Semester 1 - Assessment Activity - 'Fast and slow thinking' : a short student documentary film.

The purpose of this assessment activity is both to reinforce your understanding of some of the key ideas of the first semester but also to give you a taste of the sort of assessment activities you can expect to undertake as part of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. 

Firstly, the content of the Critical Thinking lessons has given you an introduction to the IB TOK course which is concerned with how we can claim to know what we know. We have examined, for example, how our reason or the language we use provide us with different ways of knowing the world. Secondly, this assessment will be completed independently, in small groups through the production of a short film, the form and content of which will be largely decided by each group of students.  This is typical of the creative form of assessments in the IB, where students decide for themselves the content of what they will produce. In our very first lesson we looked at how traditional schooling doesn't encourage much independent or creative knowledge production that reflect our varied 'multiple intelligences' and our ability to collaborate.  This is both a challenge and an opportunity to see if you can do it. 

The film - Thinking Fast and Slow.

For the film itself, there will be very few requirements but plenty of suggestions. To start with, here are two short films that explain the main ideas behind thinking fast and slow, or the two systems. ​

Five Requirements (what the film must do). The film

• must explain and illustrate the basic principles ​of what psychologists call system 1 and system 2.
• must be no more than 3 minutes in length.
• must feature visually/aurally every student in your group.
• must include some actuality footage e.g. experiment or 'talking head' filmed specially for the documentary.
• must include a short introductory exposition (click here for explanation and examples) and conclusion.

Cinq exigences (ce que le film doit faire). Le film

• doit expliquer et illustrer les principes de base de ce que les psychologues appellent le système 1 et le système 2.
• doit durer pas plus de 3 minutes.
• doit présenter visuellement / auditivement chaque élève de votre groupe.
• doit inclure des images réelles, par exemple des expériences ou des "têtes parlantes" filmées spécialement pour le documentaire.
• doit comprendre une courte introduction et une conclusion.

Ten Recommendations

• Begin by knowing the questions you want your film to answer. 
• Take seriously and consider all the suggestions below, they are drawn from all the lessons we did in the first semester...
• but be realistic, you only have 3-4 lessons and the film is only 4 minutes long maximum. 
• Divide the film into clearly defined sections. Consider the possibility of answering different questions in each section. 
• Divide up the responsibilities - director, editor, performers, narrators, script writer, researchers etc. - and share the load.
• Divide up the research. Encourage team members to become experts in aspects of the film's content.
• George Lucas said 'sound is half the picture'. Audio must be clear, so people speaking need to be close to microphones/iPads. 
• Have one person responsible for the final edit, but do not leave the editing to the end. Edit as you go and reshoot if necessary. 
• Do not expect to be able to research, write, shoot and edit only in the Critical Thinking lessons. A great film will need more time. 
• Be imaginative and try to get your audience actively involved, try to have them do something . 

Dix recommandations

• Commencez par connaître les questions auxquelles vous voulez que votre film réponde. 
• Prenez au sérieux et considérez toutes les suggestions ci-dessous, elles sont tirées de toutes les leçons que nous avons faites au cours du premier semestre...
• mais soyez réaliste, vous n'avez que 3-4 leçons et le film ne dure que 4 minutes maximum. 
• Divisez le film en sections clairement définies. Envisagez la possibilité de répondre à des questions différentes dans chaque section. 
• Répartissez les responsabilités - réalisateur, monteur, interprètes, narrateurs, scénariste, chercheurs, etc. - et partagez la charge.
• Répartissez la recherche. Encouragez les membres de l'équipe à devenir des experts dans certains aspects du contenu du film.
• George Lucas a dit que "le son est la moitié de l'image". Le son doit être clair, les personnes qui parlent doivent donc être proches des micros/iPads. 
• Faites en sorte qu'une personne soit responsable du montage final, mais ne laissez pas le montage à la fin. Montez au fur et à mesure et refaites le montage si nécessaire. 
• Ne vous attendez pas à pouvoir faire des recherches, écrire, filmer et monter uniquement dans les leçons de pensée critique. Un grand film aura besoin de plus de temps. 
• Soyez imaginatif et essayez d'impliquer activement votre public, essayez de le faire participer. 

Endless Suggestions

Begin by reviewing Lesson 2 which was dedicated to 'fast and slow' thinking.  In that lesson, I tried to show not only how the two systems worked, but also how our brains can make mistakes when we over depend on one system rather than the other. Remember the quiz you did during the lesson? The first four questions illustrated the problem of relying on the intuition of System 1, but question 5 showed what we miss when we rely too heavily on System 2... remember the gorilla? Maybe you could consider doing something similar in your film? For example, you could ask the questions designed to trip-up system 1. You could use visual 'tricks' like these. (see also Lesson 4 Senses summary below). 

Or you could also refer to the cognitive reflection test (bat/ball, lily pads and widgets!) that was designed in 2005 by Shane Frederick and that measures a person's tendency to override an incorrect instinctive response and engage in further reflection to find a correct answer. 

​And to show the limitations of System 2 you could even make your own version of the gorilla experiment like the selective attention test below  or something from the brilliant Richard Wiseman's Quirkology website. ​What's important is showing that when you're really concentrating hard - using System 2 - you miss a lot of what you would normally notice. 

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Making the film

There are two stages to making the film.

1. You need to decide on which experiment(s) you wish to include. I will show you how to shoot your own movie perception test you can include this or any other experimental aspect of fast and slow thinking as part of your actuality footage.  These clips should not be too long and must clearly illustrate the concept of 'system 1' and 'system 2'. 
2. You need to incorporate your experiment actuality footage into a complete film which has at least four sections: exposition, explanation, actuality and conclusion.  This page explains how you are expected to put your film together.