Fostering lower secondary school teachers’ professional development: a teaching experiment in classical mechanics

Teacher professional development in science education often struggles to translate theoretical knowledge into meaningful classroom practice, particularly at the lower secondary level. This study presents an original teaching experiment in classical mechanics, designed to foster both pedagogical content knowledge and conceptual change through a situated, inquiry-based approach. Grounded on situated learning theory, our methodology integrates the PEC model (prediction, experimentation, comparison) within modular teaching episodes enabling authentic engagement with physics concepts through low-cost, hands-on activities. Unlike many top-down professional development programs, this initiative builds from teachers’ intuitive knowledge, actively confronting and reconstructing misconceptions through guided inquiry and collaborative reflection. Relying on qualitative data—collected through classroom observation, discussion transcripts, and informal interviews—we document how teachers revised deeply held misunderstandings about motion, force, mass, and weight. Findings reveal a substantial shift in participants’ conceptual frameworks and teaching practices, including increased use of student-centred experimentation, more accurate use of scientific language, and improved ability to model inquiry-based instruction. This research contributes original evidence that sustained, situated learning environments can effectively promote long-term professional growth and epistemological transformation in science teachers, even in structurally constrained educational systems.