The Theory of knowledge course, situated as it is in the centre of the DP hexagon, provides students with an “interactive key” to unlocking the floodgates of knowledge itself by employing a liberal arts approach while eschewing an over-reliance on the traditional research-based information acquisition model. Encouraging students to think critically about the nature of knowledge, the course helps students to synthesize and process the myriad stimuli of the world around them, acknowledging all the while that they are the actual “knowers” in the process. Ultimately, the students will come to perceive the importance of their own responsibility as they come to an understanding of the dynamic inter-relationship between themselves and the world to which they are ethically and morally tied.

Students will come to embrace the Theory of Knowledge classroom as a safe environment which promotes openness and allows a freedom for their own exploration not typically found in the more traditional, didactic, classroom setting. The unique TOK process calls upon the student to adopt a wider perspective beyond the mere acquisition of knowledge, instead coaxing them to inquire what they can claim to know about various topics; what knowledge is, and what its limits are; and to consider such notions as that of knowledge as a commodity. Students will develop a pronounced appreciation for the sheer breadth and depth of knowledge, a greater awareness of how its constructed, examined, and reviewed; and a recognition of its ability to empower those who wield (possess/implement) it. Critical analysis of claims and assumptions; consideration of explanations, conjectures, and hypotheses; and demonstrations of differing perspectives combined with manifestations of a more personal, self-aware response to knowledge issues will enhance the students’ capacity for life-long learning and critical thinking skills.

International mindedness: Theory of Knowledge will promote internationalism by encouraging students to embrace critical thinking as means of exploring global topics. Furthermore, the course will utilize sources from around the world. While the selection of texts and stimuli from other cultures will be central to the presentation of the course, the most significant international component will be the fostering of a perspective consistent with the I.B. Mission Statement and Learner Profile. The documents imply that good education is moral education, and that moral education promotes thinking. The morality of an education that values thinking over knowing does not devalue knowing, it simply recognizes that a heightened imagination serves as the single most indispensable tool for constructing a universe of possibilities from which we can survey the world of reality. Education is fundamentally about seeing not merely what is, but what was and what might be. Such a perspective allows one to operate from a perspective that is not steeped in the prejudice of present perception. The more students form judgements without prejudice, concurrent with judgements emanating from a sincere effort to know, the more they can come to see the binding power of humanity and the commonality of experience. This constitutes the core of international education.