TOK Oral Presentation Potential Topic.. what do you think?

[JillianR]

i have a potential TOK Oral Presentation topic (knowledge issues) but my teacher is extremely stubborn and won't seem to accept it.. what do you think of something like this:

something with standardized tests (mainly the SAT and ACT) not being reliable or trustworthy indicators of the knowledge a student has

i have to present in a week and a lot of people i've talked to thought this was an acceptable topic but my teacher has a hard time accepting it.. should i change it around?

[SharkSpider]

This is, in my opinion, a great topic for a TOK presentation. The theory behind testing, evaluation of knowledge and skill, etc. is probably more in depth than the TOK course even goes in the first year, but if you found a single aspect to base a short intro on, and went a little further after that. The thing you want to avoid, however, is making a one sided and under-argued presentation 'against' standardized testing. I'm not sure how far you've gone, but in terms of "insufficient" you need to define what you mean by that, and discuss what the goals of testing SHOULD be, and what they can be, using limited reasonable resources. What about the alternative to standardized testing? What about alternatives that still work to put everyone on an even playing field? What is an even playing field, anyways? Either way, unless your TOK teacher can explain test theory, and why it's not a good idea for a topic, I seriously doubt that the issue is your choice of area, but instead I'd dare say (from your own post) that it's your apparent method of approaching the topic (ie. from a biased angle, without research or philosophical alternatives, etc.) Tighten up your research and ask a broader question, and, at least as far as I can see, you'd be fine.

[Peachez]

I am sorry to reply so late, I just saw this thread and found it interesting.

Well, I wanted to do a presentation on standardized tests, but my teacher was also agaist it. I understand her point of view, hence to be on the safe side I changed my topic. I agree with Jake, the topic that you pick goed too deep, much deeper than the TOK course in the first year, it might be even difficult for the second year. The idea overall is great, there is definitely a lot of information out there that you can find, but I think there is TOO much information and it would be difficult to pick out the best points. But that's just me. How did your presentation go, since when you posted the thread you said that it will be in a week.