Making the case to improve teachers’ STEM-integrated content knowledge: an analysis of teachers’ adaptive expertise and impacts on student classroom experiences

Responding to the need for interdisciplinary, real-world STEM-integrated learning, we examine the relationship between teachers’ adaptive expertise in bioinformatics (a STEM field that integrates biology, data literacy, and computational approaches) and students’ classroom experiences. We draw on data from an earlier study, in which we conducted a summer professional development workshop and subsequent school-year implementation of a bioinformatics curriculum with five biology teachers. This study uses a mixed methods approach combining student pre/post suerveys, factor and regression analyses, and previously collected teacher adaptive expertise data to investigate how teachers’ abilities to adapt the STEM-integrated curriculum influenced their students’ classroom experiences. Using an adaptive expertise lens, we reveal challenges teachers faced in adapting STEM-integrated curricula in their practice due to a need for greater competence and confidence in content knowledge. Students’ classroom experiences showed significant growth in three of the five factors related to learning about bioinformatics with small to medium effect sizes. Notably, the two factors related to interests in working with real-world data and opportunities to develop literacy skills did not show significant growth. A regression analysis demonstrated statistically significant effects of teachers’ adaptive expertise on the student experience outcomes measured. We suggest that high-quality professional development should support teachers to become adaptive experts in STEM-integrated curricula, with a particular focus on improving teachers’ content knowledge. Furthermore, we contend that more research that can highlight specific knowledge needs of teachers (e.g., more adaptive expertise) is necessary if we are to fully realize the enormous potential for STEM-integrated learning in K–12 classrooms.