Let us walk you through acing your TOK Presentation. This article has everything one needs to curate a high quality presentation
What up? What up?
Welcome to this well-written article of Nail IB: your secret weapon for moving closer to a perfect score of 45. This article is the first step towards answering how to make a tok presentation. Before you answer this question, you must familiarise yourself with the fundamentals of the TOK presentation.
Remember, ee at Nail IB give priority to your journey of becoming a thinking intellectual. This is done by understanding the fundamentals of the diploma the likes of which include IB TOK presentation, TOK Essay, Extended Essay, Internal Assessment, and CAS.
Before you read this beautiful article, browse a quick video by Amanda Elise!
TOK presentation is quite similar to TOK Essay. Both IB concepts emphasize on your assessment of critical thinking skills. A TOK Essay takes a more conceptual starting point inspired by the questions released by International Baccalaureate Organisation whereas an IB TOK presentation, in particular, helps an examiner evaluate your understanding of acquired knowledge based on a real-life situation. To know the tips and hacks for your essay, click here. If you wish to learn how to ace your presentation, continue reading!
TOK presentation requires the student to demonstrate a solid analysis of a real-life situation (RLS). This is done by choosing a question as a framework for examining the practical implementation of theoretical knowledge in everyday life. In essence, the question for your presentation should be inspired by a real-life situation.
So good so far?
Keep in mind that a knowledge-based question is not the focus but a means for a critical discussion. It is but a way for you to explore the real-life situation and the areas of knowledge connected with it.
Okay, so a recap! You need to find a real-life situation. Then you need to think about the areas of knowledge directly connected to the situation. Once you do that, you need to forge a question that helps you connect the dots for the audience and walk them through your thinking process. This knowledge question will be the basis of your presentation as you attempt to develop different perspectives to answer the question. The scope of finding a real-life situation varies from a situation in your local community or an issue at international broader.
Once you have these 5 pillars set, there is nothing that can stop you from acing your TOK presentation.
Now let’s shed some light on the basics, to begin with. Presentations are an integral part of every course known to 'studentkind'. Every other course that we do requires it. With IB, it is one of the two compulsory TOK assignments. The IB TOK presentation is meant to test your understanding of TOK concepts in relation to a real-life situation.
TOK presentation is done individually, in pairs or in groups of three. An IB TOK presentation must be delivered in a language known to all members of the class. Each presenter must take approximately 10 minutes, totalling to a maximum of approximately 30 minutes per group. After the presentation, discussion time should be scheduled.
Moving ahead, the first question that comes to a student’s mind is, where to begin. Don’t worry, that will be the exact first question that I’ll answer hereafter.
You start with your planning document. This document will be your blueprint to building everything around your presentation and will help you maintain your workflow and the direction (just in case you get lost in the real-life situations, knowledge questions, claims, counterclaims, etc).
Why is this easy?
1. You have done this before in your TOK ESSAY i.e. application of your concepts in the development section. The idea is mostly the same except for the presenting part.
2. You are conceptually clear with your Knowledge questions, claims and implementation in real-life situations (also, covered by you in the essay).
I will break down what content must go on each slide alongside what you must address while explaining that slide to everyone. You can always make modifications on the basis of your requirements. The structure will help you make yourself clear to the audience whilst maintaining flow to your TOK presentation.
Slide 1: Title Page
Introduce a real-life situation (RLS). Elaborate on your perception of the situation when you first encountered it. Emphasize why it is of significance to you.
Slide 2: Decontextualization
What to address
Explain a few things about the RLS and how we know them. For example, our senses may provide some insights, while our emotions provide other ones. To put it in TOK terms, you can analyze the extent to which these insights are valid/authentic? Address the limitations of your RLS and your interpretation of it. All of this will help you show your journey from the RLS to your Knowledge Question.
Mention 2 Knowledge Questions that you considered and the one you are investigating. Explain how the Knowledge Question that you have chosen will help you to explain the RLS. For each of your AOKs/WOKs, preview how they can help to answer your KQ. Explain any assumptions you’ve made about your KQ (if any). Dig deep into the key terms that need to be explained in order for us to understand your KQ.
Alright. Breathe! I know all of this can sound way over the top. I felt the same way when I first encountered TOK. But this is exactly how you are supposed to feel. So you are on the right track. Read on!
What to address
Explain your claim and how it is supported by evidence. Clarify how it would answer the KQ. Then do the same for your counterclaim and support it by evidence. Ensure to clarify how your counterclaim could answer the KQ in a different way than your claim did. Use your conclusion to connect the claim and counterclaim.
Slide 5: Development (2)
Repeat the steps mentioned on slide 4 using your second Area of Knowledge and Way of Knowing.
Repeat the steps mentioned on slide 4 using your third Area of Knowledge and Way of Knowing.
Explain your conclusion and elaborate on how this conclusion is supported by the insights you’ve drawn along the way. Address the possible weakness or a flaw in your conclusion. You can explain with an example of someone from a different perspective (a different gender, age, time, or culture) who might disagree with this conclusion.
Clarify how your conclusion applies to the RLS. Explain how this conclusion can help to explain the other 2 RLS you have on your previous slides.
Good Job! Your work here is done. Just leave this slide up on the screen and watch your professors go gaga on your wonderful presentation. (You can thank us later ;))
Footer
As a suggestion, it is recommended that you have your knowledge question written on the bottom as footer. It helps the audience to relate your various insights to the knowledge question easily.
Here are some links to TOK presentation examples:
IB TOK presentation topic
For referral purpose, you can look into some previously chosen TOK presentation topics from the links below to get going:
You must have noticed that we use a Claim, Counterclaim, Mini-Conclusion structure as described in our TOK Essay article. We follow the process of claim, counterclaim, mini-conclusion for each of your developments (AOKs or WOKs) at least thrice. Here’s an example, for one of your developments:
-For example, your claim might be that emotion is reliable when trying to achieve new artistic knowledge and you show this using some theory (evidence) you learned from your professor.
-Your counterclaim is a problem (a limitation) with your claim or an opposing idea from the same perspective. It might be that emotion can sometimes lead to unreliable insights in the arts (i.e. art is open to many interpretations). You show this using (as evidence) an example from your own life experience or theory that accentuates the unreliability of human emotion.
-And then, in the mini-conclusion, you basically have to find a way to draw together the two opposing sides. You have to somehow synthesize these two insights to arrive at a more insightful understanding. For instance, you might say that emotion can be both reliable and unreliable at the same time, or perhaps there are situations where it's pretty hard to know whether emotions are helping or not (in terms of achieving reliable knowledge). So your MC (mini-conclusion) is that emotions are extremely reliable given that the individual is able to keep his/her personal biases away from the situation being experienced.
When you reach towards the end with your big conclusion, the key is to draw together and synthesize the insights from all your mini-conclusions. This shows an intellectual approach towards answering your KQ. It also makes your presentation more compelling.
We hope this article will act as the foundation for understanding how to make a tok presentation. One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to confidence is preparation ~ Arthur Ashe
If you are still struggling heaps with your TOK essay feel free to subscribe to our tok notes bundles or get access to more than 500+ IBDP notes and past papers here.
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Before you go!
You can also refer to my previous TOK Essay article to understand KQ, AOK, WOK, etc explained in depth.
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