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'ToK Foundations' : Our thoughts about the new Core Theme
Understanding the Core Theme
The new thematic approach to your ToK studies is designed to make your experience more engaging and coherent.
As you know, the course based on the ToK Subject Guide (2022) will be divided into THREE parts: Core Theme, Optional Themes and Areas of Knowledge.
While your understanding of the Core and Optional Themes are assessed through the new TOK Exhibition, the TOK Essay will assess your grasp of the AoKs. However, your experience of the Core and Optional Themes will provide a crucial grounding for your approach to the Essay.
The ToK Subject Guide (2022) replaces the old ‘Knowledge Framework’ with the new ‘four compulsory elements’: scope, perspectives, methods and tools and ethics. These are presented in the form of knowledge questions which are designed specifically for each theme of the course, as well as the study of the AOKs.
Here, we explain what we call the ‘ToK Foundations’. These key aspects of TOK encapsulate the main concepts and questions that should be involved in your studies of the Core Theme: ‘Knowledge and the Knower’.
We propose that within your Core Theme studies, there are SIX ‘Foundations’ that you will experience in your two year ToK journey. While they are presented here as separate aspects of the Core Theme, there will be some overlaps. The heading ‘Related Concepts’ signals the conceptual threads that link the different aspects of the Core Theme to create a strong foundation for your ToK assignments.
Foundation 1: Perspectives and Expertise
Given that knowledge is a pattern seeking activity, there is a gap between the mental maps we build and the reality to which these maps correspond. Each knower is limited in her connection to the world by her specific perspective on it. Qualifying oneself as an expert within a field of knowledge minimises the subjectivity of knowledge, providing us with an ability to produce/acquire knowledge more objectively.
Related TOK concepts: trust, confidence, bias, knowledge production/acquisition, knowing that & knowing how, perception/language, accuracy/reliability, subjectivity/objectivity
Foundation 2: Contexts of knowledge
Knowledge is never produced or acquired in a vacuum. There are always different real world pressures that determine the pursuit of knowledge, whether on a local, national or global scale. Individual geniuses can be at the heart of innovation and discovery of new knowledge, but this is the exception not the rule. Knowledge communities of experts and non-experts can have a huge impact on knowledge, shaped by the different cultures in which they operate.
Related TOK concepts: personal/shared knowledge, collaboration, interdisciplinary approaches, networks, different cultures
Foundation 3: Questioning & Methods
Asking the right questions is the root of pursuing knowledge. Framing questions as part of a specific methodology is part of the process of knowledge production and acquisition which increases the chances of reaching reliable conclusions. Not only this, but questioning also helps us to see beyond what we know now and imagine the impossible. The more rigorous our questioning, the greater the chance our knowledge will be robust.
Related TOK concepts: types of questioning, doubt/skepticism, scientific method, historical method, mathematical method, induction, deduction, models, language, analysis/synthesis, testing, verification/falsification, confirmation/refutation
Foundation 4: Truth & Justification
Understanding the nature of ‘truth’ and its relationship to ‘justification’ is important as part of the basis of why we know what we know. Tied closely to Foundation 3, the nature of using evidence and how it is handled in justifying knowledge claims is essential to the ToK project. We would like to think that the more ‘evidence-based’ or 'justified' our claims are, the more ‘true’ they’re likely to be. However, this would undermine the insights offered into human nature given by more non-evidence based religious or indigenous knowledge claims.
Related TOK concepts: justification, argument, credibility, plausibility, feasibility, facts/beliefs, truth tests, explanation/description, qualitative/quantitative evidence, reason/perception, faith/intuition, stories/facts
Foundation 5: Application & Value of knowledge
There is always a tension between pursuing knowledge for its own sake and pursuing knowledge so that it can be used to benefit humanity and our environment. This issue is closely linked to two related issues: a/ the ethical dimension of knowledge in different fields and b/ the value of knowledge. The former raises questions as to whether or not the public should be protected from some kinds of knowledge, whereas the latter overlaps with Foundation 4 relating to how we determine its truth.
Related TOK concepts: Theoretical/practical knowledge, value, measuring value
Foundation 6: Change & Limits of knowledge
The way in which innovations and discoveries work to generate new knowledge from old is important to explore. Knowledge tends either to evolve gradually as experts question and refine existing ideas, or to change through revolutionary breakthroughs in how we think or do the job of pursuing knowledge. On the one hand, the notion of change highlights whether or not we can measure it in terms of progress. On the other hand, it underlines how we are able to go beyond the frontiers of what we already know.
