Pearson Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge

This is a superb supporting textbook for the TOK course. It is comprehensive and deep, within reach of students without compromising on high level thinking. Various parts of the course are treated separately for analytic reasons, but many questions and many opportunities are offered to build bridges, and the student is encouraged to come-up with a synthetic view of his own. The textbook exemplifies the dialectical relationship between abstract/conceptual ideas and concrete/specific case-studies and examples of how they apply in the real world. As such, the textbook models one of the most basic, yet also most difficult, requirement of TOK, and students seeking to imitate this approach are almost sure of succeeding in the course. Particularly worthy of notice are the parts dealing at the end with assessment: the presentation and the essay. Judicious and timely advice!

At first glance, this seems to be a text-heavy book with just the bare minimum in illustration, but very soon I began to acknowledge this as an advantage, as it is precisely this text-based approach that allows the reader to recognize the regular structure of this content. The concise nature of each section allows students to recap and even consider afresh each and every major concept and idea as laid out in the DP subject guide (including the new knowledge framework) in a manner that makes it easy to not only appreciate the individual value of each section but also its part in a cohesive whole. The table of contents makes it easy to access a particular part of the course and start a discussion or review from that point. The comprehensive index facilitates the location of key concepts and examples. I liked the refreshingly new range of real world examples alongside the conventional and necessary old world examples. The focus on flowcharts and diagrams and the avoidance of distracting pictures and colourful illustrations and the simple white background is an advantage in today’s world of information overload and I was happy to see a textbook that has considered the perspective of the overloaded global student in mind. This is indeed an ideal book for students, as it doesn’t give the sense of an information overload and seeks to keep the inquiry to the level of what is meaningful and achievable by both high-end learners as well as disadvantaged students struggling to keep up with their high-achieving peers. Together with classroom discussions, this textbook could be used effectively to complement student progress, or even as a stand-along resource for those who find themselves straggling, as the essence of TOK has been captured well in this publication. The availability of this publication as an interactive eText is also a major advantage.