Exploring the Links between ToK and CAS.

St Clare’s Oxford.
13 – 16th February 2013.
th

Resources for Participants

Bill Roberts Susanna Agostini

Independent Consultant Independent Consultant
Newcastle upon Tyne Bologna
U.K. Italy
 Overview of ToK and CAS Workshop. 13th - 16h
February 2013. St. Clare’s, Oxford, U.K.
First of all we would like to welcome you to the ToK and CAS workshop at St. Clare’s. We are looking
forward to working with you all and we hope that you will find the workshop useful. Just to let you know a little
bit about ourselves.

My name is Bill Roberts and I have worked within the DP in a range of roles, including mathematics teacher,
ToK teacher and DP Coordinator for 12 years, firstly in Cairo, Egypt and most recently in Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania. I have also presented at many regional workshops on DP Coordination, the DP for Administrators,
Mathematics, and ToK over the last thirteen years. Finally I work as a team leader for verification visits and
undertake five-year evaluations. I am currently based at the University of Newcastle in Newcastle upon Tyne,
U.K where I research into gender and education.

My name is Susanna Agostini and I am an IB Diploma graduate from the UWC of the Adriatic, with a degree
in political sciences and a Master's degree in cultural mediation. I have worked and volunteered in Ireland,
Canada, East Africa, Sri Lanka, India, Slovenia, the Middle East and Italy. I have also worked as the Service
and Special Projects Coordinator at the UWC of the Adriatic, where I founded the college's Volunteer Work
Association, Mondo 2000. In 2009 I moved to the SOS Children's Village in Trento where I am in charge of a
home for fostered children in my capacity of "SOS Mother". Within the IB world, I have led CAS workshops
since 2002, and have been involved in CAS monitoring and counselling since 2006.

If you wish to contact us prior to the workshop, you can do so on: billhroberts@blueyonder.co.uk

susiago@gmail.com
Thursday 14th February.

Session 1. ToK and CAS together and the link to the Learner Profile.

• Introductions.
• Presentations from the group.
• Expectations.
• The current position of ToK and CAS in your school.
• ToK, CAS and the Learner Profile.

Session 2. The nuts and bolts of ToK and CAS.

• Participants will be split by choice in this session. The aim of the session will be to provide a
good understanding of CAS requirements and ethos for ToK teachers or an in-depth
understanding of ToK for CAS teachers.

Session 3. The new ToK curriculum model and its relevance for the integration of ToK and
CAS.

• Introduction to the new guide.

• Aims and Objectives.
• Personal versus shared knowledge.
• Knowledge frameworks.
Friday 15th February.

Session 4. How do I know what I know?

The role of the ways of knowing.
• Interactive activity on the role of the ways of knowing.
• Understanding the ways of knowing.
• The idea of a hierarchy in the ways of knowing.

Session 5. Prejudice, stereotyping and ethics.

• What we mean by stereotyping and why we stereotype.

• Overcoming prejudice.
• The ethics of CAS from a ToK perspective.

Session 6. Experiential learning as a way of knowing.

• Off-site activity on experiential learning.

Saturday 16th February.

Session 7. Reflective Learning.

• Reflection on the experiential learning.

• Tools and Techniques to Support Reflective Practice. Learning Through Storytelling.

Session 8. Development of a product

• The development of a product to use in school.

Session 9. Burning questions and round up

• Presentation of products.
• Burning questions.
• Final round-up.

Session One.
What is a successful IB Student?
(Developed By Heather Arnesen)
The aim of this exercise is to come to some kind of understanding in what we expect of our
students. What kind of student can succeed in an IB programme?

a. Individually

1. Close your eyes and think what are the first characteristics that come to mind when you think of
your ideal IB student? How does such a student behave towards their fellow students and their
teachers? Note your thoughts below.

Points of note

2. Do the same exercise once more and this time note down why some students are unsuccessful with
the IB programme.

Points of note
 3. Read through what you have noted in under points 1. and 2. and suggest ways in which you can
change the behaviour of the unsuccessful student to become the successful student.

Points of note

b. Groupwork

Now get together with three others and evaluate what you have noted and prioritise.

Use the following method to come to a prioritising and be prepared to present the good IB student and how we can
develop such a student.

a) Present first your ideas for each other. No discussion at this point.
b) Collect the same ideas together.
c) Ideas that are different noted.
d) The group discusses and prioritises.
e) Two posters are made for presentation to the other groups.(One with the ideal student – the second with the
methods of developing the ideal student)
 IB Learner Profile

The aim of all IB programmes is to develop internationally minded people who, recognizing their
common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet, help to create a better and more
peaceful world.
IB learners strive to be:
Inquirers They develop their natural curiosity. They acquire the skills necessary to conduct inquiry and
research and show independence in learning. They actively enjoy learning and this love of learning
will be sustained throughout their lives.
Knowledgeable They explore concepts, ideas and issues that have local and global significance. In so doing, they
acquire in-depth knowledge and develop understanding across a broad and balanced range of
disciplines.

