In the process of learning and teaching, moments of disruption and uncertainty are inevitable, necessary and in fact ubiquitous (Dewey 1934, English 2013). Whenever our encounter with the new and unfamiliar leads to uncertainty, irritation or doubt, a fertile moment for a transformative learning experience opens up. A learning experience can be considered as transformative if it triggers the deep understanding of something that was previously not understood and that could constitute the starting point for further educational development (Meyer-Drawe 2008). If this moment is taken advantage of and captured by teachers, an opportunity for deep and transformative learning is offered. However, for all we know from the data of classroom observations, teachers tend to rather fend off such instances of uncertainty and focus on the smooth running of the lesson and the realization of their lesson plan (cf. Schrittesser et al. 2014; Schrittesser & Paseka 2017; Schrittesser 2019). To secure the planned course of the lesson teachers resort to particular strategies, which can be defined as patterns of closure. Hand in hand with these patterns seems to go an implicit agreement between pupils and teachers based on a “hidden curriculum” (Dreeben 1967; Jackson 1968). The hidden curriculum implicitly organizes the typical interaction patterns between teachers and students, which sometimes reveal an instrumental and strategical relation to school. This finds its expression in the patterns of closure mentioned above and seems to be tacitly accepted by both students and teachers. In my contribution I will first discuss the phenomenon of uncertainty as a potential fertile moment of learning and will then take a close look at the responding patterns of closure in the teaching process. Building on this, the question will be asked how teachers can be sensitized to enact transformative pedagogies that take notice of uncertainties as promising instances of deep learning.

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