How many times have you heard your students ask ‘when will I ever use this in the real world?’ This is, of course, one of their favourite questions, along with, ‘is this going to be on the exam!?’ In truth, these are both important questions and essentially refer to the same thing: relevance. One asks ‘how important is this to me now?’ and the other asks ‘how important will it be in the future?’ So how can you make Theory of Knowledge relevant for your students?
We have brought you this new video series called ‘TOK-bites’ to help with your TOK teaching for the new syllabus. The series deconstructs the changes with guidance, hints and tips along the way from our expert Theory of Knowledge authors, Wendy Heydorn and Susan Jesudason.
In this third TOK-bite episode, they explain how to make TOK relevant to your learners, with a focus on maths, history and politics.
Make Theory of Knowledge relevant
Here is a summary of their tips on where to begin:
– Have students come up with their own examples about their interests
– Explore their perspectives and values
– Have students relate TOK concepts and knowledge questions to recent and specific world events
– Encourage students to challenge societal norms
– Enlist the help of subject teachers for relevant subject specific examples
If you have enjoyed this TOK-bite, go back and watch the previous video in the series. This video looked at a topic that we’ve already had many questions about: teaching the new core theme in TOK – the knowledge and the knower.
The next TOK-bite video will continue on the theme of making the subject relevant to students and focus on technology, reflection and the extended essay. Come back soon to see the next episode.
As well as creating this series of videos, we have developed brand new Cambridge Theory of Knowledge resources, to help you and your students with the course. Click the link to find out how our course guide and teacher’s resource can help you.
