ToK Survival Kit by Ouriel Reshef
ToK Expert Ouriel Reshef has kindly offered his ToK Survival Kit for free to all ToK Teachers.
This Kit is amazing !
This Kit is amazing !
“The best explanation of ToK that I have ever seen”
Ouriel writes:
Typically, there are two ways for teachers to be inducted into TOK, and to perdure in the course beyond its first year.
On the one hand, for the vast majority, there is a nagging question about how a TOK lesson even looks like, and what should be done in the classroom next Friday. IB Exchange, and all IB help sites, are offering plenty of suggestions to choose from and provide a hands-on access to TOK. To some extent, they can all be tagged as “applied TOK”.
On the other hand, since TOK is explicitly conceived as a conceptual course which explores second order questions about knowledge (TOK Guide), one may search, and search unsuccessfully, for a conceptual induction to the course – which may be tagged as “pure” or “fundamental TOK”. While the many TOK textbooks available provide guidance to students, there is still lacking such a TOK textbook for teachers, seeking to provide the fundamental understanding of the course and its intricacies. This is what this Survival Kit aims to do. Download it FREE !
Being appointed to teach TOK is the starting point of a scramble to figure out what one needs to KNOW before stepping into the classroom. The TOK concepts, the knowledge framework, the themes and the AOKs are often undecipherable as being outside the academic expertise of the subject teacher. This Survival Kit gathers in one place the results of 20 years of teaching and breathing TOK, reflecting on the various components of the course, and seeking to lead an “epistemic life”, and embody the IB “life-long learner” ideal. It also collates in one place references to multiple articles and books, most of which are available online and can be freely downloaded if the wish to go deeper is arising.
It is offered as a legacy, so that the “TOK flame” may perdure. If teachers, new and weathered, can find in it some inspiration, it will be my reward.
A famous Jewish Kabbalistic tradition refers to “Tzimtzum” – God created the world by shrinking himself to make space for his creation. I was always fascinated by this idea that even God had to withdraw in order for the world to exist, though some residual traces of divinity can be detected in the world. But we humans can’t withdraw from our creations. This Kit still very much bears the imprint of my paw and much more than residual traces of myself. After all, we teach who we are, and the Kit displays my own idiosyncrasies and preferences, my own intellectual curiosity, and my own path in the rich tapestry of TOK.