Thinkers They exercise initiative in applying thinking skills critically and creatively to recognize and approach
complex problems, and make reasoned, ethical decisions.

Communicators They understand and express ideas and information confidently and creatively in more than one
language and in a variety of modes of communication. They work effectively and willingly in
collaboration with others.

Principled They act with integrity and honesty, with a strong sense of fairness, justice and respect for the
dignity of the individual, groups and communities. They take responsibility for their own actions and
the consequences that accompany them.

Open-minded They understand and appreciate their own cultures and personal histories, and are open to the
perspectives, values and traditions of other individuals and communities. They are accustomed to
seeking and evaluating a range of points of view, and are willing to grow from the experience.

Caring They show empathy, compassion and respect towards the needs and feelings of others. They have a
personal commitment to service, and act to make a positive difference to the lives of others and to
the environment.

Risk-takers They approach unfamiliar situations and uncertainty with courage and forethought, and have the
independence of spirit to explore new roles, ideas and strategies. They are brave and articulate in
defending their beliefs.

Balanced They understand the importance of intellectual, physical and emotional balance to achieve personal well-
being for themselves and others.

Reflective They give thoughtful consideration to their own learning and experience. They are able to assess and
understand their strengths and limitations in order to support their learning and personal
development.
Sessions Two and Three.
 What can you do, when you are

FACING SOMETHING NEW?

(Developed by Susanna Agostini)

1. LOOK FOR DEFINITIONS:

o Guides/books
o Leaders/teachers

2. LOOK FOR KNOWLEDGE:

o All the above +
o Experience and associated, guided
reflection

…This is what makes the IB special,

and CAS the heart of the IB!!!

This is why CAS workshops and CAS coordinators make extensive use of games,
role-play, discussion groups, brainstorming, etc: because the IB teaching strategies
are based on inductive experiential learning, and we want our people to build
their own knowledge and to be aware of their own learning process. This makes
the difference!
 Basic assumptions:

1) CAS is meant to provide students with unique opportunities to challenge their views, to
overcome prejudice, to step beyond safe grounds and experience unfamiliar situations through
a wide range of activities and new roles.

2) This is meant to produce awareness of one’s own strength and limits, as well as of other
people’s needs; awareness of emotions and of ways to control and direct them; awareness of
the individual’s responsibility towards other individuals, communities and the environment.

3) The final aim is to educate students towards active and compassionate citizenship, with an
intercultural approach and an awareness of environmental issues.

4) It is through reflection that any input gathered from experience can be processed and can
become meaningful. Reflection based on wrong assumptions, misleading prejudice, or
inappropriate judgement can lead to dangerous conclusions.

5) It is therefore essential that students’ reflection is guided, and that all the people involved in
guiding reflection refer to a consistent, agreed set of values.

6) This is why CAS coordinators, advisors, and activity leaders need to be trained to provide careful and coherent
guidance to the students in their reflection process;

7) ToK teachers play a key role in identifying, discussing, and sharing the set of values and priorities to be addressed
and implemented in the experiential journey to self-development each student undertakes through CAS, as well
as in explaining, justifying and organising the IB values and approach to internationalism and ethics.

8) This is why we need this time together: to focus on the IB documents and requirements, to identify our common
mission and to develop common grounds and principles, as well as to discuss the values that shall guide our joint
educational effort.

9) We meet here to develop a common method which we will then take back to our schools, and adjust to suit our
different settings and cultural realities.
 C.A.S.?
Please fill in the following form.

WHAT IS CAS?

WHAT ARE THE AIMS OF

CAS?

WHICH IS THE ROLE OF

THE CAS COORDINATOR?

HOW DO CAS AND TOK

RELATE TO EACH OTHER?

NAME……………………………………. DATE……………/………./…………

A form like the one above is meant to be handed out in two copies, one at the beginning and one at the end of a workshop, of a
session, of a project…. Comparing the two ranges of answers provided before and after the experience, each participant becomes
aware of the “learning” i.e. of the change/improvement/broadening in his/her own perception of the issue.
Producing the same question at the beginning and at the end of the year or of a CAS project can help students reflect upon the
experiences they have gone through from a diachronic perspective, highlighting the difference from starting to end point. Realising you
are learning also motivates you to learn more.
 CAS AND THE IBDP:

THE HEXAGON
CAS is at the very heart

of the IB Diploma Programme.

It complements the academic learning of

the students

by

supporting the development of each

individual as a complete and rounded
human being.

Mission and strategy of the IB

(from the IB website)

“International Baccalaureate (IB) is more than its three educational programmes.

At our heart we are motivated by a mission to create a better world through education.

