Preparing Teachers for Uncertainty

Abstract

Teaching is evidently and inevitably uncertain. No teacher can be sure how a lesson will go or what a student will learn. No one can be sure which teaching approach will be most successful with a particular group of students. Casual observation and systematic research both indicate the importance of uncertainty to the ways teachers think and feel about their work. Uncertainty is especially troubling for novice teachers. Researchers and teachers have described qualities and consequences of uncertainty.