What is TOK?

The IB believes that you are taking a program of study rather than separate courses of specific subject matter, isolated from one another. The goal of TOK is to help you to see the links between the disciplines as well as discover their ability to critically examine all subject areas from the perspective of how knowledge is acquired (often subjectively).

The focus of this course is on asking questions, but when one questions the foundations in knowing, she/he is not necessarily finding guilt, challenging classmates or teachers. The spirit of inquiry is meant to carry over into more appreciative ways of looking at other subjects. In TOK there may not be right and wrong answers, but there are standards for judgment and defenses of a student’s claims to knowledge. Critical thinking can only take place when you justify your inquiry and its expression.

TOK is an interdisciplinary course that asks students to reflect on what they know and how they know it. It is a course about critical thinking and inquiring into the process of knowing, rather than about learning a specific body of knowledge. The TOK course examines how we know what we claim to know. It does this by encouraging students to analyze knowledge claims and explore knowledge questions. A knowledge claim is the assertion that “I/we know X” or “I/we know how to Y”, or a statement about knowledge; a knowledge question is an open question about knowledge. Students engage in daily discussions, prepare presentations relevant to course content, and write reflectively, creating a journal of their experiences in TOK. Regular written assignments, which prepare students for success in the formal assessments, are completed as homework and are checked regularly throughout the year.