We value our hard-earned reputation

for quality, for high standards and for pedagogical leadership.

We achieve our goals by working with partners and by actively involving our stakeholders,
particularly teachers.

We promote intercultural understanding and respect,

not as an alternative to a sense of cultural and national identity,

but as an essential part of life in the 21st century.”

All of this is captured in our mission statement.

 CAS AND THE IBDP:
A mutually founding relationship
with ideological, pedagogical, methodological implications:
(a) Ideological implications:
In IB, “I” stands for International/intercultural: education towards interculturalism, hence fighting prejudice, and the
development of aware citizens across borders and differences is a founding value of the IB philosophy and its final
aim. CAS is where this aspect of education can most successfully take place. This should not be forgotten in designing
a good CAS program. If the school population is not intercultural and/or if the school is not located in a multicultural
environment, the CAS coordinator has to implement other strategies for integrating the “I” of the IB within the CAS
program.

Such strategies can be brainstormed and shared with the students. Best practice examples proposed by students
include art sessions with international artists, playing soccer with children, starting international projects, reaching for
and meeting minorities within the local community to start intercultural/inter-religious discussion groups, helping
amnesty and organising campaigns about human rights… some of these activities should then be associated to other
service activities providing the “face to face” side necessary for the personal emotional growth of the student.
(b) Pedagogical implications: the IB philosophy implies
a value-oriented approach to the students: initiative and positive criticism are encouraged, personal experience and
freedom of choice provided under guidance wherever possible to develop identity and trigger self-confidence. On the
other hand, the IB believes in the need to go through a wide range of varied educational experiences in order to
broaden one’s views and develop a more flexible and tolerant attitude. IB supports innovative teaching and facing
new experiences, to keep the students’ curiosity and interest at its highest!

All this applies to the IB subjects, and you can identify all these principles in the way the hexagon is shaped, the
subjects chosen and taught, the student’s curriculum structured.

CAS is at the centre of the IB: all these principles not only apply to CAS, but it is rather in the very CAS experiences that
they are rooted.

(c) Methodological implications:

The IB is special also in that, in each subject, its students are provided with the opportunity to go through personal,
guided experience and collect their own data, assisted throughout the process of data analysis, then led to draw the
right conclusions, with as much freedom as possible for personal decoding and interpretation of reality, as well as for
positive criticism and for the development of personal theories. Always taking into account the cultural and individual
background of each person. This same method should therefore be applied to CAS.
 N
T
IN
G

REFLECTION
ON-action
and
 C.A.S. is ETHICAL

EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION

i.e. LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE.

CAS aims at developing the personality of the students,

helping them become

MORE

active, compassionate and aware citizens

THAN

they would have been otherwise.

Learning has occurred only if personal development takes place.

Learning from experience is only possible

THROUGH

ASSOCIATED
ONGOING CRITICAL REFLECTIONS
GUIDED
_____________________________________________________________

ONGOING REFLECTION occurs:

BEFORE: SETTING GOALS

DURING: MONITORING , COUNSELLING

AFTER: SELF-EVALUATION.
 CAS MUST NEVER BE SELF-TAUGHT!

A GOOD CAS PROJECT

Is a new role for the student!
Is a real task!
Does have consequences!
Turns the student into a
more active, more aware and more compassionate citizen!

CAS IS NEVER NEUTRAL:

Every experience has an impact on the young person;
the kind and the extent of it depend on the way reflection is conducted, on the
values applied and on the guidance provided.
Lack of support in the reflection process can lead to conclusions
that conflict with the values the activity was meant to foster.

SERVICE IS NEVER NEUTRAL:

it can only be good or bad for the Server,
it can only be good or bad for the Servee, too.
Only, the Servee usually has no access to guided reflections.
Attention needs to be paid not to serve
bad experiences to both Server and Servee!
This is why Service is now ideally to be identified in a mutually beneficial
exchange, i.e. a sustainable, positive help relationship established by the
student with an individual, a group or a community from different
background and expressing different needs.
 CAS

Let’s look at the definition of Creativity Action and Service

(Creativity, action, service guide

For students graduating in 2010 and thereafter)

The three strands of CAS, which are often interwoven with particular activities, are characterized as follows.
Creativity: arts, and other experiences that involve creative thinking.

Action: physical exertion contributing to a healthy lifestyle, complementing academic work elsewhere in the
Diploma Programme.

Service: an unpaid and voluntary exchange that has a learning benefit for the student. The rights, dignity and
autonomy of all those involved are respected.

What’s new in the Creativity, Action, Service Guide

for students graduating in 2010 and thereafter?

Creativity: must involve personal challenge, engage the students in real tasks and produce real consequences
Action: must imply physical exertion and contribute to a healthy lifestyle. It can be either sporting or an activity
involving physical challenge, endurance or the conquest of personal fears.

