Theory of Knowledge (TOK)
TOK is a one-semester course that every IB student has to take for both years in order to acquire their diploma. It’s pretty hit or miss. Some students love it, some students hate it, and in rare cases such as myself, some students are completely ambivalent towards it. To sum it up, TOK is a class that teaches you about knowledge, though there is very little teaching. Students are introduced to some key TOK topics and then the majority of the class is based around discussion. These key topics are the Areas of Knowledge (AOKs) and Ways of Knowing (WOKs). Yes, those are another two acronyms you have to remember. AOKs are the different fields of study and WOKs are the different ways through which knowledge is acquired. Their specifics are detailed in the images below. These two concepts are what all of your work in TOK will be focused around. I say “all of your work” but there really isn’t much of it. Outside of the two major projects that you conduct over the course of two years, TOK is a very light course. Most of the time you’ll enter class, have a discussion, and then leave. It's a pretty stress-free experience as long as you are able to ignore the TOK project that is looming in the background. So what are these two projects? Well, I’m glad you asked. They are the TOK presentation and the TOK essay.
TOK Presentation
The TOK presentation is your one assignment for Junior year. It involves you creating and presenting a project for 10 minutes. You can do it on your own or with a peer, but keep in mind that it is 10 minutes per person. Your presentation should be on a real life situation (RLS) and how it relates to the core TOK concepts. Once you have outlined your RLS, AOKs, and WOKs, you can form a knowledge question to guide your project. From that point, you can use the knowledge question to form a few claims and counterclaims. The TOK language might make this sound incredibly confusing, but your teacher should make it all much more clear (it is your only assignment of the year, after all). But if not, there are a few links below that give a much more thorough explanation.
TOK Essay
The TOK essay is a fairly hefty, 1,600-word paper you have to write during your senior year. Every year, IB releases a new set of prompts on which the TOK essays can be written. There are a few you get to choose from and they are all fairly vague. Once you have chosen your guiding topic, you select two AOKs that you will explore in relation to said topic as well as a few WOKs. You also should relate each AOK back to an RLS. Once you have these selected, you can make a knowledge question and begin writing. The essay will generally consist of you answering your knowledge question as it relates to the two AOKs with RLSs as evidence. My essay was written on differentiating between change and progress in relation to Natural Science and Ethics. My RLSs served as examples of change without progress in each of these fields. The requirements are not very strict, and the structure of the essay is essentially up to you. That being said, it is always helpful to look at the student examples and the rubric.