Five ways to welcome uncertainty in the classroom: Editorial

Instructors should welcome mistakes and ambiguity into the learning environment, write Jeremy T Murphy and Meira Levinson in an article for Inside Higher Ed. Though embracing uncertainty can be intimidating for instructors and students alike, the authors argue that the practice can “foster curiosity, promote metacognition, and spark active learning” in the postsecondary classroom. The authors offer five strategies for instructors looking to embrace uncertainty more in their teaching practice, which include welcoming wrong answers, temporarily withholding the correct answers to encourage discussion, and modelling not knowing the solution to every problem. The writers conclude that these practices could teach students that uncertainty is an unavoidable and necessary part of the learning process.