Connecting Design and Experience
Tracing Uncertainty Through Classroom Science Investigations
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21392959 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Eve Manz (0000-0003-3395-2449, Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development Brookline Massachusetts USA, corresponding author), Alessandra Ward (0000-0003-1714-1216, Wheaton College Norton Massachusetts USA), Andrea Wells (0009-0002-0540-5421, Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development Brookline Massachusetts USA) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 110 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 557-579 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Science Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0036-8326 • E-ISSN: 1098-237X |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/sce.70015 |
| OpenAlex | W4414597812 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 68 |
Uncertainty has drawn substantial attention because of its potential to support conceptual progress and meaningful science work in science classrooms. Uncertainty has been conceptualized in a variety of ways: as central to scientific activity, as a design principle for science learning environments, and as an experience that supports individual and collective sensemaking. We argue that realizing uncertainty as a resource in learning environments requires working across multiple conceptions of uncertainty, specifically connecting uncertainty as designed for and uncertainty as experienced in the learning environment . We use an elementary school landforms investigation to apply design conjectures and develop an analytic method for following uncertainty from design through collective classroom engagement. We explore whether and how uncertainty was realized, made public, and taken up in classroom conversations. We highlight key findings that have continued to guide our work designing for productive uncertainty in classroom science. These include the interconnected nature of uncertainties in various parts of student investigations, the supportive role of consequential differences in helping students make uncertainty public, and teacher practices that impact how students make public and work with uncertainty
Affordance · Philosophy of science · Resource (disambiguation) · Science education · Science learning · Teaching method · Tracing · Variety (cybernetics) · Work (physics) · Educational Environments and Student Outcomes · Innovative Teaching and Learning Methods · Science Education and Pedagogy
Articulating the World
Experiment and the Making of Meaning
Socializing Intelligence Through Academic Talk and Dialogue
The origins of intelligence in children.
Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science
Communities of Practice
Educational Design Research
Defining sensemaking
Scaffolding Complex Learning
Supporting teachers to negotiate uncertainty for science, students, and teaching
Inventing to Prepare for Future Learning
Classroom communities' adaptations of the practice of scientific argumentation
The Construction of Shared Knowledge in Collaborative Problem Solving
Guiding Principles for Fostering Productive Disciplinary Engagement
Patterns of Discovery
Working toward a stronger conceptualization of scientific explanation for science education
Examining Key Concepts in Research on Teachers’ Use of Mathematics Curricula
Accommodation of a scientific conception
Improvements to elementary children's epistemic understanding from sustained argumentation
Representing Student Argumentation as Functionally Emergent From Scientific Activity
Collaborative design as a form of professional development
Rethinking diversity in learning science
Productive Failure
Engaging in Science
Investigating the interplay of epistemological and positional framing during collaborative uncertainty management
Data-Texts in the Sciences
Quantification in Empirical Activity
Dialogic Pathways to Manage Uncertainty for Productive Engagement in Scientific Argumentation
Navigating student uncertainty for productive struggle
Leveraging curricular and students' resources to instigate and sustain problematizing
Emergent learning about measurement and uncertainty in an inquiry context
Interlocking models in classroom science
Rethinking the classroom science investigation
Material inquiry and transformation as prerequisite processes of scientific argumentation
Epistemic uncertainty and the support of productive struggle during scientific modeling for knowledge co‐development
The glue that makes it “hang together”
Developing deep learning in science classrooms
Engineering Concepts
Desirable uncertainty in science teaching
Modeling Natural Variation Through Distribution
Design Experiments in Educational Research
Causal Explanation, Qualitative Research, and Scientific Inquiry in Education
The Mangle of Practice
Situated Learning
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |