The Epistemic Insight Initiative is a research and curriculum innovation project that combines research-engaged teaching with a national research project in schools. The initiative will involve eight Higher Education institutions, led by Canterbury Christ Church University, with funding from the Templeton World Charity Foundation, the Royal Academy of Engineering, The National Collaborative Outreach Programme and All Saints Education Trust. The LASAR (Learning about Science and Religion) team and the Faculty of Education have been awarded more than £1.5 million to carry out the research.

Epistemic insight refers to ‘knowledge about knowledge’, and particularly knowledge about disciplines and how they interact. Teaching epistemic insight goes hand in hand with teaching a knowledge-rich, broad and balanced curriculum. Gaining epistemic insight is about developing an appreciation of the strengths and limitations of individual disciplines by exploring how they work in cross disciplinary contexts. It is also about discovering how distinct disciplines and knowledge types can help us to think about big questions.

Teaching epistemic insight goes hand in hand with teaching a knowledge-rich, broad and balanced curriculum. The EI framework for Education helps schools to link the curriculum intent of individual subjects into a joined-up approach. The Framework explains, key stage by key stage, how to develop students' expressed curiosity and their capacities to be wise about how knowledge is and can be formed and tested within subjects and across them.

Current research has highlighted that schools typically provide few opportunities for asking cross-disciplinary questions and for exploring and talking about the distinctive approaches that different disciplines take. The EI framework for Education makes explicit key ideas about the nature of knowledge which are present in the current curriculum but typically neglected because of entrenched compartmentalisation and a tendency to ‘teach to the existing test’ – which in turn does not assess the full intent of the curriculum.

The EI framework explicitly engages with Big Questions as a strategy to facilitate pupils’ understanding of the distinct roles of different types of disciplinary knowledge and their limitations. Big Questions are typically questions about the nature of reality and human personhood. These questions are usually squeezed out of the curriculum because they do not fit into single-subject boxes and often bridge a range of disciplines and are perceived to be controversial. And yet these are questions where great advances are now being made and where the conclusions and outputs affect the lives of individuals and society.

The Epistemic Insight initiative will enable researchers, tutors, student teachers and teachers to work together collaboratively. They will develop and test strategies to engage school students in more dialogue about Big Questions, find ways to build their understanding of different types of disciplinary knowledge and help students to explore ways that areas of knowledge interact to address questions that bridge subjects and disciplines. We expect the research outputs to include a curriculum framework for primary and secondary schools that will enable young people to:

• Develop their curiosity and capacity to express questions that bridge disciplines and subjects including Big Questions (questions about the nature of reality and personhood that bridge science, religion and the wider humanities)
• Explain the characteristics, potential and limitations of a range of disciplines and areas of knowledge, how they interact to inform our thinking about different types of questions and why the framing of questions matters.
• Design, carry out and evaluate enquiries that demonstrate a growing ability to think more deeply, compassionately and critically about Big Questions.

This toolkit is designed to support the development of Epistemic Insight strategies for teaching and learning within your programme and modules. Included is an explanation of the process and a description of expectations. A range of of ideas and activities are included, as well as some illustrative case studies.