Thanks to Zane Dickey, I was able to see this new IB Theory of Knowledge Guide that outlines changes for the course beginning in 2014/2015.

Happily, they’re stopping using the term “knowledge issues” and, instead, calling them what they really are, “knowledge questions.”

They are also doubling the number of Ways of Knowing — from four to eight (language, sense perception, emotion, reason, imagination, faith, intuition, and memory). However, they are only saying you have to teach four of them so, even though the expansion creates some intriguing teaching/learning opportunities, teachers could continue to teach the four that we’ve been doing if they don’t want to change.

In addition, the number of Areas Of Knowledge have also expanded (mathematics, the natural sciences, the human sciences, the arts, history, ethics, religious knowledge systems, and indigenous knowledge systems). Again, though, you only have to cover six of the eight, so teachers don’t have to change.

I didn’t notice anything else particularly significant, but let me know if I missed something. It basically seems like they’ve expanded to some intriguing areas that teachers can choose, or not choose, to explore.

Of course, these changes do create one significant event for many TOK teachers — it means schools will be required to send at least one TOK teacher to an IB training since they’re required to do so when there is a curriculum change in an IB course…