Theory of Knowlege document for the presentation of of TOK projects in IBDB.

1. Category 2: TOK
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2013
International Baccalaureate ® | Baccalauréat International ® | Bachillerato Internacional ®

2. Session 9: Assessment of the TOK
Presentation

3. Aims of this session
• To examine the nature of the TOK Presentation
• To understand the central place for knowledge questions
in the presentation
• To understand the nature of the presentation assessment
instrument
• To practice using the assessment instrument on an actual
student presentation

4. TOK: a two-level dialogue

5. What counts as a good real-life situation for a
presentation?
• A local controversy whose origins are a knowledge
question
• A controversial issue within an area of knowledge
• A controversial personal issue – such as the basis for
decisionmaking
• A controversial issue of global significance

6. The real-life situation should be narrow
enough to be explored within the time
allowed for the presentation
• Avoid wide topics – such as ‘string theory’
• Avoid topics that are too generic – such as ‘abortion’ or ‘stem
cell research’
• If in doubt try a measurement problem – ‘is it possible to
measure X’ where X could be some social variable (degree of
democratic accountability, emotional intelligence etc.)
• If still in doubt examine the basis for a causal claim such as
‘drinking coffee makes you twice as likely to develop stomach
cancer’. Tabloid newspapers are good sources for these sort of
claims.

8. Real-Life Situation
Other Real-Life
Situation
Other Real-Life
Situation
Knowledge Issue
(recognized)
Knowledge Issue(s)
(developed)
extraction
progression
Theory of Knowledge: Presentation Structure

9. Why do conspiracy
theories exist?
People believe
what’s
most appealing
Conspiracy
Different
Interpretations of
the same facts
Biases affecting
conclusions
drawn
Death of
Benazir Bhutto
Death of
JFK
Da Vinci
Code
Conclusions
(meandering,
loss of
progression)
?
“…bias, interpretation, ignorance…”
“…virgin, terrorist, nepotism…”

10. How far is science
limited in finding out
reality?
Documentary on
the Large
Hadron Collider
Limits of Science
Definitions of
science
Definition of
reality
Nature of
scientific
method
“…microscope, Kurt Gödel, HIV…”
“…hypothesis, induction, predictability, experimentation, axioms…”
Role of
technology in
science
Limits of human
sensory perception
Colour
illusions
Problems of
inductive reasoning
Differences
between ‘how’ and ‘why’
questions
Dynamic change
Incompatibility
between scientific
and moral claims
Situations not
amenable to experimentation
Astronomy
History
the past is
beyond our grasp
Mathematics
Axioms must be
taken for granted
Human sciences
Human behaviour
is unpredictable
Gödel’s
theorem
Successes
of science?
Medicine
HIV treatment
Replicates
in science…
???

11. Question underpinning the global impression
judgment of the TOK essay
Main
question
• Do(es) the presenter(s) succeed in
showing how TOK concepts can have
practical application?
Has the
student...
• Described clearly the real-life situation that forms the launching point for the presentation?
• Extracted and clearly formulated a single knowledge question from the real-life situation?
• Identified and explored various perspectives in relation to the knoweldge question, and deployed
examples and arguments in the service of this exploration?
• Related the findings of, and insights from, the analysis back to the chosen real-life situation and
showed how they might be relevant to other real-life situations?

13. Presentation Preparation Document
• Describe your real life situation
• State your central knowledge question (this must be
expressed as a question)
• Explain the connection between your real life situation
and your knowledge question
• Outline how you intend to develop your presentation, with
respect to perspectives, subsidiary knowledge questions,
arguments, etc. Responses below can be presented in
continuous prose, bullet point, or diagrammatic form.
• Show how your conclusions have significance for your
real life situation and beyond

17. The student presentation
• Award a mark out of 10 to the presentation using the
presentation assessment instrument
• What advice would you give the presenters to improve
their presentation if this were a practice presentation?