The reflective practitioner: where the actual physical exercise cannot be taken much further or developed to
a higher level of commitment, engagement or result, it is possible for the coach to incorporate relevant CAS
principles and practice into training schedules

Service: must involve the development of a mutually beneficial exchange relationship, possibly with someone / a
group / a community with different background or needs from the student’s own; there has to be potential for a
learning benefit for the student
The following fundamental principles expressed by the new CAS Guide deserve some specific consideration as they
have significant implications when it comes to planning and coordinating the CAS programme.

• CAS enables students to enhance their personal and interpersonal development through experiential learning.
At the same time, it provides an important counterbalance to the academic pressures of the rest of the
Diploma Programme.
• A good CAS programme should be both challenging and enjoyable, a personal journey of self discovery.
• Each individual student has a different starting point, and therefore different goals and needs, but for many
their CAS activities include experiences that are profound and life changing.
• Concurrency of learning.
• “Hour counting” is not encouraged.
• Think globally, act locally: (p. 2 and 20) Working with people from different social or cultural backgrounds in
the vicinity of the school can do as much to increase mutual understanding as large international projects.

There is an evolution in CAS:

• From a quantitative to a qualitative approach;
• From providing access to activities, to providing guidance to personal development;
• From assessing what the student has done, to evaluating the starting and ending point of each student’s
personal development occurred during the two years through CAS, in concurrency of learning with his/her
academic curriculum.
• From a focus on “doing” to a focus on reflections and self awareness.

In Service this is reflected in the following:

• From an international to an intercultural and local approach to service and the development of the students’
understanding of different cultures and backgrounds.
• From giving to exchanging: from serving to building meaningful, mutually beneficial, sustainable
relationships.

Nowadays, the time students devote to CAS is a resource, a place for opportunities for personal development. The
question we need to ask ourselves is always: is this the best personal development opportunity our CAS programme
can offer this student?
 THE HELP RELATIONSHIP

SERVER – SERVED: a range of possible relationships.

__________________________________________
This tool is borrowed from a conference on service and street work held in Trieste in 2001, but can be applied at any
stage of service to trigger discussion on the Help Relationship. It is particularly interesting because in the process of
discussion the students reflect on their active role in their service, and become aware of the extent to which their own
attitude is critical for the success of their activity.

1. I do what I want, you go away.

2. I will do things in your place, just tell me what to do.
3. I will tell you where to go, just follow me.
4. I will tell you where to go, then you will go.
5. I will do things in your place, at least give me a hand.
6. I will do things for you so you will learn.
7. Do what I think and I will control you.
8. Let’s do together what I want.
9. Let’s do together what you want.
10. Help me understand what is the right thing to do.
11. Let’s decide together what is the right thing to do.
12. Do what you like, I will watch and learn.
13. Do what you like, while I go away.

Some questions to guide reflections on this tool:

• Which of the above perspectives would you accept as part of a “mutually beneficial exchange?”
• Who/what can determine the pattern of a relationship?
• Which factors would you reckon can change the pattern of a given relationship: culture? age? sex? power?
Other…….
 HELP RELATIONSHIP PATTERNS

WHO doing what FOR WHOM

A helps B doing things for B

A helps B doing things for OTHERS

A and B do things for B

A and B do things for THEMSELVES

A and B do things for OTHERS

A and B and OTHERS do things for EVERYONE

Pick one of the

above patterns
and design an
activity to
describe it

Describe an activity based on a mutually beneficial relationship

benefiting all those involved.

 The role of the CAS coordinator
______________________________________________
The challenge of the CAS coordinator is high and manifold:

Educating the student: guiding each individual student in a journey of self discovery, investigating his/her starting
point, evaluating personal development needs and areas for growth, designing a personalised
development plan, guiding the student through the choice of suitable activities to meet his/her targets,
teaching (where advisors have not been appointed) the reflection skills as well as assisting the reflection
process, reporting on the student’s achievements, making sure the student has developed an awareness
of his/her own learning and personal development. Of course always bearing in mind the IB Mission
Statement values and infusing all the above with the Learner profile qualities so as to achieve the eight
CAS learning outcomes.

Linking School and local community. Acting as PR, the CAS coordinator needs to provide the necessary contacts and to
maintain positive relationships with local, national and international agencies that can provide CAS
opportunities for the students, resources for the students’ projects and learning, visibility for the
students’ achievements, support in terms of expertise and knowledge, papers and logistics. This implies
the school – via the CAS coordinator – can enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship with local council,
government, agencies, embassies, NGOs, which will provide visibility and prestige to the school, and
sometimes financial support to the students’ initiatives.

To support the CAS coordinator in a complex and demanding job the IB is promoting a team approach to CAS, where
not only DP Coordinators, teachers and all staff members, but also parents and peers, become actively
involved in this part of the programme, which is meant to be felt as a lifestyle, modelled by all the people
surrounding the students in the educational IB environment.

