This guide for the improvement of instruction in higher education is designed to aid the educator in planning and conducting laboratory instruction. The examples used refer primarily to science laboratories. Topics discussed include: deciding whether or not to use the laboratory method (with a discussion of discovery learning or the processes of inquiry), planning and designing the laboratory, and designing and evaluating low-guidance inquiry laboratories. An appendix presents a test problem dealing with the selectivity of the semi-permeable membrane of yeast cells. (CS)