Ways of Knowing - Bringing It All Together

Since September we've considered what it means to "know", not facts as such, but knowledge on which we can navigate our way through life. We examined our empirical knowledge and the sources from which we readily accept knowledge. We looked at the ToK model of four Ways of Knowing: Perception, Language, Reason and Emotion.

Next week we'll be beginning the ToK rotation (please check Monday's Bulletin for details of group changes) and you will have a different teacher in front of you as you go through the Areas of Knowledge (subjects) and relate them to the Ways of Knowing as part of questioning the assumptions of knowledge and its legitimacy in each of those subject areas.

It is basically time to bring those four Ways of Knowing together in a fun group activity for teams of up to four people. The idea is that your team are detectives piecing together what happened to a poor unfortunate student found by the Police in a ditch by a remote country road. The poor victim is called Mark Pullen.

There are clues as to what he did on his final day that led to his tragic accident. However, can we agree on what exactly happened and the chain of events that brought him to this end? In this scenario, we only have access to a limited number of items but we still have to come to a considered and agreed incident report.

As you work through the Mark Pullen story your Ways of Knowing should be sparking off in the group. People will hold different opinions, you might think they are wrong, they might think you are wrong - will you get emotional? To what extent will your deductions be based on fact and to what extent on intuition?

I'd like you to:

1. Get into groups of up to four - team up with people from the opposite side of the room - give it a try.
2. Download the task and print it off in the computer room in the Annex.
3. In your groups discuss and decide on what happened to Mark (takes about 45 minutes).
4. In the remaining time report back in groups to the whole class. What reactions do you get?
5. As a group - consider the experience with this exercise and let me know in a post on this site what you gathered about the use of your Ways of Knowing!

Good luck...here are the links to the files:

The Mark Pullen Mystery

The Clue Sheet To Complete