The CAS coordinator gains then yet another hat: advisors and supervisors, fellow teachers and staff members need to
be trained through ad hoc professional development, so that they can assist the students in their
learning and the programme in its smooth functioning.

ToK support to CAS is vital to the school in order to reassert the role played by the core elements in the Diploma,
reconfirm the need for a counterbalance to the students’ academic self absorption, and to merge the theoretical and
the practical aspects of experiential learning. ToK teachers can support the CAS coordinator way beyond the process
of reflection!
1. How are our understandings of texts affected by their various historical, social and cultural contexts?

2. To what extent do you understand the world differently when you learn another language? For example
views on cultural practices, time, humour, leisure.

3. To what extent is a map a model or a reality?

4. To what extent does it make sense to talk of the scientific method?

5. To what extent is mathematics discovered and to what extent is it invented and why is it important?

6. What are the standards by which we judge art? Can we justify these standards and, if so, how?
 Critical Questions
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE. COMMUNICATING WITH ALIENS

An unmanned spacecraft is shortly to leave Earth on a mission to explore various planets of the solar system. Once
this task is complete, the craft will speed on into interstellar space, never to return. It has been decided to place three
items in the spacecraft so that, in the unlikely event of its being intercepted by aliens, some information about human
beings may be communicated to them. It is your job to design or decide on these items.

Two restrictions have been placed on these items.

Firstly, the authorities have insisted that one item must contain at least some human written language or languages.
This decision reflects the basic importance of language to human culture.

The second item should contain no language reflecting the fact that communication between humans happens in a
variety of ways.

The third item has no limitations attached to it.

Before you start, consider the following:

• What information would you want to convey to an alien who comes across the spacecraft?

• How could you present the information so that there is a chance of the alien understanding it?

You have fifteen minutes to do this. Each group must nominate a spokesperson to explain their ideas and we will
listen to as many as we have time for.
ToK Point. ToK Question Critical Question
 TOK Curriculum Changes
Terminology & Guidance

• The Guide has been extensively re-written. The old collection of questions about each Area
of Knowledge and each Way of Knowing has been replaced by extensive definitions of key
terms and discussion of each aspect of the curriculum. (There is still a section of Linking
Questions to help teachers connect the various parts of the curriculum to each other.)
• "Knowledge Issues" has been replaced by "Knowledge Questions.”
• The old TOK diagram has been replaced by a series of diagrams, each focused on a
different aspect of the course.
• A "Knowledge Framework" has been provided as a means of suggesting how teachers can
approach each Area of Knowledge systematically and with an eye to helping students
compare and contrast them to each other.
• An online TSM has been developed and is intended to be periodically updated to assist
teachers in designing a course for their particular situation, finding appropriate classroom
materials, and understanding the demands of assessment.

Content

The sets of available Ways of Knowing and Areas of Knowledge have been expanded to allow
teachers more choice and more scope for the curriculum

2008 GUIDE 2015 GUIDE

Ways of Knowing (Mandated) Ways of Knowing (Choose 4)

Language Language
Sense Perception Sense Perception
Emotion Emotion
Reason Reason
Imagination
Faith
Intuition
Memory

Areas of Knowledge (Mandated) Areas of Knowledge (Choose 6)

Mathematics Mathematics
Natural Science Natural Science
Human Science Human Science
The Arts The Arts
History History Ethics
Ethics Religious Knowledge Systems
Indigenous Knowledge Systems
 Assessment

The nature of the two assessment tasks is essentially unchanged: the TOK Essay will continue
to count for 2/3 of the TOK grade for the diploma and the TOK Presentation will continue to
count for the remaining 1/3. Significant changes have been made, however, to the
procedures and the scoring criteria, as the following chart details:

TOK ESSAY

2008 GUIDE 2015 GUIDE

List of 10 Prescribed Titles provided a year in
advance.
List of 6 Prescribed Titles provided six months
in advance. There will be different lists for
November Session schools and May Session
schools. (Note: This change has been
implemented from November 2012.)

General statement about the teacher's role Specific procedure for what kind of teacher
provided in guide. assistance is expected has been spelled out in
the guide.

Scoring Criteria consisted of four detailed
criteria.
Scoring guide has been rewritten for global
impression marking based on the question:
"Did the student present an appropriate and
cogent analysis of knowledge questions in
discussing the title?" There are now two
aspects of the essay to be considered: the
breadth and depth of the consideration of
Knowledge Questions and the quality of the
analysis.

Essay was marked out of 40 Essay is marked out of 10 and the score is
doubled.

Word length was prescribed to be between World length is now prescribed to be a

1200 and 1600 words. maximum of 1600 words.
N/A Essay is required to be double-spaced. (This
is due to the move to e-marking. It is very
difficult for examiners to work with single-
spaced essays.)
 TOK PRESENTATION

2008 GUIDE 2015 GUIDE

Maximum number of students in a group was Maximum number of students per group is
five. three.

