How To Integrate TOK Into Lessons

By Charlotte Nicholas

It was really great to have the opportunity on INSET Day to speak a little more about TOK and critical thinking in our subjects. More often than not we are ‘doing TOK’ in our lessons but it would be fantastic if we were more explicit in our practice. This blog post aims to give you some suggestions on how to bring TOK into your teaching; from Year 7, all the way through to Year 13.

In order to ensure that our inclusion of TOK is consistent, It is crucial for us to have a shared knowledge of what TOK is. Below is a screenshot of the TOK specification. One suggestion of how to fit TOK into your lessons could be to use the It knowledge framework as a way of framing questions, for instance; which perspectives are involved in the arts? Are some perspectives more valid than others? Why? What methods do mathematicians use to make mathematical claims? What is the scope of language, can it be independent of knowledge?

One misconception with TOK is that it is the same as philosophy or ethics as this is included in the knowledge framework. It is important not to fall into the TOK trap of conflating these different subjects (although they are closely related). An ethical question may consider what is right or wrong or attempt to make moral judgements whereas TOK would consider which approaches might exist towards an ethical dilemma, what knowledge has informed these approaches and the role that knowledge plays in people’s perspectives and actions towards ethical issues E.g. As knowers, do we have a moral duty to examine our own biases and assumptions? Are there situations where ignorance/lack of knowledge is an excuse for unethical behaviour? It would be great to see more of us bringing TOK into our classrooms. Below are some suggestions of what you could do to include it more explicitly and meaningfully. I look forward to hearing from you about how this goes and how students respond!

• Apply Michael’s idea of bringing in a current affairs / news article into your lesson and getting students to approach it from a TOK lens. Please see Michael’s slides here.

• Apply Michael’s idea of starting with a misconception / finding out what students already know. E.g. What moral values do you think scientists have?

• Ask students provoking questions using the TOK concepts; certainty, truth, explanation, culture, evidence, justification, power, perspective, values, objectivity, responsibility and interpretation. How has your culture affected your perspective? Do you think the fact we have discussed is objective? Is religion the only place that faith plays a role?

• Use objects in your teaching (students use objects in their TOK exhibition). For instance, get students to consider how objects link to your specific discipline and the knowledge within it. What can this phrenological skull tell you about historical knowledge and scientific knowledge?

• Consider the content you are teaching from a different perspective -- How about if we asked the same question to an indigenous community? How about if we asked this question to a religious / non-religious group?

• Encourage students to consider themselves as ‘knowers’ and use phrases like ‘experts’ ‘ ‘community of knowers’ etc.

• Subscribe to Michael’s newsletter at Theoryofknowledge.net and frame your thinking in a TOK way more frequently.

• Mention TOK or critical thinking explicitly and use the TOK logo whenever you are doing some TOK thinking to get students to think explicitly about it.

• Discuss the methodology in your subjects with students to help them understand how knowledge is formed in your area. E.g. Why do historians’ views change over time? How do scientists ensure their work is accurate? Is only the artist's intended interpretation of their art the only valid view?

• Stay up to date with the yearly TOK essay titles (see below) -- discuss with students how you would approach them from your perspective / with your expertise.

Finally, it would be excellent to welcome staff to the TOK Exhibition event on Wednesday 22nd June 5pm-7pm. This will be a fantastic opportunity to learn more about what students have been doing in TOK and in order to probe their thinking further with your expertise. Thanks for reading and happy TOK’ing!