Pedagogical Contexts Influence Preference For Uncertainty

The world is changing at an unprecedented pace,featuring tremendous job uncertainty.However,is the current education system adequately preparing our next generations for this new reality?This dissertation explored this question by examining how pedagogical styles affect learners' preference for uncertainty.Based on the constructivist view of education,I proposed that,compared to a teaching style which emphasizes memorization and teachers' role in transmitting information to students,a teaching style that emphasizes building students' own understanding of the subject matter can drive students to be more willing to take on the challenges of uncertainty.The current research was conducted with adult participants,college participants,and middle and high school participants from the U.S.as well as from China.I used the paradigms of scenario priming,past experience priming,and real-class evaluation.The dissertation comprises 4 sections.Section 1 examined the effect of pedagogical styles on learners' preference for uncertainty and its mechanisms.Sections 2 and 3 examined the external validity and the ecological validity of the research,respectively.In Section 4,the single-paper meta-analysis was conducted to synthesize the results across all 10 experiments.Section 1 examined the simple effect and its mechanisms through 4 studies.Studies 1,2,and 3 compared two typical pedagogical styles on their effects on preference for uncertainty.These studies primed adult participants from the U.S.with two different high school math class scenarios.All three studies found that the modern pedagogical style(i.e.,an understanding-focused class with a collaborative teacher)led to a greater preference for uncertainty than the more traditional style(i.e.,a memorization-focused class with a didactic teacher).This effect is mediated sequentially by(1)students' perception of the teacher's fixed mindset,(2)students'expectations of social devaluation,(3)students' construal of mistakes,and(4)students' anticipation of negative emotions in the face of an uncertain problem.Study 4 delineated the effect of class structure(i.e.,a memorizing class vs.an understanding class)and that of teacher's style(i.e.,a didactic teacher vs.a collaborative teacher)on preference for uncertainty.The main effects were found for both factors without an interaction.In other words,an understanding class is better than a memorizing class while a collaborative teacher is better than a didactic teacher in regard to increasing students' preference for uncertainty.Section 2 examined the external validity of the research by replicating the findings in Section 1 in different contexts,different cultures,and different age groups.Studies 5a and 5b primed the U.S.adult participants with two work scenarios corresponding to the two classroom scenarios in Study 1.The same results were found as in Studies 1,2,and 3.Studies 6 and 7 replicated the findings in the previous studies with Chinese college students and high school students,respectively.Section 3 examined the ecological validity of the research by using paradigms closer to the real life.Studies 8 and 9 used the paradigm of past experience priming with the U.S.adults and Chinese college students respectively.The participants were asked to identify a math class they had in the past which was closest to either a traditional class or a modern class.The results again showed that those who recalled a class taught by a didactic teacher with an emphasis on memorization prefer more uncertainty than those who recalled a class taught by a collaborative teacher with an emphasis on students' understanding the subject matter.In Study 10,the students were asked to rate their current math classes and indicate how likely they would prefer uncertainty to certainty in their current math classes.The result showed that the closer the students rated their current class to the more modern pedagogy,the more they favored uncertainty over certainty.In Section 4,a single-paper meta-analysis was conducted to synthesize the results across all 10 experiments.The result indicated that,the more modern pedagogy relative to the traditional one can drive students to be more willing to take on the challenges of uncertainty.Some initial evidences were also attained that this effect could be carried over from a math class to a science class which the participants knew nothing about.The current research suggests that pedagogical styles could affect students'tendency to approach or avoid uncertainty.This effect is universal and can be carried over from one scenario to another.The dissertation started to address the important topic of how to prepare our next generations for the new reality.It provided evidences for possible directions to improve the current education system.