IB TOK Exhibition Prompts: How to Choose the Right One
What Is the IB TOK Exhibition?
The TOK Exhibition is one of the TOK’s two assessment components. For their Exhibition, students are required to select one of 35 prescribed prompts. These prompts are open-ended questions focused primarily on the production, acquisition, nature, dissemination, and reliability of knowledge. Unlike the TOK Essay, whose prescribed six questions change each examination season, the 35 official TOK Exhibition prompts remain fixed. Students must respond to their chosen prompt by using three real-world objects and explaining their connection to the prompt in a 950-word commentary. In other words, how each object acts as evidence for the prompt’s knowledge question. Through the TOK Exhibition, students are illustrating how knowledge concepts manifest in everyday life.
The TOK Exhibition is internally assessed, though externally moderated by the IB, and worth approximately 33% of a student’s final TOK grade (with the TOK Essay accounting for 67% as a longer 1600 word essay).
Understanding the 35 IB TOK Exhibition Prompts
The International Baccalaureate (IB) directly publishes all 35 TOK Exhibition prompts. By creating an official list, the IB guarantees a uniform assessment model across all schools. All knowledge prompts are designed to connect the TOK’s core theme ‘knowledge and the knower’. By linking real-world objects to abstract knowledge concepts, students can also explore their prompts through the lens of the TOK’s optional themes: technology, language, politics, religion, and indigenous societies.
The 35 TOK exhibition prompts are as follows:
1. What counts as knowledge?
2. Are some types of knowledge more useful than others?
3. What features of knowledge have an impact on its reliability?
4. On what grounds might we doubt a claim?
5. What counts as good evidence for a claim?
6. How does the way that we organize or classify knowledge affect what we know?
7. What are the implications of having, or not having, knowledge?
8. To what extent is certainty attainable?
9. Are some types of knowledge less open to interpretation than others?
10. What challenges are raised by the dissemination and/or communication of knowledge?
11. Can new knowledge change established values or beliefs?
12. Is bias inevitable in the production of knowledge?
13. How can we know that current knowledge is an improvement upon past knowledge?
14. Does some knowledge belong only to particular communities of knowers?
15. What constraints are there on the pursuit of knowledge?
16. Should some knowledge not be sought on ethical grounds?
17. Why do we seek knowledge?
18. Are some things unknowable?
19. What counts as a good justification for a claim?
20. What is the relationship between personal experience and knowledge?
21. What is the relationship between knowledge and culture?
22. What role do experts play in influencing our consumption or acquisition of knowledge?
23. How important are material tools in the production or acquisition of knowledge?
24. How might the context in which knowledge is presented influence whether it is accepted or rejected?
25. How can we distinguish between knowledge, belief and opinion?
26. Does our knowledge depend on our interactions with other knowers?
27. Does all knowledge impose ethical obligations on those who know it?
28. To what extent is objectivity possible in the production or acquisition of knowledge?
29. Who owns knowledge?
30. What role does imagination play in producing knowledge about the world?
31. How can we judge when evidence is adequate?
32. What makes a good explanation?
33. How is current knowledge shaped by its historical development?
34. In what ways do our values affect our acquisition of knowledge?
35. In what ways do values affect the production of knowledge?
Examiners do not expect students to simply answer their chosen prompt, but instead to explore the prompt through a personal and analytical commentary, demonstrating how knowledge operates in practical contexts rather than in the abstract.
How to Choose the Right IB TOK Exhibition Prompt
Step 1: Start with your objects, not the prompt. Instead of immediately limiting yourself to one specific prompt, by brainstorming objects that have either a personal significance or a specific time or place of existence, students often find that knowledge questions arise more naturally, rather than having to force links between a selected prompt and available objects .
Step 2: Look for a prompt that allows genuine personal connection. As the IB requires students to reflect on how TOK concepts manifest in the real world, personal objects routinely provide deeper and more authentic analysis of how knowledge is used, created, or understood in everyday life.
Step 3: Consider which prompts give you the most to say. In other words, conceptually rich, flexible prompts that allow for a wide range of arguments and objects. Additionally, students are advised to avoid prompts that they believe to be too abstract as well as options that lead to overly descriptive, rather than analytical responses.
Step 4: Think about how well your three objects link together under the prompt. The strongest selection of objects will showcase different facets of the prompts. In other words, working together to create a nuanced, three-dimensional response, rather than proving the same point.
Step 5: Avoid common mistakes students make when choosing a prompt. For example, misinterpreting the prompt and therefore failing to answer the specific question that is being asked.
Tips for Writing Your TOK Exhibition Commentary
When writing their TOK Exhibition, students must ensure a clear and organised structure for each object’s commentary. Initially, students should begin by clearly identifying their object and outlining its real-world context. Students will then link this object to their chosen prompt, demonstrating how it answers the prompt’s specific knowledge questions. Finally, students should justify their object’s inclusion. In other words, what it tells us about the nature of knowledge itself.
