What barriers do you see when implementing inquiry methods in the classroom?

The biggest barriers were my understanding of what inquiry is and what it is not. To answer these questions I needed to get some professional development in science inquiry from the experts-BSCS. I learned a lot from this experiance yet I also left feeling that inquiry in classroom is "staged"....... is this science inquiry? When I was a research biologist, inquiry was a tool used to answer questions we had. I tried to take this approach in the classroom yet most of the time it would result in fustration. Developing the skills to do inquiry are critical....this was the first problem I experianced. My students lacked essential process skills to use inquiry as a tool. Learning science and doing science go hand in hand......just haven't figured out the balance. Most of the inquiry we do is not tied to labs or experiments..........

I have gotten over the technical aspects of classroom management, but some activities require on going data collection and its hard to come up with templates and formats for ongoing data and its also hard to scaffold meaning for the students.  Should one use journals, homemade sheets, should the sheets be continuous, how will the outcome be presented and graded?  Powerpoints, a booklet?  I had a successful cricket inquiry and now I am doing decomposition chambers and I find these more challenging.  They knock over easily ( next time I will add gravel to the bottoms).. everyone tested something different and I had trouble keeping track.. some of the experiments yeilded what the students considered exciting results, some did little.. They also require upkeep.. not sure how to bring it all together.. thanks for the vent!  Cindy