On this page, you’ll find details of our Big Question course for non-IB Diploma students. If you’re looking for the BQ resources for TOK, you need to consult this page.
Each of the five BQs explores a different issue related to the acquisition and use of knowledge, and invites students to formulate their answers via different subject areas, personal experiences, and events and issues going on in the contemporary world.
Access the BQ course units
We’ll be releasing the BQ course lessons in the Spring of 2025. Before that, you can either use the ACT mini-lessons, which are designed to augment the full-length lessons, or you can adapt the TOK BQ lessons, via this page.
BQ1 (Foundations) asks, What is knowledge, and why does it require scrutiny? It invites students to think about the nature of knowledge, how we acquire it, definitions of truth, and other key concepts related to the way in which we try to approach the world objectively.
BQ2 (Spin) asks, How does our knowledge influence the way we construct our values? It invites students to consider the relationship between ethics and understanding, by thinking about how our values shape – and are shaped by – the knowledge we possess about the world.
BQ3 (Spin) asks, How is our understanding impacted by the way knowledge is communicated? It invites students to think about the way our knowledge of the world is impacted by the way ideas are consciously and unconsciously ‘spun’.
BQ4 (Perspectives) asks, How do our perspectives shape the way we view the world? It invites students to think about how our personal and societal perspectives and biases affect the way we process ideas and theories, and how open-minded they leave us.
BQ5 (Change) asks, How does new knowledge emerge and develop over time? It looks at the way new knowledge is created, why old ideas and theories are questioned and replaced, and what drives this process of evolution on both an individual and societal level.
Help your learners to exit their echo chambers!
Our online and in-person workshops offer the usual support for students writing the essay and exhibition, and TOK departments designing great courses.
But our training sessions go much further than this: by focusing on authentic critical thinking, they demonstrate how to help learners confront, rather than confirm, their biases and assumptions, and exit their echo chambers. This makes them accessible and relevant for all teachers, whatever their subject or programme. Read more here.