Managing Uncertainty for Productive Struggle: Exploring Teacher Development for Managing Students' Epistemic Uncertainty as a Pedagogical Resource in Project-Based Learning

研究小组正在探索教师管理学生认知不确定性的能力，将其作为一种教学资源，在中学科学课堂的基于项目的学习(PBL)教学中支持学生的生产斗争和概念性知识的发展。尽管科学家认为不确定性是科学知识进步和理解世界的主要驱动力，但中学教授科学的典型方式掩盖了不确定性在科学中的生产性作用。事实上，科学通常被教导要强调其确定性和权威性。如果教师要改变他们的教学实践，以科学的方式让不确定的学生参与进来，教育界需要对这一领域进行研究。众所周知，管理课堂中的不确定性对教师和学生来说都是一项挑战。许多人不熟悉科学家和工程师如何管理不确定性以理解现实世界，很少有研究将学习科学作为不确定性管理的企业来探索，也很少有研究探讨教师和学生如何识别学生的不确定性，推进讨论，促进知识发展，得到解决，并适当地提出新的不确定性，以及教师可以采取什么策略来管理学生期望的不确定性，以便进行生产性斗争。该项目旨在探索教师的教学实践如何随着时间的推移而改变，反复使用认知不确定性作为支持学生参与PBL的教学资源，以及这些变化对学生的认知、实践、认知不确定性的管理和学习结果有什么影响。该项目将产生以下成果：(1)以循证为基础的模式和学习材料，重点发展教师的能力和实践，同时使用有针对性的材料和方法；(2)管理不确定性的有效教学模式，将促进科学探究和工程设计的文化，以及一套培养学生代理能力的战略；(3)在STEM-PBL中，教师将学生的认知不确定性作为一种教学资源来支持学生的生产性斗争，从而提高了学生的学习结果。本研究小组采用纵向的、基于设计的研究、混合方法的研究结构，调查了中学理科教师认识、利用和管理学生的认知不确定性作为生产性斗争的教学资源的能力。这项研究对亚利桑那州凤凰城的24名六年级教师进行了为期三年的跟踪调查，从2021年秋季开始。在项目的整个生命周期中，项目活动影响着大约1080名学生的学习成果。以下研究问题是本研究的指导：(1)持续参与不确定性管理的专业发展如何影响教师认识和利用学生的认知不确定性的能力，并将其作为让学生参与生产性斗争以发展科学知识的教学资源？(2)当教师利用认知不确定性作为让学生参与生产斗争的教学资源时，教师在管理认知不确定性方面的教学实践如何随着时间的推移而变化？(3)教师管理不确定性的方法如何影响学生对认知不确定性的感知、实践和管理？在数量上，正在采用现有的措施，并正在开发两种新的工具。定性地说，采访和调查是对这些问题的探索。这项研究的结果为广泛采用的学习标准提供了信息，传播将帮助科学教师认识并使用学生的认知不确定性作为一种教学资源，以支持他们在科学和工程课堂上的学习。探索研究PREK-12计划(DRK-12)旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具，显著提高Pre-K-12学生和教师在科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)方面的学习和教学。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，为拟议的项目提供了理论和经验上的证明。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The research team is exploring teachers' capacity to manage student epistemic uncertainty as a pedagogical resource that supports student’s productive struggle and the development of conceptual knowledge during project-based learning (PBL) instruction in middle school science classrooms. Although scientists consider uncertainty to be a primary driver of the progression of scientific knowledge and making sense of the world, the way science is typically taught in middle school obscures the productive role of uncertainty in science. Indeed, science is typically taught to emphasize its assuredness and authority instead. If teachers are going to shift their teaching practice to engage students with uncertainty in scientifically productive ways, the educational community needs this area to be researched. It is known that managing uncertainty in the classroom is a challenge for teachers and students. Many are not familiar with how scientists and engineers manage uncertainty to make sense of the real world, and few studies explore learning science as an enterprise of uncertainty management nor how student uncertainty is identified by teachers and students, advances discussion, contributes to knowledge development, gets resolved, and appropriately raises new uncertainties, and what strategies are available to teachers to manage students’ desirable uncertainty for productive struggle. This project is exploring how teachers' instructional practices change over time with repeated use of epistemic uncertainty as a pedagogical resource to support students’ engagement in PBL, and what effect those changes have on student perceptions, practice, management of epistemic uncertainty and learning outcomes. The project will result in the following outcomes: (1) an evidence-based model and learning materials for sustained PD that focuses on developing teacher capacity and practice while using targeted materials and approaches; (2) a productive teaching model for managing uncertainty that will promote a culture of scientific inquiry and engineering design as well as a set of strategies to foster student agency; and (3) evidence of increased student learning outcomes when teachers adapt students' epistemic uncertainty as a pedagogical resource to support students' productive struggle in STEM PBL.Using a longitudinal, design-based research, mixed-methods study structure, the research team is investigating middle school science teachers' capacity to recognize, utilize, and manage students' epistemic uncertainty as a pedagogical resource for productive struggle. The study follows the same cohort of 24 sixth-grade teachers in Phoenix, Arizona, for three years beginning in fall 2021. Program activities are impacting approximately 1080 students’ learning outcomes over the life of the project. The following research questions guide the study: (1) How does sustained engagement with professional development in uncertainty management affect teachers' capacity to recognize and utilize students' epistemic uncertainty as a pedagogical resource for engaging students in productive struggle to develop scientific knowledge? (2) How do teachers' instructional practice in managing epistemic uncertainty change over time when they utilize epistemic uncertainty as a pedagogical resource for engaging students in productive struggle? (3) How do teachers' approach to managing uncertainty influence students' perceptions, practice, and management of epistemic uncertainty? Quantitatively, existing measures are being employed an two new instruments are being developed. Qualitatively, interviews and surveys round out the exploration of these questions. The results of this study are informing widely-adopted learning standards, and dissemination will help science teachers to recognize and use students’ epistemic uncertainty as a pedagogical resource to support their learning in science and engineering classrooms. The Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.