Students in group presentations were Students in group presentations are required

required to be marked separately, though it to earn the same mark.
was possible for all students to earn the
same mark if their roles in the presentation
were comparable.

General statement about the teacher's role Specific procedure for what kind of teacher
provided in guide. assistance is expected has been spelled out in
the guide.

Scoring Criteria consisted of four detailed
criteria.
Scoring guide has been rewritten for global
impression marking based on the question:
"Do(es) the presenter(s) succeed in showing
how TOK concepts can have practical
application?"

Presentation was marked out of 20 Presentation is marked out of 10.

Students and teacher completed the
TOK/PPD from which was kept on file unless
asked for.
Students and teacher will complete the new
TOK/PPD form (extensively revised) and all
forms will be uploaded for moderation.
Moderation will be based on whether the
description of the presentation provided by
the student warrants the marks awarded by
the teacher.

Some schools were asked to provide Some schools were asked to provide
recordings of some or all candidates recordings of some or all candidates
(notification in advance) for moderation. (notification in advance) for moderation.
Session Five.
 What Role Does Ethics Play in Our Personal Lives?

We begin with a series of definitions.

Moral.

Personal behaviour measured by prevailing standards of what is correct (i.e. good/bad), involving a choice and more
than one person.

Ethical.

A philosophy of objectively defined, but basically idealistic standards of right and wrong – often stated in terms of
“ought to”.

Values.

Assessment of what is important and what is not. Values are attitudes; standards by which people measure the worth
of everything: material objects, philosophical ideas, personality characteristics, life goals and ways to achieve them.

Moral Judgement.

An utterance which asserts or implies that some thing, person or situation is good or bad, that some action ought or
ought not to be done.

Two characteristics of all value judgements.

1. No evidence can finally determine the truth or falsity of the judgement.

2. The judgement contains an element of evaluation, usually of approval or disapproval whether explicit or implicit.
Four characteristics of a moral judgement.

1. Other people’s interests are involved whether directly or indirectly.

2. A moral act must involve freedom of action; it must be voluntary.

Actions are involuntary when done:

under compulsion

through ignorance

the act has its origins from without, the agent being passive contributing nothing to it.

A voluntary act has its origins within the agent who knows the particular circumstances in which they are acting.

3. The action must be intentional; one must be aware of what one is doing, the nature of the act and the effect it
will produce.

4. Any moral judgement that is made about one case must apply to all other relevantly similar cases and must be
binding on the person making the judgement.

You are now going to try a quiz which will allow you to start considering what factors play a role in making moral
decisions.

Below you will find brief scenarios. Write down your reasons for approving or disapproving of the actions described in
the scenario. Also consider what roles the following play in reaching these decisions.

a) reason
b) emotion
c) instinct/intuition
d) experience
e) conscience
f) tradition
g) religion
h) individual temperament
i) situation
j) language
k) memory
l) sense perception
m) imagination
n) faith
1) A supermarket cashier returned more money in change than you deserve. You pocket the extra money and leave
the supermarket.

2) Bill saw the man lying by the side of the road. His clothes were dirty and torn. The man looked to be a foreigner
and it was possible that he had been drinking. It was getting dark and Bill had an appointment in fifteen minutes.
Bill turned away and ignored the man lying in the road.

3) Julie saw Jim, a fellow student, cheating on an IB exam by covertly reading notes he had brought in and
concealed. Julie did not tell the teacher, but did tell a group of friends and hence a rumour passed around the
school that Jim had cheated in his IB exams.

4) Juan has been suspended from school for smoking in the boy’s toilets. Juan denies the charge. However, you have
seen Juan smoking at school in the past. The Student Government is circulating a petition criticising the Principal
for unfair treatment and demanding Juan be reinstated. When you are asked, you sign the petition.

5) A student comes to school on free dress day wearing a T- shirt which has lewd sexual innuendos written on it and
a picture of an intertwined naked couple. The Principal insists that the student replace it or turn it inside out.

6) You have secretly read your girlfriend’s private diary and you have learned that she has had fantasies of killing
herself. You are worried but also concerned that your girlfriend will discover that you have invaded her privacy.
You send an anonymous letter to your girlfriend’s homeroom teacher.
Now we will look at ways of classifying ethical theories or approaches.

Objectivist – There are absolute rights and wrongs which exist irrespective of particular situations or circumstances.

Relativist – All moral judgements are relative to the society and situation in which individuals find themselves.

Subjectivist – All moral judgements are individual and subjective.

Motivist – The rightness or wrongness of an action depends upon the motive from which the act was carried out.

Consequential – The rightness or wrongness of an action depends entirely upon the effects which the action has.

