Theory of Knowledge

ToK is a core interdisciplinary course that all students follow on the IB Diploma. It is designed to develop a coherent approach to learning, transcending and unifying academic areas and encouraging appreciation of other cultural perspectives. ToK stimulates critical thinking about knowledge itself, encourages young people to make sense of what they encounter and to ask questions such as ‘What counts as knowledge? When can we trust or have certainty regarding what we know? How does knowledge grow? What are its limits? Who owns knowledge? What is the value of knowledge? What are the implications of having, or not having knowledge?’ 

ToK students are ‘knowers’ of 16-18 years of age with an ongoing developing life experience and education. They have accumulated a large amount of knowledge, beliefs and opinions personally through experience or as shared knowledge acquired through family, community and the wider world as well as through their academic studies and extracurricular activities. In ToK they have the opportunity to step back from this process of gaining knowledge, in order to consider knowledge questions as well as clarify and evaluate distinctions between the approaches and contexts of different areas of knowledge.

The subject matter of the ToK course is defined in terms of knowledge questions, with activities and discussions aiming to help students discover and express their views in a coherent and structured manner. The course encourages students to share ideas with others and to learn from what others think as well as to reflect upon the processes or ways through which a person can ‘know’. 

Topics such as the relationship between knowledge and significant social and technological shifts such as the advent of the printing press or of social media may be explored. Connections are facilitated between knowledge encountered in different Diploma Programme subjects, CAS experience and/or extended essay research. Through this process students’ understanding of knowledge as a dynamic process and as a human construction is shaped, enriched and deepened. 

ToK is internally assessed throughout the course through homework and class assignments.

The final three points of the IB diploma are awarded depending on quality of work in the Extended Essay and ToK.

Assessment is based entirely on coursework. Two thirds of the assessment  is given through completion of an essay in the second year of the course, whilst one third is given for completion of an Exhibition conducted towards the end of the first year of the course.