Good preparation is the key to a good presentation. It is vital that you keep the criteria to the forefront of your thoughts at all times and that you consult them regularly to ensure you are meeting them.
To satisfy Criterion A you need to identify a good knowledge issue which can be treated appropriately within the time-frame of your presentation. Remember, a knowledge issue can often be phrased as a question "How do we know that...?" Focus clearly on your knowledge issue and if you have identified more than one make sure they are linked.
To score highly in Criterion B you need to show how it links to the real life situation and you must address the relevant areas of knowledge and/or ways of knowing. Show how knowledge is created and how the ways of knowing impact on it. Compare and contrast different areas of knowledge and ways of knowing as you need to demonstrate that you have looked at your topic from more than one perspective. This is helpful for Criteria C& D which specify this.
The Subject Report for May 2011 made the following comments which you should bear in mind:
"Too many of the presentations were descriptive, with a great deal of reading and video clips that were too long. We still have quite a long way to go in getting the point across of the presentation as a means to link the real world with the TOK world… Sadly few are the presentations which convince and give a sense of progress regarding an issue… Unfortunately, most of the presentations I verified did not show much critical thinking about knowledge. Some candidates who did take the trouble to formulate a knowledge issue then ignored it for the remainder of the presentation."
Another verifier laments, "the biggest problem continues to be that the presentations take the form of descriptive subject reports on a topic with little relevance to, and therefore little understanding of, knowledge issues."
Yet, another examiner said " In short, the articulation of real life situation and knowledge issue that lies at the heart of the presentation task is often still not being achieved. The result is that verifiers have found it unavoidable in these cases to deduct marks from the assessments made by teachers of their own students. Verifiers are deeply concerned about viewing so many presentations in which students clearly invest much time and effort, but do so to little effect as the outcomes are almost entirely descriptive and lacking in analysis. This is a problem of relevance; specifically, presentations are not focused on knowledge issues. If students can structure their presentations around knowledge issues as defined in this document, this relevance problem should be avoided."
Lastly, "We cannot stress strongly enough; the TOK presentation is NOT a descriptive research project; NOT a social studies “report” or “monograph” on some subject of general interest. Without a focus on knowledge issues, presentations cannot deserve major credit on the assessment criteria (criteria A and B are almost certain to score zero for research projects, and a very low mark for D is very likely). They can be very good presentations, but are very poor TOK presentations."
The key thing is to be able to weave the real life situation with the knowledge issue. Here are some examples:
Real life situation: A controversial exhibition in an art gallery
Knowledge Issue: To what extent are the limits of art defined by morality?
Real life situation: Claim in a biology textbook that mesosomes are not real structures in bacteria
Knowledge Issue: How can we be sure that scientific evidence gained through the use of technology is genuine?
Real life situation: A move to make history a compulsory school subject up to age 16
Knowledge Issue: To what extent should academic disciplines be ranked according to their usefulness?
Real life situation: The use of a personality test to assess students in the class
Knowledge Issue: What are the strengths and limitations of quantification in the human sciences?
Real life situation: The connection between being a smoker and one‘s parents being smokers
Knowledge Issue: How does a scientific explanation distinguish between correlation and causation?
Real life situation: The death of Bogon – the last speaker of the Kasabe language in Cameroon
Knowledge Issue: In what ways does language affect how we interpret the world?
Real life situation: The inauguration of the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland
Knowledge Issue: What is the scope of the scientific method in attempting to establish truths?
Useful tips
Nicholas Alchin is well known in the TOK world. Here are his nine tips for a good TOK presentation:
There is no general method or formula which is "correct." You can probably ignore some of this advice and still do a good presentation… but following these suggestions may help.
1. Familiarize yourself with the assessment criteria. Notice, for example that whatever your topic, the focus must be on knowledge issues and that you should choose a contemporary issue (or at least one that is contemporary to you: a historical event that you're studying in History class qualifies).
2. Choose a concrete topic that interests you and find the TOK in it. TOK can be found almost anywhere, so use the opportunity to do something that you will enjoy doing. Do not just choose, say, the death penalty just because you have a book on it. Your presentation will come across much better if you choose something which means something to you personally: your own school, recent events in the news, cartoons, books and films are often fertile ground for presentation topics. Some of the most effective presentations start with an everyday story and go on to draw out the TOK aspects.
