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What is TOK?
The International Baccalaureate believes that you are taking a program of study rather than separate courses of specific subject matter isolated from one another. The goal of TOK is to help students see the links between the disciplines as well as discover their ability to critically examine all subject areas from the perspective of how knowledge is acquired.
TOK is an inquiry-based course designed to examine the origins, methods, and validity of the various claims of knowledge in our society. This includes a variety of types of knowledge as well as what you will come to know as the many “Ways of Knowing”. Simply put, TOK is an opportunity for you to consider the following…
“How do we know what we claim to know,  if we know anything at all?”
TOK is a student-centered discussion course with an emphasis on critical reflection on many different knowledge claims (personal, cultural, political, etc) as well as our own view of the world and the prior ideas of what that entails. This is in contrast to more traditional courses where the teacher is present to convey specific information to the students. There may not be a right or wrong answer to many of the questions that we will consider, but rather it is important that you are considering the question at all.
As a TOK student we will ask you to begin to understand the difference between knowledge and belief, assumptions and justification, truth and pretense. Above all, we will ask you to first listen, maintain an open-mind, critically and creatively think, and finally share. TOK is a course in which participation will benefit you more than you will ever realize. Allow yourself to communicate, grow, and become a valuable member of our community, because that is what we will become.
Contrary to popular belief, TOK is not a philosophy course; however, we do incorporate many of the methods and terminology used in the study of philosophy as we ponder and discuss important questions central to TOK, although correct answers may seem unlikely or even implausible. The primary goal of philosophy is to get as close to the “truth” as possible. This, for many of you, may be frustrating and even uncomfortable. Many of you may even find your own beliefs and values challenged as part of your experience in TOK as you analyze and consider how you know what you claim to know.
The purpose is not to destroy value systems or to judge one another as right or wrong, but to teach you to evaluate your knowledge claims, as well as others, by learning to support them.
You, as students, are full of opinions. TOK will help you discover your reasons. 
“believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it,  not even if i have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” - buddha

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