Shroud of Turin follow-up: new material for AOK History

November 1, 2014

This topic of the Shroud of Turin just keeps getting better and better for TOK. In my last post, I outlined TOK lessons based on it. But now – even better materials for launching a class! A podcast interview with historian Charles Freeman (25 minutes), linked from the...

The Shroud of Turin: perspectives, faith, and evidence

October 28, 2014

  Intense emotions and extensive discussion have swirled around the 4-metre-long cloth known as the Shroud of Turin. Is it really the burial cloth that was wound around the body of Jesus Christ after his crucifixion (as many Christians believe), miraculously...

What makes an example useful for you to take to TOK class?

Cupcakes, climate change, smiley faces, disputes over indigenous education, Jack the Ripper, poetry, numbers, and phantom vibrations from cell phones – I’ve blogged recently on all of these unlike topics. Theory of Knowledge is an omnivorous subject, finding in the...

Teaching TOK with a sense of purpose

October 25, 2014

TOK is taught in a great variety of ways – and sometimes very badly (as the current subject report laments). But what is the BEST way of teaching TOK?  I offer today a recent paper of my own, expressing my own thoughts on how best to structure and connect the ideas of...

“What’s your favourite number?”

October 20, 2014

Mathematician Alex Bellos was intensely irritated by the question. Was that person in the audience mocking him, or possibly ridiculing what he’d been saying about mathematics, to ask such a bizarre and irrelevant question at the end of his lecture? The audience member...

Grisly and sensational: Jack the Ripper and a TOK critical thinking

October 7, 2014

Have your students heard of Jack the Ripper?   If not, you’ll probably want to skip this activity. Even though it would still be an exercise in evaluating sources and evidence, a lot of the shiver would be lost – and hence the fun in class. However, if they have heard...