Related TOK concepts: paradigm shifts, creativity/imagination, memory, progress/regress of knowledge, evolutionary/revolutionary change
Sample Review
Key points
Key Notes
Sample TOK Essay Guide
A new look Guide for ToK 2022
The ToK Essay
The rules for the planning and drafting of the Essay are clearly laid out in the new ToK Subject Guide (2022).
Just remember to read the Sample Review notes above before clicking the tabs below.
'ToK Transitions' : Our thoughts about the new ToK Exhibition
The Principles of the ToK Exhibition
While this aspect of the ToK course is an assessment, it’s designed so that you can engage in a personal adventure with knowledge as it manifests itself in the real world. Everyday, familiar objects bind us to our wider environments but we usually take this connection for granted or simply don’t see it.
Your work in the Exhibition is to highlight and explore how objects encapsulate aspects of knowledge through the lens of your studies in the Core and Optional. Your 950 word commentary is a response to one of 35 prompts, in which you present your thoughts and ideas about the importance of these connections in the wider universe of knowledge.
The above tabs help make sense of what to do, so let’s go through the requirements for the ToK Exhibition methodically...
Part 1: Choice of prompt
Whichever prompt you decide to explore, try to ensure it connects to an aspect of the Core Theme or Optional Theme.
Tip: the Guide ‘strongly recommends’ your object links to either the Core or one of the Optional Themes – it could, in principle, link to BOTH or more than just ONE Optional Theme.
Part 2: Choice of objects
‘Object’ is defined very broadly and could lead to some problems. Firstly, bear in mind that it can be a ‘physical’ or ‘digital’ object. If you use a digital image, reference it correctly at the end of the commentary.
Tip: you must only use ‘pre-existing’ objects. You shouldn’t create an object specially for the ToK Exhibition. You can use objects you created yourself for other purposes, like your EE or a sculpture you created in your Arts course.
Part 3: Connection to ‘Real-world context’
Objects have to ‘exist in a particular time and place (including virtual spaces)’. This means that while your experience of white water rafting can’t be an object, the photo of you doing it and the write up you posted on social media can count as an object. Similarly, while ‘religion’ can’t be an object, an actual edition (or photo) of your grandmother’s well-used copy of the Bhagavad Gita does count as an object.
Tip: it’s probably easier to make the connection between the object and its real world context, if the object is personal to you. Ordinary, familiar objects can encapsulate aspects of self-knowledge and/or shared knowledge about the world around you. Such objects ground you in the world, connect you implicitly to the knowledge landscape outside you. Your job in the Exhibition is to make that connection explicit.
Part 4: Justification of choice
In TOK, ‘justification’ is a key technical term and has two overlapping aspects. Firstly, it means using EVIDENCE to support your statements about HOW your object links to the Core/Optional theme. Secondly, it means building a rationale – a series of REASONS – to explain why you think what you think in developing your explanations.
Tip: to avoid responding to the prompt in a purely abstract, descriptive way, you might wish to choose your objects FIRST and then find a prompt that allows you to explore the objects’ TOK related significance.
Part 5 The Commentary
Your reflections on the prompt will take the form of a 950 commentary. This isn’t much, especially if you consider that you have to explain how each object ties in with your chosen prompt. While there’s no need, like in the essay, to build claims and counter claims, your approach should be as analytic and evaluative as possible. The use of the various ToK technical terms you’ll learn throughout your studies of the Core and Optional Themes will be useful when writing your commentary: ‘perspective’, ‘truth’, testing’…(See our thoughts on the ToK Foundations above).
Tip: The Guide doesn’t suggest a ‘right way’ to present your commentary, save for the upper limit of 950 words and the need for a list of references for the sources you use to develop your thinking. You’ll see in the Sample Review below that one possible approach is to write about 300 words exploring each object separately. Whatever strategy you take in writing the commentary, ensure that you follow a methodical approach that addresses each of the FOUR Parts described in this guide…
Part 6 General Notes
1/ The TOK Exhibition assesses your grasp of the Core and Optional Themes. This doesn’t mean that you can’t refer to ideas and theories you came across in your Science or History studies. It just means you can’t make the H/N Sciences or History the main FOCUS of your commentary discussion.
2/ Remember that everything you write in the commentary needs to be focused on two things:
a/ HOW your object encapsulates an aspect of KNOWLEDGE that connects to some aspect of your studies of the Core/Optional Themes.
b/ HOW this link provides a relevant response to the actual prompt.
The ToK Exhibition
The new ToK Subject Guide (2022) provides key information about the procedures for developing your ToK Exhibition Commentary.
Adapting to a new form of assessment can be worrying, especially when it carries 33% of your overall ToK Marks.
The following links will give you a clear snapshot of how we can help make the whole process more accessible and less stressful. Before you read on, please take note of the Sample Review notes.
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