all! My ToK presentation is due in roughly two months, and I'm still uncertain about my title... Is there any chance I could integrate "Humor" into my title? Help would be appreciated! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Award Winning Boss Posted April 29, 2012 Report Share Posted April 29, 2012 Hello all! My ToK presentation is due in roughly two months, and I'm still uncertain about my title... Is there any chance I could integrate "Humor" into my title?Help would be appreciated!why do you need to? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheesylunch Posted May 7, 2012 Report Share Posted May 7, 2012 Thanks, this helped a lot. I was ecstatic when I found this post. Thank you Sandwich Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
idil94 Posted May 10, 2012 Report Share Posted May 10, 2012 Thank you so much! I have been very frustrated over the past few days thinking about my TOK presentation and this really helped me! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
xosnaw Posted May 10, 2012 Report Share Posted May 10, 2012 Hi guys ! can you give me an advice or help with my TOK presentation? I am having my first Tok presentation so I was wondering if this is an ok knowledge issue '' How does social media affect our view of reality and behavior?'' I am planning to bring up those life situations : KONY 2012 video, and the arab spring, for instance how did social media was or is used as a method for the arab spring etc.. so i really need your opinion. ! thanks !! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
xosnaw Posted May 10, 2012 Report Share Posted May 10, 2012 Hi guys ! can you give me and advice or help with my TOK presentation? I am having my first Tok presentation so I was wondering if this is an ok knowledge issue '' How does social media affect our view of reality and behavior?'' I am planning to bring up those life situations : KONY 2012 video, and the arab spring, for instance how did social media was or is used as a method for the arab spring etc.. so i really need your opinion. ! thanks !! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danbo Posted May 10, 2012 Report Share Posted May 10, 2012 I think the knowledge issue is pretty good since it is an issue that is faced in our day to day lives. You should work on the understanding of your knowledge issues and convince your audience that you are approaching it from a panoramic perspective with different examples and include your own personal involvement. As long as you do that and execute your presentation in such a way that you don't completely reject both sides of the argument and have a "balanced" view then you should pass with flying colors! Oh and also stick to your assessment criteria. As long as all the areas are covered you have your work cut out for ya 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheesylunch Posted May 14, 2012 Report Share Posted May 14, 2012 I have my TOK Presentation soon and i was wondering if my topic was any good. I am talking about Hitler and how do we know that he was evil. Not in the sense that what he did was right but more about how he as a person was not evil and insane. I was also wondering how many ways of knowing are needed for the TOK Presentation. Any replies would be extremely useful. Thanks. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rikachuuu Posted May 17, 2012 Report Share Posted May 17, 2012 I got a 19/20 on my presentation, it was on the Placebo effect. I don't know if different schools have different formats of presentation, but ours was in class and it needed some rehearsing and memorizing versus a video perhaps.If anyone wants the script and the outline, feel free to PM me!~ 4 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
billybompers Posted July 9, 2012 Report Share Posted July 9, 2012 (edited) I got a 19/20 on my presentation, it was on the Placebo effect. I don't know if different schools have different formats of presentation, but ours was in class and it needed some rehearsing and memorizing versus a video perhaps.If anyone wants the script and the outline, feel free to PM me!~hi! is it alright if you can share your TOK presentation on the placebo effect? email me: @hotmail.com thank you so much appreciate it (: Edited July 11, 2012 by Sandwich Do not post email addresses publicly please. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aeronymous Posted July 9, 2012 Report Share Posted July 9, 2012 since it is pretty obvious from the other thread that you are choosing the same topic, I dont recommend to plagiarize generally I think it is better if you come up with your own topic since you will be a lot more dedicated and interested in it Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
khimberleigh Posted July 15, 2012 Report Share Posted July 15, 2012 Thanks for the advice, it's really helpful and I think I've understood it.I'm doing a practice presentation in a few weeks and the topic I've come up with is:How do we know whether a product is 'good value'?Any constructive criticism is much appreciated. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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