Encouraging Uncertainty in the 'Scientific Method': Promoting Understanding in the Processes of Science with Preservice Teachers

Teachers' feelings of uncertainty are an overlooked, though crucial, condition necessary for the promotion of educational change. This article investigates the feelings of uncertainty that preservice teachers have toward the conduct of science as inquiry and the extent to which methods courses can confront and embrace those uncertainties. Our work indicates that veneers of certainty exist at both the personal and institutional level and that by challenging these certainties throughout the methods courses, opportunities can be opened for preservice teachers to understand, and engage with, the teaching of science as inquiry. We conclude this article by offering implications for further research.