Chapter 2: Design Principles for Effective Laboratory Instruction

Laboratories have been a feature of science education for more than a century, yet their value has been debated many times over. What do students really get out of laboratory activities in their science classes? Are they necessary components of good science instruction? How can labs be improved? In 2004, the National Science Foundation asked the National Research Council to provide a definitive answer to these questions. The study committee on high school laboratories published its findings in 2005 as America's Lab Report: Investigations in High School Science (ALR) (NRC, 2005). The committee found that definitive answers to the first two questions posed above are hard to come by. Laboratory experiences are proposed to meet a number of goals of science education, but the existing research base often provides inconclusive evidence of the benefits of labs. At the same time, the committee suggested that science education “would not be about science if it did not include opportunities for students to learn about both the process and the content of science” (NRC, 2005, p. 3). While the report notes that labs are only one potential way to provide these opportunities, the committee found that a number of researchbased efforts to support students' attempts at inquiry make more effective use of laboratory experiences than is typical. From these efforts the committee adduced four design principles to guide the development and implementation of effective laboratory experiences.