“…However, no study we know of has empirically analysed the interactive relationship between RC and content knowledge (CK) and only a few studies have analysed how teaching practices in authentic classroom settings affect RC (e.g., Hubber, Tytler, & Hastam, 2010;Kohl & Finkelstein, 2006;Prain & Waldrip, 2006;Tytler, Prain, & Peterson, 2007). This is surprising as there is strong evidence that students' cognitive and affective outcomes are REPRESENTATIONAL COMPETENCE IN BIOLOGY CLASSES 3 generally influenced by teaching practices and instructional quality (e.g., Fraser, 2003;Kunter, Baumert, & Köller, 2007;Lipowsky et al, 2009;Schroeder et al, 2011). Therefore, we argue that it is crucial to incorporate an explicit representational focus in teaching and learning science as a part of domain-specific instructional quality in order to develop students' RC.…”