Investigating PT6 – Helpful Biases?
A detailed interpretation of TOK prescribed title 6, including the question whether or not biases might sometimes serve a positive role in the knowledge process
Investigating PT5 – Meta-Investigations
Exploring how PT3 maintains that the most useful aspect of the categorization scheme of developing distinct “areas of knowledge” lies in its potential of combining them.
Investigating PT4 – All Lies?
TOK Essay PT3 and the implications of the subjective aspects of the acts of “concealment” and “revelation” that lie at the heart of the claim.
Investigating PT3 – Systemic Constraints?
A detailed interpretation of TOK prescribed title 3 while highlighting helpful ideas for the structure and related resources for a successful TOK essay.
Investigating PT2 – Change vs. Progress
Exploring vital nuances and identifying key concepts associated with TOK prescribed title 2 while highlighting different aspects of the notion of “progress” associated with any given change.
Investigating PT1 – An Element of Trust
Unpacking TOK prescribed title 1 by identifying key concepts and nuances while highlighting a number of concrete approaches for an excellent TOK essay.
Autism and Scientific Beliefs
Prof. Uta Frith, UCL, describes how the hypothesis that childhood vaccines are linked to autism, while initially plausible, was subjected to rigorous scientific testing and found to be false.
Musical Illusions
To what extent is the popularity of a procedure related to its validity? In Musical Illusions, Prof. Diana Deutsch describes how the celebrated Octave Illusion can be directly applied to the wold of clinical medicine.
A Supreme Example
Professor Brian Epstein on how modifying our assumptions of the social world can result in more valid models of human behaviour.
Knowledge and Religion
TOK In Action: historian of religion Nile Green, UCLA, describes the profound disconnect he experienced between what he had read about Sufism and what he personally encountered when he began to visit Sufi shrines.
A Body of Information
A real-world example of the overlap between TOK and computer science featuring quantum computer pioneer Prof. Artur Ekert, University of Oxford & National University of Singapore.
Knowledge and Technology
Neuroscientist Jennifer Groh, Duke University, describes a real-world example of how technology can be used to provide evidence for theories in the natural sciences.
ADHD medication on non-ADHD subjects
Research ideas following studies that have been done in psychology of the effects of ADHD medication on non-ADHD subjects featuring Prof. Stephen Hinshaw, UC Berkeley.
Knowledge and Politics
TOK Sampler Knowledge and Politics features Prof. Brian Epstein, Tuft University, examining how observation of political behaviour might be able to invalidate our political models.
Knowledge and Language
Get a preview of Ideas Roadshow’s new TOK Sampler called Knowledge & Language which has been created to support one of the new optional themes featuring linguist Prof. Carol Padden, UC San Diego.
Narrowing Differences
A real-world example of the relevance of TOK-related thinking in biology and economics featuring Prof. Frans de Waal, Emory University.
Knowledge and Indigenous Societies
Learn about one of the new optional themes by watching an excerpt from Ideas Roadshow’s new TOK Sampler ‘Knowledge & Indigenous Societies’ featuring Carol Dweck, Stanford University.
Mindsets and Cultural Factors
Carol Dweck describes why our appreciation of the key distinction between a growth and fixed mindset needs to be presented in a way that specifically resonates with particular cultural values.
A Worrying Lack of Evidence
The real-world relevance of theory of knowledge principles in today’s pandemic highlighted by an insightful article by epidemiologist Dr John Ioannidis, Stanford University.
The Role of Reflection in the Extended Essay
Guest author Alethea Bleyberg, member of the EE curriculum review team, shares her thoughts on the role of reflection in the EE process.