3. You should be exploring an issue; this means that you should present different points of view, even if they contradict each other and even if you disagree with them. You can try to reconcile different points of view or explain precisely why they are incompatible. You do not have to choose one point of view as "correct," but you should avoid the rather vacuous "so there are different points of view all of which are equally valid" approach. Do not be afraid to give your own opinion; you can point out that there are problems with your opinion, but be honest and say what you really think!
4. Try to cover the facts quickly and get on to the abstract TOK principles. If you have chosen a topic where there are important facts that the audience needs to know, then you should get through these quickly--there are no marks for dissemination of information! The focus of the presentation must be analysis, not description. If you can't summarize the facts in a couple of minutes then you should distribute to the audience a summary to be read beforehand.
5. Once you have drawn out the abstract TOK principles you should try to see what the implications of these principles are, and perhaps use these implications to reflect on the validity of the principles. For example, if you are considering the argument for the death penalty that states that murderers lose the right to life, the underlying principle seems to be "an eye for an eye." But what if you were to ask, "What do we do with a thief? Or a rapist? Or a kidnapper?" a different underlying principle might have to be used, possibly leading to a reformulation of the original principle.
6. Consider carefully how you communicate the structure of your presentation. The structure may be clear in your mind, but the audience may not find it so easy to follow. Having one or two overheads with the main points in bullet form (using a large font for clarity) can keep both you and your audience on track.
7. Try to state explicitly the problems of knowledge that you are looking at. This will help you retain clarity and make it easier for an examiner to give you high marks in criterion A (Knowledge Issues). If you use an overhead, list the problems there.
8. If appropriate use a film clip, slides, photos, newspaper cutting or any other prop. Your presentation will probably be far more interesting if you can use something other than your voice! But make sure that the props serve a specific purpose, and that they don't replace the analysis that will earn you high marks in criterion B (Quality of Analysis).
9. In your conclusion try to summarise (briefly--only a few sentences) what you have said, and try to end with a forward-looking view. This might be a summary of the main principles you have identified or some issues which have arisen and which have not been answered. Do not just reiterate your arguments. The end should "feel" like a conclusion and not like "well, that's it."
žKeep the criteria to the forefront of your thoughts at all times žConsult them regularly to ensure you are meeting them
To satisfy Criterion A you need to identify a good knowledge issue which can be treated appropriately within the time-frame of your presentation. Remember, a knowledge issue can often be phrased as a question "How do we know that...?" Focus clearly on your knowledge issue and if you have identified more than one make sure they are linked.
To score highly in Criterion B you need to show how it links to the real life situation and you must address the relevant areas of knowledge and/or ways of knowing. Show how knowledge is created and how the ways of knowing impact on it. Compare and contrast different areas of knowledge and ways of knowing as you need to demonstrate that you have looked at your topic from more than one perspective. This is helpful for Criteria C& D which specify this.
The Subject Report for May 2011 made the following comments which you should bear in mind:
"Too many of the presentations were descriptive, with a great deal of reading and video clips that were too long. We still have quite a long way to go in getting the point across of the presentation as a means to link the real world with the TOK world… Sadly few are the presentations which convince and give a sense of progress regarding an issue… Unfortunately, most of the presentations I verified did not show much critical thinking about knowledge. Some candidates who did take the trouble to formulate a knowledge issue then ignored it for the remainder of the presentation."
Another verifier laments, "the biggest problem continues to be that the presentations take the form of descriptive subject reports on a topic with little relevance to, and therefore little understanding of, knowledge issues."
Yet, another examiner said " In short, the articulation of real life situation and knowledge issue that lies at the heart of the presentation task is often still not being achieved. The result is that verifiers have found it unavoidable in these cases to deduct marks from the assessments made by teachers of their own students. Verifiers are deeply concerned about viewing so many presentations in which students clearly invest much time and effort, but do so to little effect as the outcomes are almost entirely descriptive and lacking in analysis. This is a problem of relevance; specifically, presentations are not focused on knowledge issues. If students can structure their presentations around knowledge issues as defined in this document, this relevance problem should be avoided."
Lastly, "We cannot stress strongly enough; the TOK presentation is NOT a descriptive research project; NOT a social studies “report” or “monograph” on some subject of general interest. Without a focus on knowledge issues, presentations cannot deserve major credit on the assessment criteria (criteria A and B are almost certain to score zero for research projects, and a very low mark for D is very likely). They can be very good presentations, but are very poor TOK presentations."
The key thing is to be able to weave the real life situation with the knowledge issue. Here are some examples:
Real life situation: A controversial exhibition in an art gallery
Knowledge Issue: To what extent are the limits of art defined by morality?
