Interaction Between TOK Course And Subject Teaching In IBDP

Since its birth,the TOK course has been given the task of guiding students to critically reflect on subject knowledge and knowledge extracted in real life.This paper will focus on this point,explore the unique value of the TOK course and its connection with the subject teaching,explore why the TOK course must and how it can interact with the subject teaching.Firstly,through literature analysis and combing the origins of the TOK course and the guides of the past,analyze the nature of the course,teaching content,teaching evaluation,etc.,and explore its unique values of cultivating students' critical thinking and helping students to acquire "meta knowledge",they are part of the reasons for the combination of TOK course with subject teaching.At the same time,the status of TOK as the core course of IBDP also makes it necessary to carry out cooperation in practice,and establishes a platform for connection and cooperation of TOK with subject teaching.In order to research the specific connection between TOK and subject teaching,on the one hand,through the statistical analysis of 144 prescribed titles of the TOK essay in 14 years,explore the breadth and depth of the subject knowledge fields which is focused by TOK course.On the other hand,through statistical analysis,content analysis,and comparative analysis,the representative subject courses guides of IBDP are summarized,six group in each choose a representative subject course,and the TOK course is compared with the teaching objectives,teaching contents,and evaluation methods of each subject course,to study the hidden possibilities of contact and cooperation between TOK course and subject courses,and use the knowledge framework of the TOK course as a tool to encode and analyze the explicit TOK questions in the Biology and Economics Guides.In addition,the TOK questions that have been systemically classified in the mathematical guide are described.In order to better demonstrate the penetration of TOK course in subject teaching,the course �Environmental System and Society� of Interdisciplinary Subject Group 3 and Subject Group 4 in IBDP was selected for focus exploration,the TOK content in its course guide and a common textbook was compiled and compared,and then explore its links to the guides of biology and economics.Finally,the following conclusions of this paper are summarized:The TOK course is dedicated to cultivating students' critical thinking by reflecting on the acquired knowledge.At the same time,its teaching objectives and content are highly similar to "meta-knowledge",and play an important role in acquiring,managing,and integrating knowledge.In order to better play these two functions and get these two unique values,the TOK course must establish contact with the subject teaching and cooperate with each other.TOK course through the exploration of the eight areas of knowledge and eight epistemological ways to achieve integration of knowledge and reflection inside the course,its attention to the fields of subject knowledge is reflected in the essay on a prescribed title.Among those prescribed titles,direct attention to the natural science field is the highest;The teaching objectives of the subject courses in IBDP are all related to the teaching objectives of the TOK course which indicates that the they can mutually support each other.In terms of specific teaching content,TOK course has influence and penetration in six subject groups.In the selected seven courses,economics of Subject Group 3,biology of Subject Group 4,mathematics of Subject Group 5 and interdisciplinary course �Environmental Systems and Society�,their subject content is more systematic,and thus TOK content can be better integrated into their course content,which is shown that in these course guides and textbooks,the TOK knowledge questions for reference are inserted in,these questions can also serve as reference materials for the cooperative teaching between TOK teachers and subject teachers.Through statistical analysis,these courses are most inclined to use the TOK questions to explore relevant topics about knowledge scope / application and epistemological ways.�Language A Literature� of Subject Group 1,�Language B� of Subject Group 2,and �Visual Art� of Subject Group 6,because their course content is more open and flexible,it is more necessary for TOK course teachers communicate and cooperate with the subject teachers when they are carrying out teaching practice in relevant knowledge fields.In addition to the internal evaluation of mathematics and biology,the internal evaluation of the other five courses can be the best material for students to reflect on the knowledge generation,the connection between knowledge and discipline and the world in the TOK classroom.Although the content of the TOK course is infiltrated in the subject course guides and even the subject textbooks,it may lead to the phenomenon that the TOK content is ignored by the subject teachers in practice because of TOK small fraction of the grade and lack of unified evaluation requirements and hard rules.Therefore,TOK course teachers need to play an active and leading role in the connection and cooperation with subject teachers.