How to think ToK?

When I first started ToK lessons, one of the easiest ways for me to get into the ToK mindset was by engaging in class discussion and trying to challenge biases that I naturally have. Personally, I find ToK most interesting and exciting when I can apply it to real life examples. I also think the more you become familiar with the critical thinking needed to engage with ToK, the more examples you are able to find in daily life. For example, a couple of months ago I was waiting for the tube and saw an advert about sexism in sports from across the platform. We had just been learning about the difference between opinion, belief and facts, and the phrasing of this advert made generalised opinions sound as if they were facts. In this case, that only men were to blame for sexist hate in football. So, I took a photo of it and brought it up in the next ToK lesson, where we had an interesting class discussion about the power of emotive language, ethics in knowledge and the role of experts in dictating personal beliefs and controlling knowledge held by societies. The process of finding something in everyday life, examining it and questioning its connection to knowledge has helped me develop a more critical and perspective view of information that was previously just presented to me. Within my IB studies, I find the ToK mini sections in IB textbooks to be helpful in probing further thought and research into specific topics, which ultimately helps to deepen my holistic understanding of a subject. 

Dakota Cockrell (LVI- Class of 2024)