Spotlight on: Theory of Knowledge

15 November 2019

This article first appeared in Queenwood News Weekly 15 November 2019. 

‘There’s so much information out there, I just don’t know what to believe’.

Over the last few decades, we have created and consumed increasing amounts of knowledge. Libraries stored vast quantities of books and journals, radio and television transmitted events from around the world into our front rooms and most recently the Internet put all of that and more into our pockets. We now have access to literally everything. But what exactly is this knowledge?

The Theory of Knowledge course, a compulsory part of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme available to Years 11 & 12 students, tries to answer this question by exploring different forms of knowledge and the differing ways that we acquire it. It is a challenging course and students quickly feel like they are going down a rabbit hole as they start to question everything they thought they knew. Fortunately, over the two years of the course they learn the skills to enable them to climb their way back out.

An early activity for students is often to sketch a map of the world from memory. Why not try it yourself before reading on? The chances are that you drew Australia first and fairly well, followed by western Europe in some detail and then the rest of the continents starting with North America in declining degrees of accuracy. In class, when we compare drawings, it is obvious that each one is different, demonstrating how we create our own personal knowledge from knowledge created by others. We change and distort this knowledge through a range of cultural and political biases we all have, based on our personal experiences. Did you remember Greenland, the world’s largest island at over 2 million square kilometres? No? But I bet you remembered Great Britain, an island a tenth of the size. From this task comes the fundamental understanding that most, perhaps all, knowledge is affected by the perspective of its creator and its consumer.

From this starting point, students consider eight ‘ways of knowing’ to help them analyse possible perceptual biases. For instance, we use sense perception to directly engage with the world, but we know that our senses can deceive us. We use language to record and communicate knowledge, but words can often be misinterpreted. Reason is traditionally the way of preventing this, but have you tried applying this to a work of art? For this, you need imagination, intuition and emotion. Memory is crucial for storing knowledge but new memories are formed through attachment to old ones, but we are surely aware of the flaws in this system. Finally we tackle faith, a complex and thought-provoking way of knowing which tackles the biggest questions of life and which has many interpretations.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of the course is the study of various areas of knowledge in a far more profound way than found in traditional schooling. Think of the word ‘mathematics’. What comes to mind? A dizzying array of numbers and symbols? A textbook full of endless exercises? A mathematician would likely say that mathematics is a study of pattern, expressed in a systemized and symbolic way, entirely abstract and without context. Some might say it is the language of the universe, which begs the more philosophical question ‘is mathematics a human invention or are we just discovering what is already there?’. Yet another rabbit hole to go down, but a wonderfully interesting one for all involved.

The course is assessed through an oral presentation on a topic of their choice as well as an essay chosen from a small set assigned by the IB examiners. In both, students concentrate on analysing how knowledge is created, used and shared rather than discussing specific issues within a given topic. This unusual approach is highly challenging, but the resulting presentations and essays always demonstrate a sophisticated level of critical thinking more commonly found in universities than high schools.

Mr Simon Townley
Year 11 Coordinator & Wellbeing Coordinator