TOK+Journal+(GS)


 * Wednesday March 30 2011**


 * My TOK class meets in periods 3-4 right after my Business class, and some students from that class are also in my TOK. **


 * Instead of doing ToK, I had my Business students lead a discussion on SOCIAL. Of course there was a good deal of scepticism, silence and inattention, but the discussion - that lasted through two periods - seldom flagged. Every time it threatened to do so, some one (usually Ecem or Yasemin) picked up the ball and ran further with it. Eventually, most of the class seemed to accept the idea, some with varying degrees of reluctance. But they all recognized that it would demand more from them. They also acknowledged that they had been mostly been conditioned to become comfortable with passivity and obedience (almost a universal trait all over the planet for students experiencing life in the educational factories that we call schools). One of them even tried to justify why they should be left to choose passivity, even while she acknowledged all the merits of my proposal. **


 * Eventually, the students chose two topics for discussion related to social networking: one of them was how it related to identity, language, culture and personal relationships. (This was my suggestion; unfortunately, I cannot remember what the students proposed, so I've asked Ecem to remind me.) Another one was whether there was an ethical issue in doing social service activities in school for the sake of gaining college recommendations. **


 * I reminded students that their objective in all ToK discussions was to unearth and explore the knowledge issues underlying whatever real world topic they chose for discussion. My role would be to help them make the connections necessary for a good knowledge issue discussion. **


 * So I now need to open a ToK page for my students' comments and discussion. Let's see how this works. In some ways, it should be easier, given the nature of ToK, as Cisil recognized. Time will tell. **


 * **Update:** Topics proposed by students and me for ToK discussion next week. **


 *  "The use of social networking creates a different type of relationship between people." **


 *  "School is making us stupid." **


 *  "Social networking and the internet in general have made authoritarian control [of societies by governments] impossible." **


 * Update 31.3. 2011** There were times during the discussion when students came close to asking me outright why other teachers didn't adopt this model if it was so good for students. But they did point out or suggest that what I was asking them to do was unusual, risky and uncomfortable, and may not make a difference in the end - all of which I accept. But my question to them was why they preferred to be passive when I was giving them an opportunity to organize themselves to collaborate and interact with each other in their own learning. Their reply was that passivity was what they had become accustomed to and comfortable with when it came to most of their lessons and academic matters in school.


 * The short answer to the students' unspoken question was that teachers were not ready for it, nor were students. Even I'm not certain that it's the best way for students to learn within the learning culture that we have here. In any case, what's the "best way"? One that raises average performance in terms of exam grades? One that opens up opportunities for students to become more self-initiated in their learning? How am I going to measure or evaluate the success of this experiment? One of the students said that this may not be something that is going to change anything that they habitually do, and that years later, they may simply remember it as something that they did in Mr. Sen's class. If that turns out to be the case, I would regard this experiment as a failure. Should I be content if I am able to change the intellectual dispositions of a few students? Or the intellectual culture of my class? Would I not be setting my goals too high if I expect them to change their habits entirely, even in the other subjects? Perhaps they already are pretty self-initiated in other subjects - how do I know they are not? There may be areas of their personal lives - perhaps in their hobbies and/or in their other non-academic interests - where they do display the kinds of attitudes and dispositions that I am hoping they may build in my class. I have to return to this question and think more clearly about the following: //what am I hoping to achieve? And how will I know if I am achieving it?//**