There has been an increasing number of calls to apply new technologies to learning contexts for STEM education. However, limited studies have explored the role of technology in bridging teachers and children to create STEM knowledge collaboratively. Therefore, early childhood teachers encounter challenges integrating digital technologies to support children’s STEM learning. The challenges include developing effective and innovative scaffolding strategies to incorporate digital technology and visualize the processes of using technologies in children’s STEM knowledge building. This study reports on an in-depth exploratory case study from a kindergarten classroom in Hong Kong, exemplifying a new approach to integrating digital technologies within spatialized STEM learning. The case selected continuity learning episodes from a spatially directed STEM learning unit on making a safe traffic city. Under digital technology-integrated scaffolding, the teacher and children co-created a traffic symbolic system by designing symbols of landmarks, developing and applying spatial language, making maps and traffic games with rules. The thematic analysis was adopted to analyze the teachers’ STEM activity plans and reflective reports. The finding indicated that the process through which the teacher and children collaboratively created STEM knowledge via technology-integrated scaffolding involved recalling spontaneous understanding about everyday concepts, exploring ideas in authentic contexts, sorting and organizing their collected information, and identifying and correlating abstract concepts with corresponding everyday practices. The children required two levels of technology-integrated scaffolding strategies to engage in STEM knowledge collaborative creation: scaffolding for technology using and scaffolding through use of technology. Three novel roles of technology emerged that transform learning from knowledge delivery to collaborative creation in inquiries STEM tasks for young children

This paper reports an intervention study in the teaching of fraction concepts at a village school in Hong Kong. The classes consisted of 60 Grade three students with different cultural backgrounds, including African, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Nepalese, and Pakistani. The study represents one of the relatively few studies that investigate the effectiveness of storytelling in teaching mathematics to ethnic minority (EM) students in the East Asian context. The quantitative analysis in a pre/post-test intervention/control group design shows reduction in achievement gap between EM students in rural settings and their Chinese peers in urban districts, including concepts such as part--"whole interpretation," "fraction language," and "mathematics vocabulary." Analysis of classroom discourse based on the culturally responsive mathematics teaching (CRMT) framework reveals the multimodal features of storytelling provide greater access for EM students in acquiring language-related conceptualizations of fractions. Based on our analysis, we argue that mathematics teaching is inseparable from language teaching, which is often ignored or not planned explicitly in the lesson. Storytelling integrates language with mathematics content authentically and allows students to cope with the language demands in learning mathematics and to encounter the mathematics in real-world context. Copyright ©2024 Springer.

Background: Previous research has indicated that placing emphasis on communal goals within the field of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education can yield beneficial learning outcomes. However, there remains a relative dearth of investigation into the factors that contribute to the success of STEM education programs integrating communal goals. In the present study, we sought to explore the roles of two constructs that prioritize the interests of others, namely empathy and citizenship, in promoting STEM learning perseverance within the context of a STEM-based community service learning (CSL) program. Specifically, we proposed that empathy would be associated with STEM learning perseverance through its relationship with citizenship, within a sample of 275 secondary school students from Hong Kong who participated in the said program. Results: Using structural equation modeling (SEM), the results revealed that empathy is significantly and positively associated with STEM learning perseverance, both directly and indirectly, through citizenship. The results held even after controlling for the demographic variables of school membership, gender, and age. Conclusions: This research highlights the association between understanding the needs of the community (empathy) and students' desire for community involvement (citizenship), which subsequently influences their perseverance in STEM learning. This relationship is particularly pronounced in educational settings where communal goals are emphasized. Copyright ©2024 Springer.

