This document provides guidance on how to create an effective Theory of Knowledge (TOK) presentation. It recommends beginning with a real-life situation, extracting a knowledge question from that situation, and exploring the question from 2-4 different perspectives or areas of knowledge. It also stresses concluding by relating insights back to the original situation. The presentation should be a live experience, not a recorded presentation. An assessment rubric focuses on clearly describing the real-life situation, formulating the knowledge question, exploring various perspectives on the question, and relating findings back to the situation. Effective planning is key, and the document provides a template for a presentation planning document.

1. How to make
a great TOK Presentation
Pavel Ivanov, PhD

2. Internal Assessment
• Presentation is the TOK IA
component
• Contributes 33% of the final grade
• 10 marks for TOK presentation is a
maximum

3. Presentation Logic
Your presentation should focus on a particular
Knowledge Question (KQ). BUT…
•Start with a Real-Life Situation (RLS)
•Extract a ‘good’ Knowledge Question from RLS
•Map your KQ to 2 to 4 different areas/aspects
•Explore each area/aspect from a TOK
perspective
• Provide a Conclusion
• Make a loop from Conclusion to RLS
• Generalize to other RLSs

4. Real-Life Situation (RLS)
• Can be anything from your own experience,
including something happened in the past
• Can be something happened with somebody
else or in the world (not with you) some
time ago and discussed extensively in the
society, media or your community
– but not from Ancient World, Medieval Ages, etc.
Hint: RLS should enable you to
generalize to put a TOK-style
Knowledge Question

5. What is a ‘good’ Knowledge Question
KQ should …
•Be of general nature
•Be a TOK-style question
•Relate to various RLSs rather
than only to the one you
have chosen
•Allow further development
with references to several
WoK and AoK

6. Knowledge Question: examples
• Should Internet be censored?
• Is « love » only an emotion?
• Can parents decide what gender to assign a
newborn with an intersex condition?
• Do religions promote terrorism?
• Bermuda Triangle or how to explain unexplained
phenomena?
• Is global warming a conspiracy?
• Is religion the only basis for ethical principles?
• Is it ethical for celebrities to look and act the
way they do when they know the impact of their
image on today’s youth?

7. Further development of KQ
Map your KQ to 2 to 4 different areas/aspects
using the following scheme:
•Put a claim
•Briefly explain what you mean
•Support your claim with examples, facts,
evidence, etc. to prove it
•Put counterclaim whenever possible
• Make a link to your KQ
Provide a balance between shared
and personal knowledge

8. Conclusion and back loop
• You should provide a solution/answer to your
KQ
• Base it on what you have learned from the
development of KQ
• Interpret the original RLS using the new
knowledge you’ve got or provide a new
insight
• Exemplify with other RLSs that your
KQ has a broader context

9. Presentation Logic Diagram
For each of 2
to 4 areas you
should provide
• Claim
• Explanation
• Support (by
facts,
examples,
evidence)
• Counterclaim
• Link to KQ

10. Planning TOK Presentation

11. Planning the TOK Presentation

12. Planning TOK Presentation

13. TOK Presentation formats
• TOK Presentations may take many forms
– lectures, interviews, debates
– you are allowed to use multimedia, costumes, or
props to support the presentation
– pre-recorded inserts within a presentation are
permissible
• However, the presentation cannot be an essay
read aloud to the class
• The presentation itself must be a live experience
and not a recording of the presentation
• You present to the audience
• The presentations are usually video recorded

14. Four Assessment Criteria
Do(es) the presenter(s) succeed in showing how TOK
concepts can have practical application?
Specifically, has the student:
1.described clearly the Real-Life Situation that forms the
launching point for the presentation?
2.extracted and clearly formulated a single Knowledge
Question from the Real-Life Situation?
3.identified and explored various perspectives in relation to
the Knowledge Question, and deployed examples and
arguments in the service of this exploration?
4.related the findings of and insights from the analysis back to
the chosen Real-Life Situation and showed how they might be
relevant to other Real-Life Situations?

15. Presentation Planning Document

16. Presentation Planning Document
• EVERY student must complete and
submit a presentation planning and
marking document (TK/PPD)
• You complete pages 1 and 2 only
– use skeleton or bullet point form
– type in a standard 12 font
– do not exceed 500 words
– include diagrams but even if they are
clearly related to the text
• You should give the teacher a hard
copy of the TK/PPD before you start
presenting

17. TOK Presentations on YouTube (1/3)
• Cloning
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52xfbIuuK68
• Euthanasia = Good Policy?
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL6tCVr3tbw&feature=related
• Do men and women think in the same way and should this affect
their lives and careers?
– www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU3CRdW5_v4&feature=related
• Common sense
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsN_N6gAiJU
• Do video games promote violence?
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kSv5FLwugc
• To What Extend is the Language of Persuasion Ethical?
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlUIB_hEH5M
• Can feelings get in the way of our learnings?
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2dN9SEQyNI

18. TOK Presentations on YouTube (2/3)
• Ethics of Religion
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxb7xPEbTp8
• Emotions and Mathematics
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZSu-ENcHb4
• Animal Testing
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS_hF_7k7eE
• Not all examples from YouTube deserve high grades !
– assess them critically
– reveal their strengths and weaknesses
• A short video on how to make TOK Presentation
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJYvNDrbGBU

19. General Remarks
• Presentations can be made individually or by groups
of no more than 3 students
– each member of a group will get the same mark
– not every student need speak for the same amount of
time…
– … but it should be evident that all members of the group
participate actively and make
comparable contributions
–approximately 10 minutes per
presenter should be allowed
(maximum of approx. 30 min
per group)

20. General Remarks (cont.)
• KQs and RLSs should be unique in each
presentation
• Group presentation provides much more
time for KQ development
– do not ignore such a possibility !!
• Audience participation is
allowed during the
presentation, not just in
follow-up discussion

21. THANK YOU !
pavel.s.smart@gmail.com