Supporting teachers to negotiate uncertainty for science, students, and teaching

Abstract

This study addresses how to help elementary science teachers explore the uncertainty inherent in scientific activity and support elementary students to engage in more complex and authentic investigations. We describe a district partnership focused on understanding how to support elementary teachers to adapt curricula to promote science practices. We then present a close analysis of how teachers navigated ideas about uncertainty during their work exploring tools to adapt their curriculum. We argue that an essential aspect of the teachers' work was developing a more nuanced view of scientific uncertainty, including more precise goals for students' engagement in scientific activity and a repertoire of strategies for supporting students to engage with scientific uncertainty without unduly increasing uncertainty for teachers. We trace three strategies that appeared to help teachers negotiate and develop this more nuanced view: beginning with complex phenomena, iterating on investigations, and leveraging variability in students' ways of conducting investigations. The findings have implications for the design of professional development programs for elementary teachers, particularly the support that teachers might need to negotiate a nuanced set of teacher and student roles when seeking to engage students more authentically in science practices.

Managing uncertainty in scientific argumentation

“…We agree with Manz and Suárez's () notion of raising uncertainty through “beginning instruction with a complex phenomenon” (p. 13) as a critical resource. Raising uncertainty thus “constitute(s) resistance for students” (Manz, , p. 117) and positions students with agency to comprehend, critique, and construct argument that results in conceptual development.…”

“…Uncertainty is conceptualized as any particular moment that allows students to make decisions, re‐evaluate existing ideas, and justify each other's knowledge claims. Uncertainty can be incorporated into science inquiry and embedded into pedagogy (Manz & Suárez, ). For example, when students investigate what makes seeds germinate, teachers can help students brainstorm what factors are necessary for germination.…”

Opening up curricula to redistribute epistemic agency: A framework for supporting science teaching

“…Supporting this new kind of learning requires (for many teachers) new kinds of interaction in classrooms, and new kinds of pedagogical practices to support those interactions (Wilson, ). Often, these interactions and practices increase instructional uncertainty for teachers: they are less able to anticipate how a lesson may play out, and they often need to respond, in real time, to the strengths and needs that can vary widely between multiple students or groups in a way that somehow maintains a semblance of coherence and a sense of progress towards learning goals (Hammer, ; Manz & Suárez, ; Richards, Levin, Atkins, & Robertson, ). Undoubtedly, shifting instruction in ways that support students’ epistemic agency is challenging.…”

“…We add the modifier of “epistemic” because we are focused on the actions (or refrains from action) that are consequential to the collaborative construction of a shared knowledge object: an explanatory account of a natural phenomenon. Finally, we use the verb “redistributing” to capture how the power structures present in schooling make necessary teachers’ intentional efforts to open up dialogic space that allows for dynamic negotiation in interactions with students around the joint action of the classroom community and the development of their shared knowledge object (e.g., Colley & Windschitl, ; Manz & Suárez, ; Stroupe, Caballero, & White, ). Put simply, “redistribution” of epistemic agency means more dynamic negotiations, such that students are increasingly involved in guiding the construction of knowledge in their classrooms.…”

Epistemic tools for science classrooms: The continual need to accommodate and adapt

“…Science learning episodes also involve a mangle of negotiated understandings (Stroupe, )—except that in science classroom the teacher has a sense about the knowledge destination. To support teachers and students with navigating the uncertain path toward the student learning outcomes (Manz & Suárez, ), “epistemic tools” are designed to support individual and collective sense‐making. The tools in both the lab and classroom contexts are epistemic inasmuch as they are applied toward supporting scientific practices and group participation.…”