ib knowledge issues

8/12/2019 IB Knowledge Issues

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Knowledge Issues (KI):

An Introduction


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Knowledge Issues

Knowledge issues are issues about

knowledge.

They can apply to any aspect of knowledge

and may refer to the acquisition, production,

shaping, classification, status, and acceptance

or rejection of knowledge.


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Knowledge Issues

Sometimes also referred to as Problems of

Knowledge


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Knowledge Issues

People know many things: they know when

they are cold, or sick; they know if they are

sad or happy, lonely or in love; they know how

to make fire; they know that the sun will set

and rise.


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Knowledge Issues

Nonetheless people rarely stop to think about

the processes by which knowledge is

produced, obtained or achieved, nor about

why, under what circumstances, and in what

ways knowledge is renewed or reshaped by

different individuals and groups at different

times or from different perspectives orapproaches.

From toktalk.net


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Knowledge Issues

KIs provide opportunities to pause and reflect

upon the complexity and richness of

knowledge and the process of knowing, on

the scope and limits of knowledge, as well as

on the roles and responsibilities that

knowledge may bring to us as individuals,

groups or communities.


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Knowledge Issues

Knowledge issues are questions that directly

refer to our understanding of the world,

ourselves and others, in connection with the

acquisition, search for, production, shaping

and acceptance of knowledge.

These issues are intended to open to inquiry

and exploration not only problems but alsostrengths of knowledge.


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Knowledge Issues

Essentially, KIs addresses the TOK aspects of

a situation with questions like How do I

know?, Can I be certain?, what are my

assumptions?, Am I biased?

The motto of TOK isDepends on how you

see it. From toktalk.net


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Knowledge Issues

Identifying Knowledge Issues in real life

situations is a difficult thing to do.

It requires you to make a jump from a

concrete real life situation to a more abstract

level.

Some real life situations do not generate any

good KIs From toktalk.net


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Knowledge Issues

Knowledge issues that are most likely to supporthigh levels of achievement are:

open-ended questions that admit more than one possibleanswer

explicitly about knowledge in itself and not subject-specificclaims

couched in terms of TOK vocabulary and concepts: the areasof knowledge, the ways of knowing and the concepts in thelinking questionsbelief, certainty, culture, evidence,

experience, explanation, interpretation, intuition,justification, truth, values

precise in terms of the relationships between these concepts

From IB TOK Guide


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Knowledge Issues: An activity

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Knowledge Issues

Knowledge issues range from the extremely general

(Can a fact exist without a context?, What

constitutes good evidence?)

to the specific

(How can we distinguish between valid and invaliddeductive arguments?, What should the role ofemotion be in the justification of ethical decisions?).

ib knowledge issues

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