You argue that your school is a hub of critical thinking. But is it? Really?

I’ve read, in many recent tweets and posts and presentations and speeches and other delivery mechanisms for educational leaders to share their wisdom, that critical thinking is vital. The story doing the rounds is that a group of Very Influential People sat down around a big table one day, and shortlisted the ‘key skills’ that employees would need to possess in the future. One of these skills - arguably the most important - was critical thinking. From that, it’s a short logical step to arrive at the realisation that if schools are going to produce successful professionals, they need to inculcate and nurture critical thinking skills. Any school that isn’t doing that, isn’t doing its job.

There aren’t many people involved in education (me included) who’d dispute or question this. Not for a second. Whilst it’s impossible to predict so many other aspects of education (or life), the one thing that we can be sure of is that the need for people to think for themselves will only get more and more pressing in this post-truth world of instant information delivery. The pitfalls of not doing so are all too apparent. Cue the tweets and posts and presentations and presentations; cue eye-catching rhetoric spread across school websites, proclaiming them as ‘centres of critical thinking’. The message is, “We’re aware of the need for this, and we’ve got it covered.”

But I have a very simple question. Do you have it covered? Is critical thinking really happening (like it should) in your school? And if your answer to that is a hasty and slightly defensive, “Yes, of course!”, what’s your evidence that that’s the case?

Those of us involved with theory of knowledge are fortunate enough to be at the cutting edge of critical thinking for high school students. TOK is the best high school course in the world to develop students’ skills in this respect, the reason being that TOK isn’t a critical thinking course. It’s much much more than that, and if done properly represents an entire educational programme in its own right - epistemology, linguistics, philosophy, metaphysics, media studies.

Even for us, purveying such a brilliant product, it’s often a struggle to promote what we’re doing

But even for us, purveying such a brilliant product, it’s often a struggle to promote what we’re doing. There’s often a lack of support from those above (yes, those eminent figures who tweet and post and present and make speeches), there’s often lack of will from those below, there’s often lack of awareness from parents, and there’s always a lack of time with students. In fact, I’d say there are very, very few schools that I have seen that get anywhere close to ‘doing’ critical thinking properly, be they IB schools or otherwise.

So what’s my evidence for this? If I’m going to model decent critical thinking, I need to support this rather sweeping assertion. Below, I’ve compiled 10 questions and issues about how TOK or critical thinking is delivered and marketed (these two things go hand-in-hand, and each one ensures the other’s success). If you can’t answer each one positively, then there’s still significantly more that your school can do.

1. First of all, where is TOK or critical thinking on your school website, beyond the vague rhetoric of having critical thinking ‘covered’? You say it’s important, fine, but everyone says it’s important; that’s obvious. You need to go further - how much does your website explain about the way you teach TOK? How much does it say about your TOK teachers, and their experience and passion for the subject? Is TOK given equal billing to mathematics and science? Have you given concrete examples of how TOK interlinks the different parts of the IB Diploma? Or have you just provided a link to the generic description of TOK on the IB website, because it’s too awkward to summarise TOK in 40 words or less?

Where is TOK or critical thinking on your school website, beyond the vague rhetoric of having critical thinking ‘covered’?

2. Second, as someone who has decided to devote themself to TOK, rather than just having it on my CV to increase the chances of landing a job teaching another subject, here’s one that really gets to me: does your school recruit for specific TOK teachers, or is TOK only ever taught by those for whom the phrase, “the ability to teach TOK as a second subject may be of advantage” resonated? OK, perhaps that’s forgivable. Perhaps your TOK department has an excellent induction process, and you train up TOK teachers effectively. But what about your TOK coordinator? Did she or he take over grudgingly from the last head of TOK? Did you appoint someone who was hired to teach something else? Or did you determinedly look for an experienced specialist, who has a proven track-record to setting up an inspiring and engaging course?

3. I’ve spoken to lot of TOK departments over the last few years, and one complaint comes up more than any other: a lack of time. Is TOK timetabled properly? Does it get less than the requisite hundred hours? Does it just scrape by? Or does it enjoy a generous amount of time? Also, how is it timetabled? In my school, we not only have class time, but also plenary time, so every week I teach ordinary classes, and whole year-group sessions. This means we can be creative with our planning, and run exciting activities with the students. If TOK is not timetabled effectively, students will remain unengaged, and teachers will end up frustrated and annoyed.

