Despite STEM education is highly advocated in Hong Kong schools, teachers and students are still lack of the relevant personal experience and practical training, especially in an informal learning environment. This paper reports on a new event of STEM Olympiad 2016 organized by The Education University of Hong Kong and supported by the Education Bureau of the HKSAR Government and other institutions, aiming at providing senior secondary school students with informal learning opportunities to deepen their understanding of STEM and reflecting on their interest towards pursuing further study in STEM subjects and career; and creating an atmosphere conducive to the teaching of STEM in secondary schools and heighten teachers' and students' awareness of the importance of STEM education. Students participating in the STEM Olympiad completed a “Knowledge Challenge” on both individual and team bases, and competed in the “Innovations in Practice Challenge” to solve the local wastewater treatment problems. Each team had to design, assemble and test a treatment system prototype to meet the design criteria and to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in STEM without prior training and preparation. Before the final challenge, a mass expert lecture was delivered by an experienced engineer to enrich students' knowledge in the wastewater treatment and its underlying scientific principles. A series of 11 parallel education forum and workshops were also held to raise participants' awareness of the importance of STEM education as attended by hundreds of teachers and students. The competition yielded a total of 36 gold, silver and bronze medals awarded to the competition winners. We conducted student and teacher questionnaire survey and interviews after the competition to collect data on their perceptions and opinions of the event. As expected, the feedback is generally positive in many aspects. In particular, the students widened their vision in STEM and the teachers also obtained a holistic

Recent educational research reveals that case studies can be applied in STEM education as a pedagogically powerful method for teaching scientific concepts and contents as well as science process skills. However, there exists very little research or literature on the instructional use of case study in STEM education in Hong Kong. Hence, a team of science educators and scientists initiated a collaborative project to investigate how feasible case study can be incorporated in STEM education. Over a period of seven months, we developed case teaching materials (including case story line with authentic data, worksheets for field trip and laboratory experiments, online/remote-controlled experiments, aerial movies filmed by drones and virtual reality videos etc.) for topics purposefully selected from (i) Hong Kong Wetland Park, (ii) two large sewage treatment plants/projects of the Drainage Services Department, and (iii) landfill gas used by the Town Gas company. This teaching approach was implemented in three different courses in our education university. A set of instrument for mixed research method was specifically developed or modified for collecting data on the learning effectiveness and feedback from a total of 115 students enrolled in the aforementioned three courses. Essential features of the case teaching materials and preliminary findings of the evaluation will be presented. The discussion on the difficulties encountered in the development and implementation stages as well as the direction for the future research and development work will be highlighted.

To maintain one's competitiveness edge in a global sense, we have observed a wide spread drive in various economies on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education at different levels of education. The emphasis on STEM education originates in the US back in the middle of last century, since then tremendous input of resources and efforts have been put into STEM education for its development and implementation. The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region highlighted Hong Kong's commitment to STEM education in his three successive Policy Address in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Echoing this high level commitment were the reports on STEM education published by the Education Bureau of the HKSAR Government and the Academy of Sciences of Hong Kong. Given these, there is still a wide spectrum of views as to the “What” and “How” of STEM education among stakeholders. While hero cases of STEM education and learning resources have sprung up in the past few years, we yet have to see sufficient research evidence to shed lights on the ways to scale up the initiative. This speech will attempt to reflect on the global and local lessons on STEM education.

STEM（科學、科技、工程與數學）教育，是近年香港教育當局力推的教育項目，並由政府以專項撥款的形式支援學校推行（小學為十萬港元、中學為二十萬港元）。政府在 2015年發表諮詢文件，並且計劃在 2016 年起的三個學年，推出不同的項目以推行 STEM 教育。本文將以香港三所小學（浸信會天虹小學、天主教博智小學、慈幼英文學校）為例，透過他們推行 STEM 教育的經驗，檢視現時政策與學校實踐之間存在著什麼問題，並且以他們的經驗，嘗試為香港未來推行 STEM 教育提出建議，供各界參考。

