Bringing subject disciplines together to help children answer big questions

"Teaching epistemic insight goes hand in hand with teaching a broad and balanced curriculum. It includes building students’ understanding of the ways that different types of disciplinary knowledge can help us to address questions that bridge subjects and disciplines." (Teaching and Learning about Epistemic Insight brochure, https://crc.up.pt/wp-content/uploads/sites/101/2017/09/epistemic-insight-brochure.pdf)

The Epistemic Insight Project (2017) has been developed by the School of Education at Canterbury Christ Church University and looks to support teachers in working in cross-disciplinary ways to help children answer big questions that go to the heart of human personhood. Research has shown that secondary schools often treat subjects in separate compartmentalised silos where assessment regimes reinforce this separation of the curriculum. Experience has shown that in primary schools the teaching of topics can be conducted at the expense of strong disciplinary input. With Ofsted’s new Education Inspection Framework looking at the intent behind curriculum design, it is very timely to consider what we teach and why we teach it in that way...