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TK/PPF
For use from May/November 2022
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Candidate personal code: 063199 Session: 0006

Theory of knowledge - Planning and progress form

Completion of this form The completion of this form by each candidate and their teacher for theory of knowledge is a
mandatory requirement. This will strengthen the process of writing the essay and support the authenticity of a candidate's
work. Each completed form must be submitted to the IB, but will not be marked.

Candidate This form must be completed during the planning and progress of your essay. It is a record of three interactions
with your teacher. The first interaction should focus on discussing the prescribed titles and choosing the title for your essay. In
your second interaction you should discuss initial explorations into your chosen title, and you may present to your teacher an
exploration of those ideas in some written form. This will allow you to create a plan for the structure of your essay. For your
final interaction you are encouraged to present to your teacher a full draft of your essay. The teacher is permitted to
provide oral or written comments on your draft, but will not mark or edit your draft.

Teacher You must have at least three interactions with each candidate; one early on in the process to discuss the prescribed
titles, an interim session to discuss progress and a final session at which the candidate should present a full draft. Other
interactions are permitted, but only these three should be recorded on this form.

Prescribed title:
Nothing is more exciting than fresh ideas, so why are areas of knowledge often so slow to adopt them?

Planning and Candidate's comments

Date
progress You are advised to include your comments soon after each interaction
After receiving all the TOK prompts, I formed an immediate connection with prompt number 18/9/2023
3 because I related the topic with a real-life example, that being the method of icing which
was recently disproven in the field of physiology. The same example could be applied to
First interaction: prompt 6 but I find prompt 3 to be more relatable personally. I considered prompt 2 and 5
but wasn’t able to form any connections or come up with high quality examples to serve as
basis of my argument. After a brief discussion with Paul, where I discussed preliminary
ideas and the examples I had in mind, I decided to proceed with number 6.

I outlined the direction I wish to approach my essay which included some of my specific 23/11/202
arguments. For the human sciences part, I thought about the classic examples such as DDT 3
and Thalidomide which are chemicals that were deemed as harmless but proved to have
Second interaction: unexpected consequences. For human sciences, I mainly thought about the inherent
structure of fields of literature and philosophy and how that might affect the speed at which
new ideas are accepted. The ideas themselves did not have major issues. However, my
arguments in human sciences lacked specify, which I attributed to not being able to root my
arguments in real life examples as I was able to do with human sciences.

After having time to flesh out the draft of my essay, I developed all my initial ideas and came 21/2/2024
up with real life examples for each, including the use of DDT and icing. It turns out that arts,
which I incorporated in my essay, was not a part of human sciences, so I had to make
Third interaction: changes and edits accordingly. The direction of my essay was acceptable as Paul
commented, but there are many slight issues. For example, the introduction paragraph is
long and redundant; certain sentences are too long and difficult to understand; and certain
body paragraphs lacked a clear and concrete main idea. The most significant issue
however, would be the persistent issue of having a bias towards the natural sciences
department as both and length and depth of argument is more developed in natural sciences
as compared to human sciences. This droves me to perfect my essay through more in depth
research and careful wording of my argument.

English

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2020

International Baccalaureate® | Baccalauréat International® | Bachillerato Internacional®
TK/PPF
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Teacher's comments:

Completed declarations:
I confirm that my comments above are accurate

Candidate's name: Bill Wang

Candidate session number: 063199-0006 Date:

Teacher's name: Paul Date:

School name: Hongwen School number:

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2020