Glimpses of Uncertainty in Teaching

Teaching is inherently stressful because every encounter involves considerable uncertainty. Judging the levels and needs of students, selecting appropriate subject matter, and choosing effective instructional strategies, are areas of continual choice for teachers. Teachers may be professionally trained to manage the uncertainty of such choices. Like all choices, however, these involve certain assumptions, and when these assumptions cannot be taken for granted, the stress level escalates. (Clifton & Roberts, 1993 Clifton, R. A., & Roberts, L. W. (1993). Authority in classrooms. Scarborough, ON: Prentice-Hall Canada. [Google Scholar], p. 10)