Learning through uncertainty: opportunities for teacher growth in inquiry-based mathematics instruction

Abstract This study examines how mathematics teachers experience, navigate, and learn through uncertainty when shifting to inquiry-based instruction. Drawing on data from three yearly cohorts of Practimatics—a professional development program supporting this instructional transition—we identify three interrelated forms of uncertainty: (1) mathematical-content uncertainty, when student inquiries moved in unanticipated directions; (2) process-related uncertainty, arising from uneven and nonlinear student progress; and (3) role-related uncertainty, involving dilemmas about structuring exploration, sustaining engagement, and balancing autonomy with guidance. Teachers addressed these challenges through a range of strategies, at times seeking to contain uncertainty through anticipatory preparation, planning, and learning new content, and at other times embracing uncertainty by acknowledging knowledge gaps and adopting co-learning stances. Engagement with uncertainty was associated with opportunities for teacher growth across multiple domains: expansion of mathematical and pedagogical knowledge, experimentation with new instructional practices, refinement of facilitation practices, and the challenging or refinement of beliefs about teaching and learning. By tracing uncertainty and how it was managed, this study contributes to theorizing uncertainty as a constitutive condition of instructional shifts toward ambitious, student-centered instruction, and offers implications for professional development designs that legitimize and support teachers’ productive engagement with uncertainty in these contexts.