Proponents of research apprenticeships often claim that learner participation in these programs will lead to more sophisticated understandings of NOS. This is based on the notion that by engaging in the process of science, learners will develop more appropriate understandings of how knowledge is developed in authentic contexts of science. In other words, doing science will implicitly result in learning about the epistemology of science. This suggestion is supported by empirical research demonstrating that secondary students involved in extended scientific research with practicing scientists in research apprenticeships develop sophisticated understandings of the tentative nature of scientific knowledge, the creative ways in which it is generated, and the collaborative nature of its development (Richmond & Kurth, 1999). In interviews conducted with high school participants in a 7-week long research apprenticeship, Richmond & Kurth (1999) document that students develop these NOS understandings as they construct identities as scientists. The authors claim that, through a process of enculturation in research apprenticeships, students come to view themselves as working members within a culture of scientific practice and better appreciate the epistemology that guides that practice without explicit instruction on NOS. That being said, it should be noted that these participants were asked to reflect in journals on their views of science. The extent to which these opportunities for reflection impacted student NOS conceptions remains unclear in this research.