In this part of the Blog students will discuss knowledge issues that they identify during their trip. This discussion will help them to relate their real life CAS experiences to areas of knowledge they have been exploring in TOK - everyday, our students will come up with and answer one KI that they believe has arisen from the course of their day...
KI: To what extent can language help or hinder our understanding of knowledge?
Real Life Situation: When we were at the building site, the builders tried to communicate with us and teach us how to do the work, but we didn't understand Vietnamese and just kept doing what we had been doing wrong. The obvious question arises as to how these language barriers between the Vietnamese and us, could lead to improper or false transmission of knowledge through language
Yunli Huang
KI: To what extent does our culture influence our moral codes?
Real Life Situation: As a group we have been told to follow a certain dress code at this trip, and we have often been asked to dress respectfully, according to the Vietnamese cultures. However, a lot of us, not having much exposure to the Vietnamese culture, do not comprehend the rationale behind the need to comply to such a conservative dress code. Being from such different cultures, a question arises as to how our own cultures influence the way we perceive what should be right and what should be wrong, which in this case applies to our dress codes
Nada Taki
KI: To what extent does our perception and experience affect the perspectives that we take in the different Areas of Knowledge?
Real Life Situation: This one trip to Vietnam, has changed my expectations, and my views on many things – the food, the transportation, the communication, the poverty that we see here. After we have come into such close proximity with such situations, I find that my viewpoint on many subjects has drastically changed, and the value of importance I give to certain things in life has also been altered. This made me question as to how one experience could change your view on life s significantly, leading to the above KI
Marie Croucher
KI: To what extent do our emotions affect the way we behave in areas of knowledge like Human Sciences?
Oskar Aakre Haaland
KI: To what extent does reason and emotion influence innovation powered by necessity?
Real Life Situation: When I was looking around the village while the locals were going about their daily life, I noticed how they have many objects that serve to mimic the purpose of what we have in the developed world. They have been innovative enough to make their household run by being smart with the way in which they deal with food, water, cleaning etc. This was also further exemplified when the Viet Cong changed the way their traps and their tunnels worked to fend off the American soldiers.
Lasse Jensen
KI: To what extent is quantifying our emotions in Human Sciences reliable?
Real Life Situation: Today, I was watching the children play in the village while trying to figure out something to write in my blog. But I realised that even though they didn't have our fancy game consoles, they were laughing, they were smiling and they were having fun. So then why do we seek to have these expensive equipment if we could be happy just like the villagers? Why is it that we look for more to be happier? Then how exactly, can we measure someone's happiness if we do not all look for the same things?
William Wang
KI: To what extent is charity an act of altruistic morals?
Real Life Situation: When we were building our homes, I realised that it is not necessary that people do this to solely help others. It is extremely possible that we do this for our own benefits, and this is shown by our expectations - some of us want to become buff, others want to get fitter, others want to get a tan, and some do it because doing good, and helping others makes us feel good. So in the end, is charity really done for our own benefit or is there a moral code that pushes doing good above all others?
Mahind Raj Rao
KI: To what extent can bias be created in the interpretation of history due to language?
Malavika Nair
KI: To what extent can bias be created in the interpretation of history due to language?
Real Life Situation: When we were spending time in the War Remnants' Museum in Ho Chi Minh, there was an entire section that was dedicated to posters and pictures of civilians from around the world who wanted US to stop their war of aggression against Vietnam. In all the posters,wherever there were English slogans, I could make out that the civilians were against what the US forces in Vietnam were doing. However, the tiny description at the bottom left all stated "in support of Vietnam against US". Does being against the US Government's decisions, necessarily imply that those supporters were in favour of Vietnamese retaliation? Does the manipulation of these small details of language, cause us to form a different impression of historical truths? Therefore, how much bias is conveyed through the manipulation of language in history?
Malavika Nair
KI:To what extent does
individual upbringing affect our ability to adapt to and thus
perform optimally
in new environments?
Real life situation: Throughout the trip we had to put up with different
environments and some of these were not environments that all of us were used
to. The villages and even other areas in Long An were comparably different in
environmental conditions. Some of us were able to tolerate and adapt easily
without much difficulty while some of us suffered silently, experiencing
difficulty in trying to adapt. Even our ability to work was affected by this.
Some of us found the worksite too dirty to go ahead and work full on while
others couldn’t go all out and give it their best because the weather was
simply too hot. Why is it that some of us adapt so easily and comfortably while
some others have so much of difficulty doing the same? Is it because of the way
in which we were brought up? Or is it just a matter of individual character or
preference?
Mangala Dharshini
