My research focuses on supporting math and science teachers embrace uncertainty, both personally and pedagogically. Research highlights that students grappling with uncertainty can increase sense-making skills, deepen their learning and understanding, and enhance creative problem-solving strategies. However, research is less extensive on how teachers purposefully use uncertainty to support students’ inquiry practices, let alone how teachers’ own orientations and perceptions of uncertainty impact their pedagogical decisions.
Currently, I am working with in-service math and science teachers exploring how they perceive student uncertainty and utilize it as a teaching tool in the classroom. To that end, I collaborate with interdisciplinary teams to design professional development programs aimed to support teachers’ change in both perceptions and practice. I have also designed and taught a math methods course for elementary pre-service teachers (PSTs) to explore how purposefully embedding assignments and discussions that center personal, pedagogical, and mathematical uncertainties can impact the PSTs’ sources and perceptions of uncertainty.