• Many of the activities outlined for students in laboratory guides continue to offer “cook-book” lists of tasks for students to follow ritualistically. They do not engage students in thinking about the larger purposes of their investigation and of the sequence of tasks they need to pursue to achieve those ends.
• Assessment of students’ practical knowledge and abilities and of the purposes of laboratory inquiry tends to be seriously neglected, even by high stakes tests that purport to assess science standards. Thus many students do not perceive laboratory experiences to be particularly important in their learning.
• Teachers and school administrators are often not well informed about what is suggested as best professional practice, and they do not understand the rationale behind such suggestions. Thus, there is a high potential for mismatch between a teacher’s rhetoric and practice that is likely to influence students’ perceptions and behaviors in laboratory work.
• Incorporating inquiry-type activities in school science is inhibited by limitations in resources (including access to appropriate technology tools) and by lack of sufficient time for teachers to become informed and to develop and implement appropriate science curricula. Other inhibiting factors include large classes, inflexible scheduling of laboratory facilities, and the perceived foci of external