Core
Theory of Knowledge
TOK asks how we know what we know. This covers the exhibition, the essay, and the knowledge questions behind both.
1. The TOK toolkit
The core moves of the whole course: what a knowledge question is, the framework you use to explore any topic, and the twelve concepts that thread through it.
TKN — What TOK is
What is theory of knowledge? — TOK steps back from what you know to ask how you know it, and how reliable that knowledge is.
Knowledge questions — Open, contestable questions about knowledge itself, drawing on TOK concepts rather than the facts of one subject.
Shared and personal knowledge — The knowledge a community builds together versus the knowledge you hold as an individual, and how they feed each other.
TKF — The knowledge framework
Scope — What an area or theme covers, the questions it can answer, and where its limits lie.
Perspectives — How viewpoint, time and culture shape knowledge, including your own position as a knower.
Methods and tools — The concepts, tools and practices a community uses to produce and check its knowledge.
Ethics — The ethical questions bound up in how knowledge is produced, shared and used.
TKC — The twelve concepts
The twelve core concepts — Evidence, certainty, truth, interpretation, power, justification, explanation, objectivity, perspective, culture, values and responsibility.
2. Core theme: Knowledge and the knower
The compulsory theme. It turns the lens on you: who you are as a knower, the communities you belong to, and the values and biases you bring to what you claim to know.
CKW — You as a knower
Who is the knower? — Every piece of knowledge is held by someone; your identity, background and experience shape what and how you know.
How we come to know — The mix of first-hand experience, other people, culture and reason through which knowledge reaches you.
CKC — Communities of knowers
Communities and consensus — Most of what you know is inherited from communities that build, test and agree on knowledge together.
Experts and authority — Why we lean on experts, when that trust is justified, and how to judge authority critically.
CKB — Values, assumptions and bias
Assumptions and values — The unexamined beliefs and values that quietly steer which questions we ask and which answers we accept.
Cognitive bias — Systematic ways our thinking departs from accuracy, and why they matter for any knowledge claim.
3. Optional themes
You study two of these five in class. Each takes the knowledge framework into a distinct context where knowledge is created, contested and used.
OTECH — Knowledge and technology
Knowledge and technology — How digital tools, data and algorithms change what counts as knowledge, who produces it and how it spreads.
OLANG — Knowledge and language
Knowledge and language — How the language we use shapes, enables and limits the knowledge we can build and share.
OPOL — Knowledge and politics
Knowledge and politics — How power, ideology and interest shape which knowledge is produced, believed and acted on.
OREL — Knowledge and religion
Knowledge and religion — How religious knowledge systems make claims, and how faith, tradition and interpretation relate to knowing.
OIND — Knowledge and indigenous societies
Knowledge and indigenous societies — How indigenous knowledge is held, passed on and validated, often through community, place and practice.
4. Areas of knowledge
The five broad ways humans organise knowledge. Each is explored through the same framework: scope, perspectives, methods and tools, and ethics.
AHIS — History
History — The systematic study of the recorded past, built from interpreting traces that are always incomplete.
AHSC — The human sciences
The human sciences — Studying people and societies with methods adapted to subjects who think, change and know they are studied.
ANSC — The natural sciences
The natural sciences — Building explanatory, testable knowledge of the physical world through observation, experiment and theory.
AMAT — Mathematics
Mathematics — Knowledge built by proof from axioms, unusually certain yet strikingly useful in describing the world.
AART — The arts
The arts — How art can carry knowledge and meaning, and what makes that knowledge different from the sciences.
5. The TOK exhibition (internal assessment)
The internal assessment. Three real objects and a written commentary show how TOK works in the world around you, all anchored to one internal assessment prompt.
EXW — What the exhibition is
Overview and requirements — An internal task: three objects plus a commentary of about 950 words, tied to one prompt, marked by your teacher.
The internal assessment prompts — You answer exactly one of 35 fixed prompts, each a knowledge question, chosen without changing the wording.
EXB — Building the exhibition
Choosing your three objects — Pick three specific, real objects with a clear real-world context, each making a different point about the prompt.
Writing the commentary — For each object, identify it, give its real-world context, and justify what it shows about your chosen prompt.
Structure and word count — A short intro, three object paragraphs of roughly equal length, and a brief conclusion, about 950 words total.
EXA — How it is assessed
The assessment instrument — One holistic question: does the exhibition clearly link three objects to a prompt with strong justification?
Common mistakes — Generic objects, weak links to the prompt, describing instead of justifying, and no real-world context.
6. The TOK essay (external assessment)
The external assessment. A 1600-word essay on one of six prescribed titles, exploring a knowledge question across areas of knowledge with argument, counter-argument and real examples.
ESW — What the essay is
Overview and requirements — An external task: up to 1600 words on one of six prescribed titles, marked by an IB examiner.
The prescribed titles — Six titles are set for each session; you must answer one exactly as worded for the correct session.
ESB — Planning and writing
Unpacking the title — Read the title as a knowledge question: define its key terms and decide the areas of knowledge you will explore.
Real-life situations — Specific, real examples that ground your claims; chosen for how well they illuminate the title, not for interest alone.
Structuring the essay — Introduction, two developed areas of knowledge with argument and counter-argument, and a conclusion that answers the title.
ESA — How it is assessed
The assessment instrument — One holistic question: is this a clear, coherent and critical exploration of the title, linked to the areas of knowledge?
Common mistakes — Ignoring the title, drifting off the areas of knowledge, generalising without examples, and describing rather than evaluating.