Women’s access to education has significantly improved in recent decades; however, the gender skew in STEM subjects – the underrepresentation of female students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics – persists. The phenomenon is even more noticeable in the advanced economies. In this study, we examine factors at individual, peer, and family levels in contributing to students’ choices of STEM electives in the secondary school curriculum, and their intentions to choose STEM as their preferred choice of university majors and career orientations.Data of this study come from a representative survey of Secondary 5 (11th Grade) students in Hong Kong (Ni=2, 807 students; Nj=43 schools). Our data show that female students are not only less likely to take STEM-related electives in the DSE curriculum (the mainstream curriculum leading to university entrance), but also more likely than male students to leak out from the STEM pipeline in the later stages. That is, even female students have taken STEM-related electives in the secondary schools, they are less likely to pursue STEM majors in higher education or a career in the STEM fields. Regression results show that gender differences in the subject self-concepts, preference on job characteristics, and stereotypical beliefs towards STEM are the key factors to women’s low intention to choose STEM fields in education. Gender stereotypes towards STEM also hinder female students from continuing their pursuit of science in university. Despite similar academic performance, female students tend to hold a lower level of self-concept on science-related subjects than male students. Meanwhile, school-related factors exert an indirect effect on the subject choice mostly through affecting students’ subject self-concept and stereotypical belief towards STEM. Our findings suggest that more measures have to be taken to change female students’ perceptions about science and improve teaching so that female students’ confidence can be

There have been increasing concerns about the significant decline in teenagers’ intentions to pursue STEM subjects or careers. This study examined how students’ perceptions of parental expectations, STEM cultural capital, mathematics/science self-efficacy, gender, and parents’ jobs were associated with STEM career aspirations and tested whether these associations differed by school level. Data were collected from 1,864 junior and 665 senior secondary students in Hong Kong via an online survey. Results indicated that, perceived parental long-term expectations were closely linked to STEM career aspirations, whereas, perceived parental short-term expectations were closely linked to self-efficacy. Out-of-school STEM experiences and STEM media consumption both had positive impacts on aspirations and shaped different aspects of students’ perceived parental expectations. Additionally, significant gender differences were found in STEM media consumption, self-efficacy, and aspirations. These relationships mainly were invariant across school levels. However, the indirect paths from STEM media consumption to aspirations via self-efficacy varied significantly between junior and senior secondary students. Based on these findings, this study argues for the essential role of perceived parental expectations in shaping STEM career aspirations for teenagers. STEM cultural capital may be more productive and supportive if it promotes teenagers’ interpretations of parental expectations and their mathematics and science self-efficacy. Copyright © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This paper describes ongoing research on teachers’ concerns about STEM education in Hong Kong. The work is being conducted under the auspices of a government-funded project. A large-scale, regionally representative sample of primary and secondary school teachers in Hong Kong will be selected, and their key concerns about STEM education will be surveyed. To the best of our knowledge, the study is the first to examine teachers’ concerns about STEM education in Hong Kong. The findings of the study will make significant and original contributions to policymakers, teachers, and researchers. Copyright © 2020 by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education has continued to attract attention and sizeable funding worldwide. Given the important role that teachers play in the provision of quality STEM education, this chapter provides an overall landscape of STEM teacher education in China and Hong Kong. The chapter presents an overview of policies, practices and research in teacher education and professional development in STEM education that have been and continue to be implemented in Mainland China and Hong Kong for the purpose of supporting teachers to effectively implement STEM education. Literature from a range of sources, including discussion and research papers, government reports and policy papers with respect to STEM teacher education in Mainland China and Hong Kong have been selected. The analysis of policies and practices is useful to provide a review of what has been done and to inform new directions for teacher education for STEM education. Copyright © 2022 selection and editorial matter, John Chi-Kin Lee and Timo Ehmke; individual chapters, the contributors.

Background: STEM education and research are increasingly emphasized by governments worldwide to foster national development and productivity, economic competitiveness and societal wellbeing. There is no exception in Hong Kong, with its desire to promote STEM education and to strengthen Innovation and Technology development in the future. Purpose: This study aimed to explore the STEM activities employed in primary students' STEM projects under the theme 'Living in a Smart City', and to identify what and how computation technologies were generally used and to examine the differences of computation technology used among project types and award levels. Sample: 168 project reports were collected from a STEM Fair with the following areas of content: the origins of the inquiry idea; scientific/STEM theories employed; inquiry process and testing methods implemented; findings and results obtained; difficulties encountered; and students' reflections. Design and methods: Content analysis on project reports and students' reflections was performed. The qualitative data were coded for statistical analysis, to explore the differences in the association of the STEM activities in the projects. Analyses were supported by students' reflections in the reports to explore students' computation experiences. Results: Most students worked on new device projects, and projects producing new devices were more likely to integrate technological activities. On the whole, science, engineering and mathematics activities complemented each other well, with less evidence of integration with respect to technology activities. Students gained valuable knowledge and got a sense of achievement from the STEM project work. Conclusion: It is encouraging to find that students were capable of integrating STEM activities to different extents into STEM projects. It is noticed that more emphasis should be laid on promoting the infusion of computation technological activities. More attention should also be paid on providing

