The Theory of Knowledge

How We Know What We Claim to Know

IB attributes: thinkers, reflective, open-minded

At the “Core” of the Diploma Programme (DP), the Theory of Knowledge (TOK) course pushes students to reflect on knowledge — its production, transmission, and value — across the disciplines they study. Students survey knowledge-related matters and issues that in the sometime rush to cover content in their other courses might otherwise be overlooked. Such comparative study could focus on how a natural scientist’s methodology in obtaining evidence differs from that of an historian, or on the role of language in a social scientist’s attempt to test a hypothesis.

Some years ago, my Theory of Knowledge students aired their impatience with the steady diet of jargon fed to them in the course, some noting the dizzying array of acronyms in the DP at large. At the time, TOK proposed language as one of several “ways of knowing.” In their refreshing suspicion, students were embodying some of the learner profile’s attributes (e.g., thinkers, reflective).

Their reaction steered us toward a brief look at the ways in which language is sometimes used to deliberately obstruct knowledge, including a look at the case of a physicist’s bewildering foray into cultural studies — hardly social science’s finest hour! The physicist’s line of thought —and hoax —confirmed their instincts. We went on, however, to consider situations where a specialized language might, after all, prove desirable, even indispensable, such as surgical theatres or air-traffic control centres. Students were driven to second-guess their first impressions and, later, we discussed confirmation bias.

The TOK course takes an interest in all these foregoing matters (i.e., skepticism, language, truth, academic disciplines). In doing so, the course promotes the learner profile.

RAY LAWSON (PRE-U ’91), English & Theory of Knowledge Teacher