4. Is critical thinking delivered further down the school? This doesn’t have to involve separate critical thinking classes (although that would be great), it just has to be made explicit during normal lessons, so that students are aware of what they are doing. But is this coordinated in your school? In other words, do you have a TOK Coordinator for the final two years of study, or a whole-school Critical Thinking Coordinator for all year groups? If you're an MYP school, obviously there is a need to ensure that students are developing critical thinking as an approach to learning. Checking to see this is happening provides schools with an opportunity, rather than an extra obligation.

Does your school have buy-in from other teachers? If it doesn’t, what are you doing about it?

5. Another issue in many schools is a simple lack of awareness amongst staff of what TOK is. I’ve met so many Diploma teachers who aren’t able to properly explain the nature of the course, let alone get to grips with concepts such as second-order knowledge. But even when the rest of the school does know that a TOK department exists, there is often a reluctance to get involved. Does your school have buy-in from other teachers? If it doesn’t, what are you doing about it? What mechanisms and resources exist in your school to ‘diffuse’ TOK amongst the members of staff?

6. And, you need buy-in from a wider audience. Related to the last point, how much do your parents know about TOK? They could be forgiven for not understanding the nature of the course, but they can be won over to it quickly and easily once they realise how well regarded it is by universities and employers. TOK is one of the great USPs of the IB Diploma. If you haven’t made the most of this, and explained how it sets the Diploma apart from other programmes, then you’ve really missed a trick. Why not go further - have you brought in parents to give talks? Many of them are bound to have the sort of knowledge and skills that would work well in a TOK context.

7. Which brings us to whether your school ever puts on TOK events. Many schools are now organising TOK conferences, TOK gatherings, TOK exhibitions, all of which is fantastic. These are often student-led, and are great learning experiences for them. But these events also raise the profile of the subject, and highlight your school’s commitment to critical thinking. You don’t have to organise huge events with other schools, you can get your own students working on whole-day challenges or problems, or just bring in guest speakers.

8. What is your students’ take on TOK? Are they engaged, challenged, and enriched by tok (and are they saying this)? Or do they regard it as a subsidiary, add-on course, that isn’t taken as seriously as the others, and is a burden rather than a central part of their learning experience? I constantly reiterate the purpose and point of TOK to my students, but try not to do so dictatorially. My students critically analyse the validity of the assessments, the content of the course, and have a role in determining the eventual shape of the course. And, I never, ever, use...

When it comes to knowledge, students should be placed on the frontline as much as possible, rather than sitting on the couch watching the sanitised TV highlight

9. ...textbooks. I’m dubious about textbooks in general, but see that they can be a necessary evil in a lot of subjects. However, I think they undermine the whole mission of TOK, given that the examples they draw on are out of date before they are even published. TOK is striving to become more and more relevant to the real world, and this means exploring events and issues that have just happened. When it comes to knowledge, students should be placed on the frontline as much as possible, rather than sitting on the couch watching the sanitised TV highlights. In other words, they should be reading original articles and books, hearing ideas expressed from the actual people who formulated them, and learning via first-hand, rather than second-hand sources.

10. Drawing together all of these questions and points, can you honestly say that TOK has the same level of prestige as other subjects? Does the TOK department have a decent budget? Is the TOK Coordinator an equal or a junior partner with other HODs? Are they given satisfactory planning time? Are they paid a fair responsibility allowance, or is their wage based on those misleading 1.5 points?

Having a TOK membership with theoryofknowledge.net will help you to make your school a genuine hub of critical thinking. Our TOK newsletter will provide you with up-to-date real life situations every month. Our ‘Big Question’ framework will give you the means to deliver an engaging, innovative course that you can either run exactly as it is, or create your own pathway of lessons. You’ll have access to resources that enable non-TOK teachers to teach TOK, and marketing tools to raise TOK’s profile. Every resource we create is lesson-tested by multiple TOK teachers, and constantly updated and edited. We also offer full support for members - if you have any questions at all about our resources, or want advice or tips on how to deliver lessons, we’ll provide you with swift and comprehensive help.

Nearly 400 schools all over the world have joined us as members over the last 8 months, and their feedback has been universally positive. You can see a range of unsolicited testimonials from them on this page. As Diana, a TOK teacher of 17 years from New York, told us:

I wanted to let you know that I think the BQ resources I’ve been using so far this year are awesome! By exploring TOK concepts through well-chosen, unique and high-interest real-life situations, my students are engaged in ways they haven’t been before.

If you’d like more information about any of the memberships, please get in touch with us, and we’ll explain how our approach raises the bar for TOK and critical thinking.

NEXT TIME: TOK can be a complete education in its own right. Here’s how.