Research has shown that the objectives for laboratory teaching—just as with other teaching
methods—are often not achieved and that many laboratory sessions are ineffective and yet expensive
in terms of pupil and teacher time, and facilities. There are several reasons for this, but one
reason is that instructions for many lab activities are too prescriptive and leave too little room
for thinking and creativity of pupils. Even though this problem had been pointed out already in the
early 1980s, it has persisted to this day. Additionally, ICT tools such as data logging, video
measurement, and modelling have been available to secondary schools for decades. These tools provide
unique opportunities for authentic investigations at the secondary school level. However, even
friendly software might require considerable instruction and reinforce a prescriptive approach.
Therefore, we developed a course for pre-service and in-service teachers to learn to apply ICT tools
in a minds-on and in…