Typically, the scientiÞc method in science classrooms takes the form of discrete, ordered steps meant to guide students' inquiry. In this paper, we examine how focusing on the scientiÞc method as discrete steps affects students' inquiry and teachers' perceptions thereof. To do so, we study a ninth-grade environmental science class in which students Þrst reviewed a typical version of the scientiÞc method, then brainstormed about which sites on school grounds could be good earthworm habitats and how to test their ideas. Our discourse analysis explores the dynamics between the "steps" of the scientiÞc method and students' engagement in more authentic scientiÞc inquiry. We argue that focusing on the scientiÞc method as discrete steps can distract students from their ongoing, productive

Through analysis of a classroom lesson led by a decorated teacher, we illustrate how instructional practices favor students seeking empirical patterns at the expense of using mechanistic reasoning. In the lesson, when students spontaneously come up with hypothetical mechanisms to explain why a light bulb in an electric circuit does or does not light, the teacher, following the guidance of standardized curricula, redirects them toward pattern-seeking. We argue that this bias toward patternseeking in Chinese national standards and curricula, along with ambiguity in those documents on what an "explanation" is, sits in tension with students' productive abilities and propensities for engaging in mechanistic explanation. In discussion, we extend the argument to show a less severe but similar bias toward patternseeking in the United States' Next Generation Science Standards.

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Scoring rubrics are widely employed across content areas and grade levels, including in high school biology classes. Besides regular external use within accountability systems, educators also have advanced their instructional use inside classrooms. In recent years, a consensus appears to be emerging in the educational literature that instructional use of rubrics is beneficial for student learning, and numerous examples in the research and practitioner literature establish their importance in teachers’ planning, instruction, and assessment. We examine this assumption through close analysis of students’ use of a scoring rubric in a high school biology classroom. We explore how instructional use of a scoring rubric influences biology teaching and learning activities, what messages about knowledge and learning such use conveys to students, and what influence such use may have on students’ emergent understandings of what constitutes quality in biological thinking and practice. Our analysis suggests that instructional use of scoring rubrics can actually undermine the very learning it is intended to support. We discuss an alternative way to help students understand what constitutes high-quality work, and we draw implications for science teacher education.

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