Table 3 Summary of the instructional moves observed in the laboratory

Encouraging Student Epistemic Agency

Instructional moves that supported students’ capacity to express necessary agency in the laboratory – a task typically accomplished by subtly helping students trust that their experimental design ideas were valid and useful as a means for generating knowledge claims. For example, critiquing students’ experimental designs without suggesting there may be a correct method that they should alternatively employ.

Referencing Community-Driven Knowledge Production

Instructional moves that prioritized and leveraged the laboratory community as a legitimate means for supporting students’ development of relevant knowledge claims. For example, convincing students that critiquing their peers was useful and in fact a necessary component of developing community-driven knowledge claims.

Discouraging Student Epistemic Agency

Instructional moves in the laboratory that delegitimized students’ efforts and discouraged epistemic uptake – typically accomplished by offering students with ready-made solutions when seemingly insurmountable challenges emerged. For example, simply telling students how to control the necessary variables in their designs after realizing they were struggling to accomplish this task.