#991: Teachers as Co-navigators: Scaffolding Student Uncertainty Navigation in Science Learning

Uncertainty is inherent in scientific inquiry and can function as either a barrier or a resource for learning. This study examines middle school teachers’ perceptions of students’ responses to uncertainty and the ways teachers scaffold uncertainty navigation in science classrooms. Grounded in frameworks of uncertainty navigation and learning regulation, we conceptualize uncertainty navigation as a multidimensional process across cognitive, affective, and behavioral domains, involving phases of recognition, acknowledgment, and management. Twelve teachers participating in a week-long professional development program engaged in a structured discussion on students’ uncertainty responses and teachers’ facilitation strategies. Qualitative interpretive discourse analysis showed that, without scaffolding, students’ responses to uncertainty were often negatively oriented. Teachers described two complementary co-navigation routes—direct and indirect scaffolding—enacted through strategies across dimensions and phases. The findings provide preliminary support for the conjecture that teachers’ co-navigation scaffolds students’ self-navigation of uncertainty, helping transform uncertainty into a resource for sustained scientific inquiry.