TOKX 2021

by Michael Bates - IB Diploma History and Psychology teacher and TOK Coordinator

Theory of Knowledge (TOK) is one of the three core elements of the IB Diploma Programme (along with CAS and the EE). It is a course that ‘explores questions about knowledge and the process of knowing...and encourages students to become more aware of their own perspectives and the perspectives of others.’ In essence, it is a course that develops critical thinking, perspective taking, and it provides a framework to link all of their academic subjects. 

Recently, Grade 11 students spent four weeks completing their Theory of Knowledge Exhibition. This is one of the two key assessments in TOK, and it is worth 33% of their final course grade. The TOK Exhibition is an opportunity for students to demonstrate their understanding of how TOK manifests in the world around us.

For this task, students create an exhibition of real-world ‘objects’ (or images of objects) and connect them to one of 35 challenging prompts prescribed by the IB such as:

• On what grounds might we doubt a claim?
• To what extent is certainty attainable?
• What constraints are there on the pursuit of knowledge?
• Does all knowledge impose ethical obligations on those who know it?
• Who owns knowledge?

A written commentary by the student accompanies each object, where they connect the prompt to TOK concepts and thematic issues. They are also encouraged to link their objects to their own experiences, and often use their personal and academic lives as springboards for their object choices.  

One requirement of the TOK Exhibition is to showcase the work of the students to a wider audience. While the current situation means we cannot invite the community to the campus to see the exhibition in person, we wanted to find a way to bring the exhibition to the community. In order to facilitate this, all student work from each class can be seen in our artsteps gallery titled TOKX@YIS 2021. Each set of objects includes audio from the student sharing their commentary with us. Head over to the site to check it out!