A Panel Discussion was organized by School of Education on the topic “Theory of Knowledge (TOK) as a classroom discourse” on 28 August 2017. TOK is an approach of understanding the nature of knowledge that the Learners would acquire in the process they would be enabled to reflect upon how they knew what they knew.
The theory of knowledge serves as an essence of all types of knowledge that empowers the learner to understand the origin of every fact or information that they come across. The role of TOK in a classroom is extremely essential as it helps the students to develop critical thinking skills and reasoning abilities thus making the process of learning extremely interesting and fruitful.

For this event eminent personalities from the field International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme were invited as the resource persons for panel discussion who shared their knowledge on the significant subject. The Panelists of the event were Ms.Sandhya Gatti, Ms.Chitra Jeyakumar(TOK Coordinator, Indus International School, Bengaluru) and Ms. Archana Mathur (TOK Coordinator, Christ IB School, Bengaluru).The Panel  discussion was moderated by Dr.Kennedy Andrew Thomas (Director, CEDBEC, Christ University).

The program began with the invocation prayer followed by the welcoming of the guests by Dr.Sumita Rao K. The session was taken over by Dr Kennedy who set the tone for discussion and read out the rules.  Each panelist was given about 20 minutes to put forth their views and the audience was given the opportunity to ask questions and interact with the panelists at the end of the session.
Ms.Sandhya Gatti talked about the nature of knowledge and its role in TOK,how it is directly linked it to the ways of learning. The relationship between the TOK & the IB was beautifully created by the speaker. The speaker also explained in detail the meaning, aims and the structure of the TOK. Highlights of significance of TOK and the teacher’s role were deliberated upon. The panelist envisaged upon the need of creating a community of inquiry through which essential topics could be discussed from a TOK perspective.

Ms.Chitra Jeyakumar shared an interesting story of a porcupine family using it as a medium to show how TOK can be implemented in a classroom by the teacher so as to hold the interest of the students in the subject alongside connecting the topic to a social issue in the world. Ms Chitra discussed the role of TOK as a powerful means to overcome social conflicts, handle controversial issues and resolve value dilemma situations. She later discussed on the different styles that a teacher can adopt to make the classes more interesting and engaging for the students.

Dr Archana Mathur addressed the audience by providing an overview of TOK as a structured concept with graphical representations. She presented TOK concept as the heart and core of International Baccalaureate Curriculum. She shared her expert views on how a TOK teacher must acquire the basic qualities to take up the challenges of an TOK class. She stressed on the growing need among educational institutions to design effective classroom environment that facilitates TOK incorporation. Dr Archana also stressed upon considering individual differences among students while initiating TOK discussion. She also urged that the teachers innovate their own teaching styles in this regard.
Dr Kennedy Andrew Thomas summarized the views of the experts and added his intellectual thoughts. He summarized that it was extremely important for teachers to develop inquisitiveness and curiosity and perspective taking abilities among students.

The discussion ended with vote of thanks by Ms. Anita, I year student of M.A Education.