Uncertainty in subject matter education—Constitutive element and fruitful instructional strategy?

Abstract

Uncertainty, which is an essential element of life in globalised, mobile and digitalised post-modern societies, challenges educational institutions. Students must be empowered to deal with such uncertainty to support developing a sense of critical consciousness and agency. Drawing on the discourse of uncertainty in educational science, this qualitative secondary analysis (QSA) refers to two studies that focused on instructional ‘uncertainty-friendly’ settings in four different school subjects (biology, drama and physical education in one study and English as a foreign language in the other) to address the research question: What are students’ responses to didactically staged confrontations with disciplinary uncertainty in different subjects? In the analysed studies, the researchers established uncertainty-friendly settings as an instructional tool to foster deep learning and cognitive flexibility in K–12 students. This QSA compares students’ reactions to these settings. The findings suggest a cross-curricular pattern of student responses: In all subjects, students initially showed unspecific responses, all of which acknowledged uncertainty. In addition, students showed specific responses (i.e. the modes of juxtaposition, exploration and rejection) as active interactions with the uncertainty of the settings. The results can further the development of uncertainty-friendly classrooms and reflection on their limitations.