Teaching: What the heck is Theory of Knowledge?

The first of those two (that I’ll only refer to superficially) it’s also known as “Epistemology”, although many authors would not agree that they are the same thing. The word Epistemology comes from the greek ἐπιστήμη "knowledge"or “wisdom” and λόγος "logical discourse". In simple words, it means a philosophical study of the nature of knowledge.

The second meaning of the term (the one we’re interested in for the sake of the post), as I said, refers to a very special subject that belongs to a very special curriculum: the Diploma Programme of the International Baccalaureate. Said programme was created in 1968 and since then taughts pupils between the ages of 16 and 19, it's being implemented in over 4,500 schools around the globe.

This means that the general goal of this subject focuses on the examination, analysis, explanation and interpretation of the ways in which we know. The pupils must ask themselves a series of questions that invites them to inquire about human knowledge. These questions are called knowledge questions: “How is knowledge possible?”, “on which grounds?”, “under which assumptions lies a knowledge?”, “how can we establish what it means to have a ‘valid’ knowledge?”, “in which contexts?”... But the most important of them all: How do I/we know”.

Most of the time we take knowledge for granted, we think knowledge is a type of mechanical process that just happens, we don’t ask ourselves about how it happens. We assume that we know instead of thinking we know. And believe me, there is a fair amount of things we think we know, we just don’t know it yet ;) (seewhatIdidthere)

Unlike most academic subjects, that aim to the learning of a group of specific knowledge, “Theory of Knowledge” is a course dedicated to critical thinking and inquiring into the process of knowing. That’s why is question based.

The first thing I ask my students is: "What do you know? Tell me something you know". At first they giggle because they find that question so obvious!, but some of them actually find it hard to pick amongst all the things they know (or think they know). Sometimes I lead with an example and say: "I know my name. That’s something I know. Does everyone here knows their name?" They all giggle and nod. Then I ask them what is a name, how do we know our name, what makes us claim that one is our name and not another, where does the knowledge of our names come from, how do we access it, etc.

The first distinction we make at TOK (let’s call it that from now on) is between “personal knowledge” and “shared knowledge”.

Personal knowledge encloses all of those abilities, skills, capacities (or even feelings, ideas, opinions) that we’ve acquired from our own individual subjective experiences, routines, any type of training or even formal education, and that we find so difficult to effectively communicate to others.

Shared knowledge, on the other hand, refers to a pile of knowledge that are obtained, interexchanged and connected to more than one individual (communities, families, groups, etc.) and serves as foundation to the structuring of a shared experience of the world.

Some of our personal experiences are, to a large extent, shared. And a great deal of our shared knowledge makes the growth of our personal knowledge possible.

Knowledge comes from somewhere, and that is why the TOK syllabus identifies 8 ways in which we humans obtain knowledge. These are the “Ways of Knowing” :

These sources of knowledge usually work simultaneously. For example: it is not possible to know something with our senses if we can’t remember what they helped us perceive; sense perception and memory work together. It is the TOK pupil’s (we also call them knowers)) responsability to ask themselves in what way do WoK (Ways of Knowing) operate both individually and jointly to help us obtain knowledge.

WoK's constitute a starting point to the conformation of personal knowledge, but they also allow us to organise and systematise it in Areas of Knowledge. TOK identifies 8 of them:

Each area has particular and diverse objectives, limitations, motivations, importance, implementations, methods, and historical developments and, as you might have noticed, they make up for a type of shared knowledge. So, in order for Maths or Sciences to be able to call themselves “areas of knowledge”, they must establish from which perspectives they will organise and systematise the knowledge they produce.

Now that we’re at it, one of the key concepts to understand the way in which human beings relate to and because of knowledge is the idea of perspective. Perspective allows us to relate to “the other”, it’s what helps us shape an idea of the world, and it’s higly influenced by all of our shared and personal knowledge. This concept is essential to the TOK analysis.

The TOK course encourages the pupils to embrace their role as “knowers” so they can be able to examine their own perspectives, assumptions, knowledge claims and behaviours from different points of view. In this way they can expand on their critical, creative and inquiring abilities, and they can learn to face the world in a more honest and reflective way, with open mindedness.