Collaborative physics teachers: Enhancing the use of the laboratory through action research in a community of learners

This study contributes to the literature on the role of communities of learners in the professional development of physics teachers. It offers insights from the Collabora—A Community of Learners on Laboratory Work program, designed to enhance the use of laboratories in secondary school physics teaching. The program’s foundation rested upon two pillars: a learning community approach and action research, grounded in the findings of physics education research. Furthermore, the program was structured to encompass the core features of effective professional development as outlined in the literature (content focus, active learning opportunities, coherence with teachers’ needs, and sufficient duration). The program spanned 2 years. During the first year, teachers engaged with and discussed different types of experiments, reflected on the assessment of scientific practices, and participated in action research aimed at improving laboratory activities in their classrooms. In the second year, they focused on integrating laboratory work within teaching-learning sequences developed through a backward design process. The research questions of this study were centered on examining the role and relevance of program features, with particular emphasis on the learning community and action research components, and on investigating the changes reported by teachers as a result of participating in the program. The findings emphasize the pivotal role of the teacher community, with reciprocal training identified as the “truly developmental” element. Moreover, they corroborate the relevance of action research in fostering a sense of ownership of research-based innovations. Over the course of the program, teachers reported changes in the personal domain, in the domain of practice, and, particularly in the second year, also in the domain of student outcomes. These changes included the use of different types of experiments, a greater sense of self-efficacy in the laboratory, and an increased focus on the design and assessment of laboratory work. We studied changes through a “growth” lens, both at the group level and within a subset of individual case studies. The latter analysis highlights different possible productive pathways to teachers’ growth, supporting a view of teacher professional development as complex and multifaceted. The program structure facilitated the processes of “enactment” and “reflection” that mediated the various changes.

Figure 1

Visual representation of the Collabora approach.

Figure 2

The backward design matrix provided to the teachers (English version; original in Italian).

Figure 3

The count of teachers who mentioned each program feature as pivotal for program effectiveness. The data for the first year are based on a sample of 15 teachers, while the data for the second year represent the 11 teachers who continued their participation in the program.

Figure 4

The count of teachers who ranked each activity among the top 3 most useful ones. The data for the first year are based on a sample of 15 teachers, while the data for the second year represent the 11 teachers who continued their participation in the program.

Figure 5

Aspects of a learning community highlighted by participants. The data for the first year are based on a sample of 15 teachers, while the data for the second year represent the 11 teachers who continued their participation in the program.

Figure 6

Participants’ assessment of the effectiveness of the CoL approach in addressing some broader professional development goals. The data pertain to the group of 11 teachers who completed the second year.

Figure 7

Reported changes in the three domains after the first year (darker color) and at the end of the program (full bar). The analysis is limited to the 11 teachers who completed both years of the program.

Figure 8

Number of reported changes in each of the three domains for each participant in the sample, (left) after the first year and (right) at the end of the program.

Figure 9

Participants’ trajectories across the different domains of change, mediated by the processes of enactment (solid lines) and reflection (dashed lines): (a) Gordon, (b) Lisa, (c) Sophie. Numbers refer to the quotes reported in the tables for each participant. The gray color marks the first move for each instance.