Designing ‘productive uncertainty’ into investigations to support meaningful engagement in science practices

What is the Issue?

Authors:

BY EVE MANZ, SARAH ARNOLD, COLLEEN BAZINET, BETSY BECKERT, DIANA GARITY, GRISELDA GEORGE, PAT O’BRIEN, LAUREN REILLY | MAY 2019

Things to Consider

• Scientists routinely work through waves of uncertainty to develop knowledge throughout an investigation. Studies of how scientists conduct investigations show that they grapple with uncertainty: not only about how to develop an explanation but also how to represent the world in the form of an investigation. Scientists question what to pay attention to, how to measure what they care about, and how to make sense of an investigation that is not performing as it “should.” Uncertainty in scientific activity motivates scientists’ engagement in practices. Scientists argue because their peers disagree. They explain because results are confusing or surprising. They engage in collaborative problem solving in order to pull off investigations.
• Instruction is often designed as a sequence of steps for students to follow in an investigation, which has problematic consequences. Practices are often implemented as a sequence of scaffolded activities: controlling variables, applying measurement tools, graphing data, then supporting a claim with evidence. The purpose is to move students toward seeing what they are supposed to see to support a desired content understanding, e.g., that plants need light to grow. Natural student differences in sense-making and activity— different ways of measuring or interpreting results—are then viewed as mistakes to be corrected, rather than as productive resources.
• Practices become meaningful when they are used to address and manage uncertainties. When uncertainties in how to design an experiment, what to use as evidence, and how to interpret results are seen as productive, they can be used to support and deepen meaningful engagement in practices. As students realize they have come to different conclusions, they want to engage in argumentation and explanation. Students can develop shared standards for what counts as a good investigation, argument, measure, or question through this process. Children can be supported to engage with scientific uncertainty from the earliest years of schooling.

Attending to Equity

• All students have the right to learn how the practices of science and engineering can serve their purposes and the interests of their community. We should disrupt 3D instruction that directly teaches or marches students through the practices without attention to how those practices can be seen by students as purposeful.
• All students benefit from seeing that working through uncertainty in investigations is normal. Students from traditionally marginalized backgrounds often experience highly specified investigations and remedial instruction. Engaging them with productive uncertainty allows them to develop identities as active and valued sense-makers.

Recommended Actions You Can Take

• Familiarize yourself with the complexity of scientists’ efforts to represent phenomena in investigations. Explore the ideas in this discussion. As you see accounts of scientists’ investigations (e.g., this story), attend to the intellectual and physical effort that goes into figuring out how to collect evidence to test models and theories.
• Find uncertainties in investigations that can set a purpose for the practices. As you prepare investigations, attend to places where students might feel puzzled, make different choices or come to different conclusions, and where making uncertainty visible would motivate the need to engage in sense-making. Read this vignette to see a detailed example.
• Move beyond an “all or nothing” approach to uncertainty. Look for ways to strategically make specific aspects of an investigation uncertain (e.g., ask students to discuss two choices for data analysis). See these examples for ideas.

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