Teaching: What the heck is Theory of Knowledge?

The first of those two (that I’ll only refer to superficially) it’s also known as “Epistemology”, although many authors would not agree that they are the same thing. The word Epistemology comes from the greek ἐπιστήμη "knowledge"or “wisdom” and λόγος "logical discourse". In simple words, it means a philosophical study of the nature of knowledge.

The second meaning of the term (the one we’re interested in for the sake of the post), as I said, refers to a very special subject that belongs to a very special curriculum: the Diploma Programme of the International Baccalaureate. Said programme was created in 1968 and since then taughts pupils between the ages of 16 and 19, it's being implemented in over 4,500 schools around the globe.

This means that the general goal of this subject focuses on the examination, analysis, explanation and interpretation of the ways in which we know. The pupils must ask themselves a series of questions that invites them to inquire about human knowledge. These questions are called knowledge questions: “How is knowledge possible?”, “on which grounds?”, “under which assumptions lies a knowledge?”, “how can we establish what it means to have a ‘valid’ knowledge?”, “in which contexts?”... But the most important of them all: How do I/we know”.

Most of the time we take knowledge for granted, we think knowledge is a type of mechanical process that just happens, we don’t ask ourselves about how it happens. We assume that we know instead of thinking we know. And believe me, there is a fair amount of things we think we know, we just don’t know it yet ;) (seewhatIdidthere)

Unlike most academic subjects, that aim to the learning of a group of specific knowledge, “Theory of Knowledge” is a course dedicated to critical thinking and inquiring into the process of knowing. That’s why is question based.

The first thing I ask my students is: "What do you know? Tell me something you know". At first they giggle because they find that question so obvious!, but some of them actually find it hard to pick amongst all the things they know (or think they know). Sometimes I lead with an example and say: "I know my name. That’s something I know. Does everyone here knows their name?" They all giggle and nod. Then I ask them what is a name, how do we know our name, what makes us claim that one is our name and not another, where does the knowledge of our names come from, how do we access it, etc.

The knowledge of our own name comes to us, initially, through repetition: our parents teach us to establish a connection (first it’s a physical one, then a conceptual one) between ourselves and the word: in the same way we learn to name the rest of the things of the world. Then we accept that word, that name, as something that defines us and identifies us. “The name” is our first step into the conformation of identity, and that is a type of knowledge. A personal knowledge.