BMS

IB Core Week

July 2014

TOK and CAS

Why CAS and TOK are at

the CORE

they are student centred

student takes an active role doing or being the actor of knowledge

starting point are the knowledge and skills acquired previously

you don’t memorize content

you don’t need to have the right answers

focus on the student reflection process

TOKCAS

understanding of yourself and others in

relation to each other and the surrounding

world

experiential side theoretical side

encourages you to be capable of thinking

critically and finding meaning in your

thoughts, ideas and experience

enhances reflectionenriches your experience

reflecting and evaluating own

knowledge

critical thinking

guiding and orienting reflection

emphasize the importance of reflection and

the development of self-awareness

experience

thinking about how one feels

what it means to

everyone involved

abstract and theoretical side

TOKCAS

How CAS and TOK link

experiential knowledge

knowledge you can’t gain in the

classroom

TOK opens the classroom door for knowledge derived from CAS:

CAS provides a counterbalance to overly rational accounts of learning and knowledge

‘MUSCLE MEMORY’

You can read or talk about learning to swim or

riding a bike as long as you like but you will only

learn what’s involved through doing it, through

gaining a feel for what works best

(Dombrowski e.al.,

student reflection process

CAS TOK

REFLECTION PROCESS

personal learninghigher level of generality

What did I learn?How reliable is it as knowledge?

How can I generalise it to other

situations I might meet?

How does it affect my other knowledge?

Does it carry implications for attitudes

and future actions?

CREATIVITY

raises questions about ways in which creativity is involved in

renewing knowledge in all areas

- new proof in mathematics

- a fresh hypothesis

- revised interpretation of an event in history

Range of ways of knowing are involved in dance,

theatre production, writing etc…

SERVICE

raises questions in the AOK ethics about the way human beings should treat

each other

activities with children with special needs

providing companionship for the aged and lonely

responding to community needs through cleaning and building

Students gain a grounding in personal response and reflection that combines

with their other life experiences to anchor TOK exploration of ethical

knowledge in a variety of ways:

What does it mean to make the world a better place?

What kind of arguments can be made for responsibility to

others?

What implications for action might exist?

ACTION

raises questions of knowledge about the distinction between

knowing that something is the case and knowing how to do

something

provides students with some fine TOK reflections on differing forms of

knowing and the way they combine in practice

Sources

Dombrowski, Mackenzie, Clarke. 2010. IB Research Paper.

Perspectives on a curious subject: What is IB Theory of Knowledge all

about?

Theory of knowledge guide. (First examinations 2015)

Creativity, action, service guide. (for students graduating 2010 and

thereafter)