Objective: Developing student's critical thinking capacity has long become one of the fundamental aims in Hong Kong secondary school education sector. The aim of the proposed research was to investigate the influence of teachers' teaching strategies on the learning of students' critical thinking (CT). Method: A mixed-method research design was employed. Under the guidance and training from the research team, classroom interventions were undertaken in two rounds. Well established student survey was collected. Lesson observation tools were developed and used, measuring the teaching strategies adopted in class, and the changes of outcome variables such as classroom discourses and student higher-order thinking. Nearly 200 students from eight Liberal study (LS) classrooms, four secondary schools in Hong Kong, participated in the research. Paired samples T-test was adopted for the quantitative part of analysis, meanwhile coding schemes were developed for the analysis of lessons observed. Results: Descriptive results showed a consistent improvement on student's critical thinking across dimensions, regarding both their CT propensity and skills. Significant results were found in sub-dimension levels. Further, findings reflect improved student engagement in classroom both from behavioral and cognitive perspectives. There was also significant increase in student higher order-thinking behaviors. Conclusion: This piece of research confirmed the important role played by the teachers as facilitators in improving students' critical thinking in the process of learning and teaching in classroom. The paper concludes with recommendations for efficient teaching strategies in enhancing the student's CT and implications for linking pedagogical theories and classroom practice.

The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (Conference report, international conference on learning cities, October 21–23, Beijing, China, 2014) has promoted the idea of the learning city which highlights inclusive, lifelong learning and learning for and in the workplace as well as emphasizing quality and excellence in learning involving the use of modern technologies and the revitalization of learning in families and communities. In this chapter, we focus on the emergence and evolution of entrepreneurship education (EE) in Hong Kong, seen as a city region. In particular, we address the importance of partnerships and the participation of various stakeholders in providing quality learning opportunities. Very few studies have addressed the needs and approaches required for the continued delivery of EE programmes and activities in a sustainable way. After reviewing the literature relevant to EE, we draw on experience in Hong Kong to discuss how EE can be continued over a sustained period of time so as to create wider ranging impacts that match higher level objectives other than those at the individual level.

Hong Kong, a leading city of China, is a place with students having good examination results but being regarded as incapable of thinking critically. In 2005, the Education Bureau decided to make Liberal Studies as a core subject and aroused controversial debate. This change, proposing to use a core subject to nurture student critical thinking skills, is a drastic curriculum change in this society. This study, inquiring into the perceptions and practices of teachers teaching Liberal Studies, consists of two research questions. First, how do teachers perceive the aims and nature of the core subject Liberal Studies in the new curriculum? Second, how do they nurture the critical thinking habits of students in their classroom? Qualitative study was conducted to investigate teachers’ perception and practices of critical thinking in Liberal Studies. Both interview and documentary analysis are used in this study. First, the researcher interviewed five Liberal Studies teachers, who were experienced in teaching Liberal Studies. Each teacher individually attended the interview for about one hour. The researcher audio-recorded the conversation and transcribed word by word. Second, in order to follow up with interviews, teachers were invited to provide supporting materials such as teaching plan for further analysis. The study showed that a positive side in this reform. Teachers with strong perceptions for nurturing critical thinking skills of pupils were empathetic in teaching Liberal Studies. Teachers had initiated various methods to provide students opportunities to reflect on thinking and learning, which were drastically differed from traditional culture of Hong Kong. This study also showed that teachers’ perception of critical thinking skills in Liberal Studies also influences their practices in teaching the discipline. However, with the traditional pedagogical culture and examination bounded system, shifting from transmission of knowledge to nurturing critical thinking

Stemming from a long tradition of liberal education in Hong Kong universities, General Education (GE) courses and programs have been part of Hong Kong tertiary education structure for less than a decade. Together with the recently implemented compulsory 2009 New Senior Secondary Liberal Studies (NSS LS) curriculum, GE represents a continues and sustainable structure of liberal education in the city. Although thousands of young Hongkongers participate in liberal studies courses and programs through secondary and tertiary levels of education, the influence of this structure of liberal education on their mindset remains unclear. This paper features selected results of the RGC funded study, which investigated sustainability consciousness of Hong Kong first year university students, enrolled in GE programs. The analysis of ~5000 student surveys and over 1000 reflections revealed three main features of students' sustainability consciousness: intentionality to make a difference; engagement with complex questions about identity, society and nature; and eschatological perspectives, which included imaginative, future-oriented and action-oriented approaches to critical reflection, supported by the rhetoric of hope, promises and commitment for better future. This presentation aims to discuss ways for implementing these findings in the GE and NSS LS classrooms with reference to local and international practices of liberal studies education.

Learning about political issues through the new core subject of Liberal Studies (LS) in senior secondary education in Hong Kong has become ‘socially problematic' amid mounting concern of politicians and pundits who see a link between such learning and the recent waves of student protests. Using data from in-depth interviews with senior secondary students in Hong Kong, we explore how politically disengaged and engaged youth experienced their LS learning and how they perceived and made sense of the relationship between LS learning and political participation or its absence. Our findings indicate that while there appear to be circumstances that give rise to diversified learning experiences, LS has little bearing on youth political participation or otherwise.
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