Deontological – The rightness or wrongness of an action depends neither upon the motive from which the act was
done, nor upon the consequences of the act, but solely upon what kind of act it was. (This is essentially an objectivist
stance.)

Now go back to the quiz and try to work out what ethical approach you have taken.
 Ethics of CAS Worksheet (Devised by Bill Roberts).

1. CAS is often described as “experiential education”. In what ways is learning in CAS similar to or
different from learning in ToK? In what ways can they support each other or do they compete?

2. List as many criteria as possible that are used to persuade us of the ethical value of the school’s
community service projects. In your opinion, which is the most convincing argument? What is
the ethical basis of your position?

3. What ethical challenges could be raised to the mandatory nature of aesthetic

activities, sporting practice, and service in the IB Diploma Programme?

4. A lot of what is gained from Community Service is gained by students, schools, and teachers -
not just recipients. To what extent do you believe this to be true and acceptable? What would
you change?

5. In the DP, Service is an obligation for every student. Would you regard it as a moral obligation
for everyone?

6. Should a student promote values that may collide with his/her own values for the purpose of
personal, emotional, cultural or intellectual development? Is a student aged 15-19 entitled to
assert he/she already has values or attitudes that he/she is not ready to question or
challenge?
7. To what extent is the questioning of faith and belief an essential element CAS and ToK?

Session Six.
 Experiential Learning: Susanna Agostini.
"Experiential learning refers to a spectrum of meanings, practices and ideologies which emerge out of the work and
commitments of policy makers, educators, trainers, change agents, and "ordinary" people all over the world. They see
"experiential learning" - with different meanings - as relevant to the challenges they currently face: in their lives, in
education, in institutions, in commerce and industry, in communities, and in society as a whole. Across such diversity,
however we discern four emphases for experiential learning. Each emphasis forms the basis for a cluster of interrelated
ideas and concerns ... We have chosen to refer to these clusters of people and ideas as "villages" ... we see the four
villages as follows:

* Village One is concerned particularly with assessing and accrediting learning from life and work experience as
the basis for creating new routes into higher education, employment and training opportunities, and professional
bodies.

* Village Two focuses on experiential learning as the basis for bringing about change in the structures, purposes
and curricula of post-secondary education.

* Village Three emphasizes experiential learning as the basis for group consciousness raising, community action
and social change.

* Village Four is concerned with personal growth and development and experiential learning approaches that
increase self-awareness and group effectiveness"

(Quote from Susan W Weil and Ian McGill, "A Framework for making sense of Experiential Learning" in Making Sense
of Experiential Learning, Susan S Weil and Ian McGill (eds.), SRHE/OU Press, Milton Keynes, 1989, p.3. This book
contains an edited selection of the papers presented at the First International Conference on Experiential Learning in
1987.)

How CAS relates to experiential learning:

the need for ToK in the CAS reflection process.

CAS, – it is often said – is a form of experiential learning applied to education; experiential learning is the method
adopted by the IB, which is expressed at its highest level in the Diploma Programme through the CAS component.

But what is the genuine nature of Experiential Learning? To what extent does it apply in CAS? Can experience alone
ever produce knowledge without being filtered through the sieves of previous personal experience, cultural
background, pre-interiorised stereotypes and values?

I remember two students, back in the 80s, taking part in the same Service, every Tuesday afternoon, from 3 to 6 pm.
After 6 months of weekly commitment, one of the two students wrote in the CAS log about the many emotions lived
while keeping company to the severely disabled children, sons of relatively poor families, living in the clean, decent
outskirts of a small town; of their welcoming parents, leading fair, humble lives, and of their apparently
disproportioned gratitude for what little help the students could provide: a lesson of unconditioned love and hope.
The other student wrote in his CAS log of the many hours wasted on human beings who would never be able to
produce anything, or to pay back to society the energy and money they absorb from other people; he wrote of
families deprived of their right to freedom and ambitions by creatures that should not be allowed to stay alive, given
the degree of their disability.
Emotions prevented me then from applying reason. But that memory stays with me as the day when I learnt that
experience without serious ongoing guidance can be worse than no experience at all. And it can be dangerous.

Experiential learning can only produce integration if the experience itself, its choice and the student’s role in it are
consistent with the student’s values. When the student’s background and culture clash with the IB values expressed in
the Mission, experience alone is unlikely to develop in the student the qualities listed in the Learner Profile. This is
when CAS becomes a form of ethical education, but to bring about the desired change doing is not enough.

So, how can we ensure that CAS students will move forward towards the Learner Profile personal development
envisaged by the IB, thus eventually achieving the eight learning outcomes identified by the new CAS Guide?

