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.

中文翻译：

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协作物理教师：通过学习者社区的行动研究增强实验室的使用

这项研究为有关学习者社区在物理教师专业发展中的作用的文献做出了贡献。它提供了Collabora——实验室工作学习者社区计划的见解，该计划旨在加强中学物理教学中实验室的使用。该计划的基础基于两个支柱：学习社区方法和行动研究，以物理教育研究的结果为基础。此外，该计划的结构涵盖了文献中概述的有效专业发展的核心特征（内容重点、主动学习机会、与教师需求的一致性以及足够的持续时间）。该计划历时两年。在第一年中，教师参与并讨论了不同类型的实验，反思了科学实践的评估，并参与了旨在改善课堂实验活动的行动研究。第二年，他们专注于将实验室工作整合到通过向后设计过程开发的教学序列中。本研究的研究问题集中于考察项目特征的作用和相关性，特别强调学习社区和行动研究组成部分，并调查教师因参与该项目而报告的变化。研究结果强调了教师群体的关键作用，互惠培训被认为是“真正的发展”要素。此外，它们证实了行动研究在培养基于研究的创新的主人翁意识方面的相关性。在该计划的过程中，教师报告了个人领域、实践领域以及学生成绩领域（特别是第二年）的变化。这些变化包括使用不同类型的实验、增强实验室的自我效能感以及更加注重实验室工作的设计和评估。我们通过“增长”视角研究了群体层面和个别案例研究子集内的变化。后一种分析强调了教师成长的不同可能的生产途径，支持了教师专业发展复杂且多方面的观点。程序结构促进了“制定”和“反思”的过程，从而调解了各种变化。