Integrating Experimental Research Practices Teachers' Professional Development in Significantly Different Educational Settings

Ongoing calls to better represent experimental research practices in science instruction conflict with the structural constraints of high-stakes exams and limited resources of the instructional laboratory. These constraints favor closely prescribed tasks over open-ended ones involving iterative inquiry processes. Moreover, the teachers themselves need to undergo a process of change, as their practice is often shaped in the traditional laboratory. This chapter aims to inform educators and policymakers who are interested in creating professional development opportunities that encourage an inquiry culture in high- school physics, based on findings from three studies. First, we examined teachers' dispositions toward the integration of experimental research practices in the instructional laboratory. Then we examined the challenges faced by teachers, and their responses to them, in two long-term professional development programs in significantly different settings: (a) professional learning communities of physics teachers, incorporating Restricted Inquiry Laboratories adapted to the constraints of the national matriculation advanced-level physics laboratory exam; (b) the Research Physics Certification Program, serving teachers that mentor student teams carrying out long-term research projects leading to an additional matriculation credit. We compare the teachers' change processes in these two settings, and draw conclusions regarding achievable goals and pedagogical means to meet them.