Doug Johnson

Embracing Ambiguity
Head for the Edge, Technology Connection, May 1995

As a teacher, I can construct activities which either discourage or invite ambiguity in my classroom.

Let’s say my class is studying camels. If I want predictability, I would ask my class to fill out a worksheet based on information found in a textbook or taken from my lecture. The worksheet even has exactly three blanks to match the exact information for which I’m looking from my students. Easy to correct, easy to measure, done by every student in a set amount of time. My class stays in the secure world of answers I’ve determined to be right or wrong.

Let’s change the assignment a little. I will narrow the topic and ask my students to answer the question, ‘What allows camels to survive in the desert?” And this time instead of sending them to the textbook or lecture notes, they’ll head to the media center with a blank paper instead of a paper with blanks. Students might use print and CD-Rom encyclopedias, a variety of books, the Internet, magazines, filmstrips, and phone calls to local experts.

What happens? Some students come back with a dozen facts; some with only one or two or none. Some facts are relevant; some are not. Some kids are done in 10 minutes; some need all hour. We’ve left “right” and “wrong” answers behind, and responses now are subject to interpretation, evaluation, and categorization. Now who decides what constitutes a correct answer? Hopefully, it’s not the text nor teacher, but the students themselves as a result of discussion.

It takes a special teacher to create a classroom like the second one which doesn’t just accept ambiguity and the open ended discussion it engenders, but embraces it. Some of us have been lucky enough to have had those teachers Their discussions may have been about the interpretation of poem, an incident in history, or a contradiction in science, and they didn’t end when the bell rang - excited students carried the talk into the hallways, lunchrooms and all the way home on the bus.

Why are these resource-based, higher-level thinking type activities important? We only have to ask ourselves what kinds of learning most closely resemble those faced by adults?

When I speak to the Lions or Rotary, I ask adults about the last time they needed to learn something - the features of a new phone system, the selection of a political candidate, or even a new exercise regime. They mention reading books, talking to experts, studying magazines, even searching on-line sources, but they never once mention a textbook. I can’t remember the last time I went to a textbook or professional teacher when I needed to learn something either! Shouldn’t schools be giving kids the same kinds of learning experiences they’ll be encountering in the real world?

So how do we encourage teachers and students to accept and even welcome ambiguity as a part of the teaching/learning process? This may not be as easy as it would seem. Teachers teach the way they themselves were taught. Principals place high value on ordered classrooms. School time is constructed of small rigid blocks. Media centers are often far away, and telephones and computer networks are by no means the rule in most K-12 classrooms.

This issue certainly doesn’t have an easy solution, but any solution will have a librarian at the heart of it. A librarian who models activities which may have a variety outcomes, encourages and cooperates with teachers who love discussion and ambiguity, and provides current, relevant resources for student research and problem solving.

Most of my Head for the Edge columns, updated and edited, can be found in my latest book. Buy it and I might be able to afford a nicer nursing home one day. Thank you.