Real life situation: Claim in a biology textbook that mesosomes are not real structures in bacteria
Knowledge Issue: How can we be sure that scientific evidence gained through the use of technology is genuine?
Real life situation: A move to make history a compulsory school subject up to age 16
Knowledge Issue: To what extent should academic disciplines be ranked according to their usefulness?
Real life situation: The use of a personality test to assess students in the class
Knowledge Issue: What are the strengths and limitations of quantification in the human sciences?
Real life situation: The connection between being a smoker and one‘s parents being smokers
Knowledge Issue: How does a scientific explanation distinguish between correlation and causation?
Real life situation: The death of Bogon – the last speaker of the Kasabe language in Cameroon
Knowledge Issue: In what ways does language affect how we interpret the world?
Real life situation: The inauguration of the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland
Knowledge Issue: What is the scope of the scientific method in attempting to establish truths?
Useful tips
- Submit a plan in advance and discuss drafts with your teacher
- Stay focused on the title
- Be sure you are not ‘one-sided’ in your arguments. Take a stance but address other perspectives
- Try not to bias one way of knowing over another but do discuss the strengths of each in your context
- Refer to yourself as a knower in your work
- Avoid generalisations
- Stick to real situations not hypothetical ones
- Do it early – keep the momentum up until it is finished – do not wait until the deadline
Nicholas Alchin is well known in the TOK world. Here are his nine tips for a good TOK presentation:
There is no general method or formula which is "correct." You can probably ignore some of this advice and still do a good presentation… but following these suggestions may help.
1. Familiarize yourself with the assessment criteria. Notice, for example that whatever your topic, the focus must be on knowledge issues and that you should choose a contemporary issue (or at least one that is contemporary to you: a historical event that you're studying in History class qualifies).
2. Choose a concrete topic that interests you and find the TOK in it. TOK can be found almost anywhere, so use the opportunity to do something that you will enjoy doing. Do not just choose, say, the death penalty just because you have a book on it. Your presentation will come across much better if you choose something which means something to you personally: your own school, recent events in the news, cartoons, books and films are often fertile ground for presentation topics. Some of the most effective presentations start with an everyday story and go on to draw out the TOK aspects.
3. You should be exploring an issue; this means that you should present different points of view, even if they contradict each other and even if you disagree with them. You can try to reconcile different points of view or explain precisely why they are incompatible. You do not have to choose one point of view as "correct," but you should avoid the rather vacuous "so there are different points of view all of which are equally valid" approach. Do not be afraid to give your own opinion; you can point out that there are problems with your opinion, but be honest and say what you really think!
4. Try to cover the facts quickly and get on to the abstract TOK principles. If you have chosen a topic where there are important facts that the audience needs to know, then you should get through these quickly--there are no marks for dissemination of information! The focus of the presentation must be analysis, not description. If you can't summarize the facts in a couple of minutes then you should distribute to the audience a summary to be read beforehand.
5. Once you have drawn out the abstract TOK principles you should try to see what the implications of these principles are, and perhaps use these implications to reflect on the validity of the principles. For example, if you are considering the argument for the death penalty that states that murderers lose the right to life, the underlying principle seems to be "an eye for an eye." But what if you were to ask, "What do we do with a thief? Or a rapist? Or a kidnapper?" a different underlying principle might have to be used, possibly leading to a reformulation of the original principle.
6. Consider carefully how you communicate the structure of your presentation. The structure may be clear in your mind, but the audience may not find it so easy to follow. Having one or two overheads with the main points in bullet form (using a large font for clarity) can keep both you and your audience on track.
7. Try to state explicitly the problems of knowledge that you are looking at. This will help you retain clarity and make it easier for an examiner to give you high marks in criterion A (Knowledge Issues). If you use an overhead, list the problems there.
8. If appropriate use a film clip, slides, photos, newspaper cutting or any other prop. Your presentation will probably be far more interesting if you can use something other than your voice! But make sure that the props serve a specific purpose, and that they don't replace the analysis that will earn you high marks in criterion B (Quality of Analysis).
9. In your conclusion try to summarise (briefly--only a few sentences) what you have said, and try to end with a forward-looking view. This might be a summary of the main principles you have identified or some issues which have arisen and which have not been answered. Do not just reiterate your arguments. The end should "feel" like a conclusion and not like "well, that's it."
žKeep the criteria to the forefront of your thoughts at all times žConsult them regularly to ensure you are meeting them