Authority and accountability in light of disciplinary practices in science

Abstract Our aim is to explicate the importance of students’ learning about disciplinary authority and accountability and to anchor our analysis in transcripts from a North American high school biology classroom. Previous analyses of the entire two-day lesson and a qualitative description of an episode from one day showed that the students were able to see errors in their peers’ proposals better than they were able to point out the potential errors in their own. Our findings led us to at least one conclusion that differs from earlier formulations of productive disciplinary engagement: that the interpersonal process of construction and critique precedes and fosters its intrapersonal appropriation. The implications for a practice theory of learning are discussed.