In English-medium instruction (EMI), English-as-a-second-language students will learn all/some subjects through English. Although there are a considerable number of studies which explore classroom interaction in Hong Kong (HK) secondary EMI schools, few studies have investigated EMI lessons which involve South Asian ethnic minorised students. These students share different linguistic and cultural backgrounds and they may not share a common first language with the teacher and other classmates. This study conducts a multimodal conversation analysis of science and mathematics lessons at a HK EMI secondary school, triangulated with interview data, in order to explore how the EMI teacher mobilises various resources to make discipline-specific knowledge accessible and cater for the different needs of all students in the classroom. This study argues that the process of enacting inclusive practices is a process of translanguaging which requires the EMI teacher to mobilise various available multilingual and semiotic resources and draw on what students know collectively for transcending cultural boundaries from the students' everyday culture to cultures of school science and mathematics. Copyright ©2021 Springer.

Aviation is an interdisciplinary subject that has influenced human development over the last century. Learning about aviation exposes students to principles of flight, language, earth science, aeronautical engineering, flight training and airmanship. In K-12 education, educators have started to encourage children to learn science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects via aviation-themed activities to develop future scientists and engineers. This study investigated upper primary students' motivations to learn STEM via engaging in flight simulation experiences. The sample consisted of 345 10- to 13-year-old Hong Kong students from 8 primary schools. A modified version of the 31-item Science Motivation Questionnaire II (SMQ II) with four subscales with a focus on aviation was used. The relationships between intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, self-efficacy and peer support across gender and performance were examined. The data obtained were analysed using factor analysis and a regression model. According to our model, students are most strongly motivated by peer support, followed by intrinsic motivation, and they are least motivated by self-efficacy. As expected, our results indicate that a gender gap exists in aviation-themed STEM learning. These findings can help educators to better understand students' perceptions of aviation science and further develop related learning activities. Copyright ©2021 Springer.

For over a decade, STEM education has been developed as an integrative curriculum for promoting students' performance in the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. However, its development in Hong Kong is still at an early stage, and more studies are necessary to explore the impact of STEM education on local students. In addition, gender stereotyping is a long-standing issue that needs to be addressed in information communications technology (ICT) education. Through surveys used to evaluate a local ICT training workshop in Hong Kong with 411 female students in junior secondary school, this study provides empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of a STEM education program for promoting student development and alleviating gender stereotyping in ICT. The results showed that an inquiry-based model of learning, which focuses on students' problem-solving skills and analytical ability, significantly enhanced ICT self-efficacy and reduced perceived difficulties in using ICT. Moreover, ICT-related gender stereotyping was associated with both ICT self-efficacy and perceived difficulties in using ICT, indicating that gender stereotyping in ICT can be reduced by granting more ICT learning opportunities to female students. Although the perceived value of studying ICT did not show a statistically significant improvement as a result of the ICT workshop, perceived value played a critical role in moderating the effect of ICT self-efficacy on ICT-related gender stereotyping and mediated the relationship between perceived difficulties in using ICT and ICT-related gender stereotyping. It is recommended that more emphasis should be placed on promoting perceived values in future ICT programs. Copyright ©2021 Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd.

Purpose:Amid rapid technological development in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, this article engages with an important question, especially in the context of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education: Can technology itself transform teaching and learning? Design/Approach/Methods:Constructionist learning responds to the current "maker movement," which draws upon the innate human desire to make things with our hands. Two important elements of constructionist learning-technology literacy and engineering design-have implications for meeting the global need for expertise in the STEM disciplines. To date, the practice of teaching and learning mathematics remains to be dominated by manipulation of symbols with the paper-and-pencil medium. In response, this article discusses how constructionist learning can play an important role in teaching and learning school mathematics via a transdisciplinary approach for STEM education.Findings:Two examples of the authors' empirical research on constructionist learning in school mathematics classrooms with 3D printing are illustrated. Findings suggest that the 3D Printing Pens played an active role in the construction of artifact (physically) and mathematical meaning (cognitively).Originality/Value:The empirical results as discussed in this article warrant more design-based classroom interventions to further investigate students' constructionist learning in technological, hands-on, and innovation-oriented environments. Copyright ©2021 SAGE Publications.

In this paper, we explore the challenges experienced by a group of Primary 5 to 6 (age 12-14) students as they engaged in a series of problem-solving tasks through block-based programming. The challenges were analysed according to a taxonomy focusing on the presence of computational thinking (CT) elements in mathematics contexts: preparing problems, programming, create computational abstractions, as well as troubleshooting and debugging. Our results suggested that the challenges experienced by students were compounded by both having to learn the CT-based environment as well as to apply mathematical concepts and problem solving in that environment. Possible explanations for the observed challenges stemming from differences between CT and mathematical thinking are discussed in detail, along with suggestions towards improving the effectiveness of integrating CT into mathematics learning. This study provides evidence-based directions towards enriching mathematics education with computation. Copyright ©2021 SAGE Publications.