February 2008
This is an initial booklist suitable as texts and also for library resources for the Theory of Knowledge course of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. Acknowledgement and thanks go to Anthony Tilke, Librarian at the Yokahama Intl School, who provided very helpful lists of books for a school newly starting the IBDP. The list is lightly annotated and hopefully teachers will find it helpful.
Please Note All prices are in Australian dollars and include the 10% GST tax. However this GST does not apply to exports from Australia.
If you would like to order any of the books on the list, send the orders to Austral Ed by post, fax or by email. Payment can be made with bank cheques in Australian dollars, by direct bank transfer or by Credit card. Freight is sent by the most economical method within Australia or overseas, depending on urgency.
Recommended by Kate Shepherd and Ron Shapiro
The following reviews written on books about Theory of Knowledge are by Ron Shapiro, former senior lecturer in English at the University of Western Australia.
Nicholas Alchin, Theory of Knowledge, Hodder Murray (2003) 2006 $75.50
This was one of the first really good books covering the requirements of the I.B. Theory of Knowledge programme, in its own way defining the likely core areas of such a programme as having to do with different ways of human knowing, and thence the further application of kinds of knowing to the arts, sciences and philosophy. The book is visually attractive employing various formats, page colours, etc., to avoid any sense of dry theory. It is also a text which questions as much as explains in order to maintain reader involvement. The fact of a recent second edition suggests it has been seen as especially useful in the presentation of this programme.
Dombrowski, Rotenberg, Bick, Theory of Knowledge: Course Companion, OUP, 2007 $49.95
This more recent book on the Theory of Knowledge builds on the approach of the Hodder Murray edition while possibly improving on the former in several ways. For instance, while the Hodder Murray edition tends to get into quite complex discussion rather quickly, here the introductory discussion and subsequent lead-ins to various subjects areas seem more carefully graded. A notable improvement too is the general use of student voices from a wide variety of countries giving their own cultural perspectives on a variety of questions to do with the way one might “know” things (very relevant in a programme with international parameters). Moreover individual student voices are accompanied by photos serving to personalise the discussion at every point and serving to dispel any feeling of “text-book” On the other hand this is a rather large (as opposed to thick) book to handle and is by no means as attractively presented as the Hodder Murray edition.
Richard van de Lagemaat, Theory of Knowedge for the IB Diploma, Cambridge, 2005 $57.95
Again this excellent book builds on the Hodder Murray edition approach but the discussion seems better graded and organised. Unlike the Hodder Murray and Oxford editions, this book employs a simple non colour (black and white) format, fewer visual learning ‘devices”, etc. The effect is for a more readerly text with plenty of interesting sketches and genuinely funny cartoon drawings. But it is especially the organisation of the material which allows a sense of natural “follow-on” which accounts for its readability, the sort of book one might decide to read from cover to cover. Its sections on language and translation are especially good and often extremely amusing, and also good is the discussion of mathematics and questions of certainty. On the other hand, there is not the same sense of internationalism in the examples used compared with the Oxford edition which, as the most recent of the three books, has tried to plug some obvious gaps.
If you would like to order any of the above books, send
orders to Austral Ed by fax, post or email. All
prices are in Australian dollars and include GST of 10% which is
not applicable for overseas schools.
For additional lists of recommended books and newsletters from
Austral Ed, visit our website www.australed.iinet.net
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