Revealing Systemic Tensions in Inquiry-Based School Physics: A Cultural-Historical Activity Theory Synthesis

Abstract

Inquiry-based school physics is widely endorsed because it can engage learners in questioning, modelling, experimentation, evidence evaluation, and explanation. Nevertheless, inquiry is frequently narrowed in practice into tightly scripted laboratory work, short demonstrations, or activities whose apparent openness does not extend to epistemic decision making. This critical, theory-building conceptual synthesis uses Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) to explain that implementation gap as a systemic rather than individual problem. It draws selectively on research concerning school science and physics inquiry, laboratory learning, teacher education, assessment, digital tools, and activity-theoretical educational change. The synthesis proposes four analytically connected layers of candidate contradiction: primary contradictions associated with historically competing forms of educational value; secondary contradictions between inquiry’s epistemic object and the tools, rules, or role structures through which it is pursued; tertiary contradictions between established instructional activity and emerging inquiry-oriented practice; and quaternary contradictions between classroom inquiry and neighbouring systems of assessment, curriculum governance, teacher education, and school accountability. These tensions explain why reasonable local adaptations can cumulatively proceduralize inquiry. Two visual models and four analytic tables translate the theoretical diagnosis into an empirically testable redesign agenda. Sustainable improvement requires coordinated attention to epistemic purpose, calibrated guidance, assessment validity, material and digital mediation, teacher agency, and cross-system alignment. CHAT therefore adds explanatory power to inquiry research: it connects visible classroom disturbances to historically formed structures and identifies contradictions as potential resources for expansive learning. The article concludes with propositions for empirical testing and a multilevel research agenda for physics education.