The discovery of new values, which opens the way to a set of new meanings in the student’s vision of life, cannot be
achieved without ongoing guidance:
• guided reflection before doing: questioning and de-structuring preconceptions and setting educational
goals.
• guided reflection while doing: monitoring of perceptions, emotions, choices and thoughts expressed
during the activity.
• guided reflections after doing: sharing of final evaluation and self-evaluation.

Support from ToK experts in teaching students reflection skills, as well as in applying ethics to the ongoing process of
CAS self-evaluation and personal development, is of the uttermost relevance; it is also necessary in order to generate
synergy between the core elements of the DP, hence to allow the education of the whole person to effectively take
place.
 What is "experiential learning"?
by Mike Pasternak

Since each learner comes to a lesson with a ‘personal backpack’ of values, not only must the role of the teacher change
to accommodate this contribution to the learning process but the methodology used must be experiential in nature.

There are two common perceptions of experiential learning. “The first denotes the process of coming to understand
oneself and one’s experiences, particularly aspects of oneself or experiences one has sought to suppress (Claxton,
1985).”(1) This is the “whole person” approach favoured by Carl Rogers and the Humanist school of educationalists.
“The second … refers to the use of activities such as role play, or direct experiences........., which are employed by
teachers to enable students to better understand and appreciate, both intellectually and emotionally, an issue being
explored.”(2)
The crucial elements in these methodologies are that they are holistic in terms of approach (i.e. physical, intellectual
and emotional) and involve decision making towards outcomes perceived as being ‘real’ and of value to the learner.
(…)

Early learning is not characterized by the acquisition of objective theories about the world but by sensual and practical
involvement with it. When a child comes to school she comes into contact with knowledge which we, as teachers, order
and define, through various disciplines we call subjects. As teachers, we have the tendency to promote knowledge in
which objectivity and establishment of impersonal ‘truths’ have special learning status. In schools which foster a
traditional curriculum the message comes across that learning through disciplines that value objectivity is more
reliable, more desirable than learning through those disciplines that combine cognition with personal, usually affective,
responses.

However, in our personal lives, we tend to value personal ways of knowing above impersonal ‘truths’. Clearly,
for a youngster to succeed in the world of the 21st century a development of both the ‘encouraging external yardsticks
of measure’ and the ‘internal self-motivating personal standard system’ are essential. Sadly, many educational
establishment still heavily promote dependency upon the former mode of measure.

The accepted culture of learning too has been affected by these views and certain teaching practices which
rely on supposed objectivity are perceived to constitute ‘real’ teaching.
However, as much of the research in recent years by Teaching and Learning Styles practitioners such as,
Anthony Gregorc, Isabelle Myers-Briggs, Bernice McCarthy, shows, this single culture model of learning, i.e. all students
learn roughly the same way, is flawed. We all learn differently in different situations and we all have certain learning
style preferences. Sometimes it is necessary for us to sit alone and ruminate over a problem; at other times, an open-
ended task will pull us into a deeper understanding - whilst on yet another occasion, a sequential scientific step-by-step
approach will prove highly effective. Or, sometimes we might learn by just sitting around chatting with friends or
colleagues. All these different ways of learning are used by us all - outside school.

Learning entails a step into the unknown. Uncertainty, insecurity and self–doubt plague the route of personal
growth. In areas where values of transrational, rational and subrational levels (3) must be exposed and dissected, the
mood of the learning habitat is critical. It must encourage risk and endorse failure. Each learner should be able to
respond as a comfortable individual enveloped by a supportive, compassionate community.

Quoting Mike Pasternak, we can say that, like in Drama, in state-of-the-art Creativity, too, but also in Action and in
Service, with appropriate and rigorous support from ToK, “each the different types of (…) activities touches and
stretches the elements of the Holistic Learner. Each learning route is carefully massaged and reinforced so that every
learner is stimulated in all modes of learning. Through use of a variety of methodologies, the background knowledge,
skills and attitudes of each individual receives personal consideration. A physical learner finds motivation through her
medium and so begins to grapple with the intellectual aspects of the subject. The emotional learner experiences
involvement by affective means and seeks to communicate this viewpoint via his artistic mode. (…) Research cited by
Kenneth and Rita Dunn (1978) (4) highlights the importance of catering to students with different perceptual modes
e.g. visual, auditory, tactile/kinaesthetic, plus consideration of a range of other factors which they have found affect
learning.

References
1. Davison A. & Gordon P. ‘Games and Simulations in Action’ (1978),Woburn Press, England. p. 55

2. Kyriacou C. ‘Effective Teaching in Schools’ (1986), Basil Blackwell Ltd. London. p. 75

3. Courtney R. ‘RE-PLAY Studies of Human Drama in Education’ OISE Press, Canada. ISBN 0 7744 0248 2, 1982

4. Taken from an article ‘Learning Styles: Link Between Individual Differences and Effective Instruction’ -
Professor Rita Dunn published by Center for the Study of Learning and Teaching Styles, St. John’s University, New
York.