On Tuesday afternoon, 12 of our Year 10 students were joined by their peers from Abbot’s Hill for an IB workshop. This forum provided an extended opportunity for the students to explore the core subject requirement of the Baccalaureate – Theory of Knowledge (ToK).
Alongside an introduction to the various areas of knowledge potential Sixth Form IB students can expect to encounter – such as knowledge and technology, knowledge and language, and knowledge and indigenous societies – the first thing they thought about was the nature of knowledge, and how it is that we know things. Encouraged to deploy razor-sharp critical and open minds, the students considered issues surrounding the knowledge we can ever possess about things such as the context of that knowledge, its source, its impetus, and just how it has been delivered.
After the break, the students had a session on applying Theory of Knowledge to ‘real world’ situations. Here, they considered the specific scenario of conjoined twins with the help of an ethical mapping of how decisions on this life-threatening situations might be made. One angle they thought about, for instance, was the dimension of ‘Faith in God’s plan’ whereby Providence would decide. Another approach, they learned, would be a ‘consequentialist theory’ whereby definite actions needed to be taken in order to avoid the death of one of the babies.
The symposium ended with a plenary session providing the students with a chance to ask further questions about the overall IB programme. Throughout the afternoon, the standard of intellectual enquiry and articulation was particularly high, and certainly, the students went back into their learning environment as newly fledged and resourceful ‘knowers’, ready to navigate the world around them with even more of a spirit of enquiry.
Dr McLoughlin, Partnerships Co-ordinator
