As Avi Hofstein’s work has shown us, laboratory learning can provide a unique instructional environment where students engage in the processes that scientists use to construct knowledge: identifying questions; forming hypotheses; designing and conducting scientific investigations; formulating and revising scientific explanations; and communicating and defending scientific arguments. Unfortunately, laboratory instruction fails to reach this potential when it is relegated to students following step-by-step procedures to verify something that have been told. High quality inquiry-based laboratory experiments help students use data to construct new conceptual understanding of chemistry. However, well-designed laboratory materials are not enough. Research tells us that handing teachers such materials does not guarantee implementation with fidelity. For many teachers, shifting their laboratory instructional practices from traditional confirmation laboratories to inquiry-based laboratory instruction requires reshaping their ideas about the role of laboratory instruction and embracing evidenced-based theories about how people learn. The Target Inquiry (TI) program is a research-based, long-term, coherent professional development program designed to improve the frequency and quality of inquiry-based instruction in science classes. Data from teachers’ interviews and teacher-developed instructional materials will be presented to illustrate how engaging teachers in authentic research experiences followed by mentored materials development transforms teachers’ ideas about inquiry-based instruction, learning, and the role of laboratory instruction, while empowering them to develop quality laboratory instructional materials.

Target Inquiry: Transforming teachers’ ideas about laboratory instruction

251st National Meeting (2016)

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