Throughout their Exhibition, students must ensure their arguments remain focused and consistent across all three objects. It is also imperative students ensure all of their analysis is clearly linked back to their chosen prompt. This can be achieved by incorporating key words of the prompt throughout their analysis as well as routinely integrating TOK vocabulary.
The IB establishes a submission date for both the TOK exhibition and essay, which is communicated with schools. However, schools will establish their own internal deadlines in order to ensure they meet the IB’s set submission date. It is imperative that students meet their school’s internal TOK submission deadlines. This will not only ensure fair assessment but also help students to manage the intense workload of their IBDP.
What Examiners Are Actually Looking For
A student’s TOK Exhibition is marked internally by their teacher out of 10 marks, and then externally moderated by the IB. These 10 marks are based on a single holistic rubric that evaluates how effectively a student demonstrates the manifestation of TOK concepts and the quality of their connections between their objects and selected prompt. A high-scoring TOK Exhibition demonstrates insightful analysis of a select object as well as strong justifications for its inclusion, as opposed to merely generalised descriptions.
Below is an example of a high-scoring response, which links the object of a Waitakere Rahui Area sign (a customary prohibition used to protect kauri forests) to the prompt ‘Does some knowledge belong only to particular communities of knowers?’ A rāhui is a Māori customary practice involving a temporary restriction or prohibition placed over a specific area. It is used to protect the environment by managing resources and allowing ecosystems to sustainably replenish. Only local authority figures have the ability to initiate a rāhui.
The rāhui is an example of how knowledge can belong only to a particular community of knowers as its application is limited to the territorial inhabitants of the land in which the knowledge is located. Rāhui is fundamentally decided and enacted under the authority of the local community, specifically by those who know the history, mauri (life force), and needs of their local environment. In this instance, belonging necessitates a deep, ancestral connection to a specific locality. The knowledge of when, where, and how long to impose a rāhui is deeply connected to a particular community’s ancestral relationship with the land and is not applicable to, or understandable by, outsiders. As a result, only tribal guardians and indigenous authority figures are able to impose a rāhui as they possess the traditional knowledge to determine when a resource needs time to recover. In this case, the knowledge of Māori environmental management belongs to sole custodians with an extensive understanding of specific cultural contexts and local ecology.
This response effectively avoids common examiner complaints. Rather than relying on generalised descriptions of their object, the student has focused on explaining how it links to their specific knowledge question. They have included the question’s key terms throughout their response and have avoided using a generic, non-specific item that fails to show a real-world connection.
Contact a BartyED IB TOK Tutor
The TOK Exhibition is a daunting task for many IB students, primarily due to the critical thinking and analysis it demands when bridging abstract concepts with tangible, real-world objects. However, the right approach, and particularly the right prompt choice, can shape the entire exhibition. With support from an expert BartyED TOK tutor, students will be guided through each stage of the exhibition process: from helping them to select an appropriate prompt to assisting with essay-writing structure and providing comprehensive feedback on drafts. By clarifying core concepts and helping students to construct well-reasoned arguments, a BartyED TOK tutor provides invaluable support in helping students to score highly on their TOK exhibition.
To benefit from the support of a BartyED TOK tutor, contact us by phone +852 2882 1017, WhatsApp +852 57215837, email enquiries@bartyed.com, or fill in the form below.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Each of a student’s TOK objects should be specific, real-world items. For example, instead of a generic object such as a textbook or bible, a more specific object would be a family bible that has been passed down, or a student’s specific copy of a select textbook with their own notes and annotations. By selecting objects that approach the prompt from different angles, rather than three similar items, students will also be able to showcase a wider understanding of knowledge. Overall, each object should personally resonate with a student and facilitate insightful links to one of the 35 prompts.
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A 10/10 TOK Exhibition will successfully showcase how TOK concepts manifest in the world. This involves the clear identification of three objects with specific real-world contexts, alongside clear and well-explained links between each of these objects and a student’s selected prompt. A 10/10 TOK Exhibition will include a strong justification of the particular contribution that each object makes to the exhibition paired with appropriate evidence and explicit references to the chosen prompt throughout.
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Each TOK Exhibition must include a balanced evaluation of the links between three objects and a student’s selected prompt. Each of these evaluations must in turn include the object’s real-world context, its link to the prompt, and its justification for inclusion. The Exhibition should additionally include links to both the TOK’s core and optional themes as well as references and citations for any external sources used for information, images, or quotations.
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A student’s TOK Exhibition should not exceed 950 words in total. This means that each object’s commentary is around 300-350 words.