Senior School | International Baccalaureate

Theory of knowledge (TOK) plays a special role in the International Baccalaureate
(IB) Diploma Programme, by providing an opportunity for students to reflect on the
nature of knowledge and on how we know what we claim to know.

TOK is structured as a thoughtful and purposeful inquiry into different ways of
knowing, and into different kinds of knowledge. TOK is composed almost entirely
of questions. The most central of these is "How do we know?", while other questions include:

• What counts as evidence for X?
• How do we judge which is the best model of Y?
• What does theory Z mean in the real world?

Through discussions of these and other questions, students gain greater awareness
of their personal and ideological assumptions, as well as developing an appreciation of the diversity and richness of cultural perspectives.