Purpose: In this article, we explore how student authorship may be enhanced among learners in mathematics classrooms in a Hong Kong primary school through rich dialogue discourse. Design/Approach/Methods: Using qualitative methods, that is, coding and discourse analysis, we examine the relationship between student authorship and personal latitude through a case study of two Grade 4 mathematics lessons taught by two primary mathematics teachers, respectively. Findings: We discuss the study's findings in relation to how teachers can engage themselves and their students in dialogic discourse to offer student choices and opportunities and generate original voices. Originality/Value: Personal latitude was found when the students were given the choice to use their original voices. The learners assumed the role of author; consequently, authorship was enhanced in ensuing rich dialogic discourse. Copyright ©2024 SAGE Publications.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers faced challenges conducting data collection. However, emerging communication technologies, such as web-conferencing platforms, provided an alternative mode of data collection. Among these platforms, Zoom stands out for its functional affordances and unique features that support data collection methods, including screen-capturing, digital photography, drawing, polling, and artifact-based interviews, which attempt to reveal a child's viewpoint and ability. In this article, we explore the feasibility of using Zoom to conduct educational research by investigating the mathematical learning experience among 26 primary 1 and 2 students in Hong Kong on two topics—understanding time and addition and subtraction. Five mathematics teachers were recruited to participate in 2-month online workshops with assessments among three groups of students to understand the suitability for data collection. Based on teachers’ observations and students’ responses, our findings suggest that Zoom is a viable and effective tool for qualitative data collection. It offers a cost-effective method for researchers and educators to examine students’ mathematical performance in an online environment. We also investigate students’ perceptions of online assessment strategies, perceived usefulness of various Zoom functions, and explore the benefits and challenges teachers and students perceived throughout mathematical education using Zoom. However, several technical difficulties were encountered, such as the digital literacy gap and privacy concerns. Therefore, improving students’ digital literacy for remote learning and triangulation is important for online mathematical data collection and assessments. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s).

This paper reports a design and implementation of a STEM enrichment programme infused with affective elements designed for Hong Kong students. Specifically, it features a design-thinking approach to develop solutions to a self-selected problem addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Around 30 upper primary school (grades 5 to 6) and 20 lower secondary students (grades 7 to 10) enrolled in the study. Considering empathy as a core value of the design-thinking process and aligned with affective dimensions of thinking and learning, we investigate students' design-thinking development and STEM learning processes while highlighting empathy map as a pedagogical tool. We discuss the implications and insights of offering humanistic perspectives on STEM curricular design, especially for K-12 students. Our results showed that students at different age range were able to use empathy maps to devise designs effectively, despite their varying degrees of empathy. Furthermore, we conceptualize empathy maps as a pedagogical tool that creates physical boundaries in design thinking, making students' mental transitions across design stages more explicit. This study contributes to a better understanding of the educational potentials of design-thinking enhanced classrooms, with the results informing theoretical and practical advice on the integration of the empathy map in innovation-oriented projects. Copyright ©2023 Springer.

The Hong Kong Education Bureau's paper titled "Computational Thinking – Coding Education: Supplement to the Primary Curriculum" published in 2020 has been a crucial step towards encouraging CT and coding education in Primary 4 to Primary 6 in Hong Kong. With technology increasingly being utilized in various industries, it has become crucial for students to acquire knowledge and skills necessary to thrive in the digital era. Computational Thinking (CT) has been demonstrated as a method of problem-solving that has helped students become better problem solvers and fostered a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts. Therefore, incorporating CT into Mathematics Education (ME) has become a subject of much research in recent years, especially since systematic reviews have been carried out.In line with the Hong Kong Education Bureau (EDB)'s proposal, the Hong Kong Curriculum Development Council (CDC) has also emphasized the value of CT and coding instruction in preparing students for the digital era. Thus, the three-year study that has been conducted from January 2021 to May 2023 aims to examine the significance and impact of integrating CT into ME in senior primary education in Hong Kong.This study has concentrated on Hong Kong senior primary children, particularly those in Primary 6, and has employed a multi-phase approach. Initially, a comprehensive review of the current state of research on CT and ME has been conducted to inform the study design. Subsequently, data has been gathered from students, teachers, and schools using surveys and assessments. Statistical techniques have been applied to evaluate the collected data, focusing on establishing the relationship between CTE and ME, analyzing students' motivation to learn mathematics through CTE, and identifying the advantages of incorporating CTE into ME, including its impact on students' mathematical performance.The study uncovered several key findings concerning the integration of CT into ME in senior primary schools

Adopting a language other than the first as the medium of instruction in teaching mathematics can create significant problems for students' mathematical learning. However, there is little research on the ways in which bi/multilingual mathematics teachers can make use of diverse multilingual and multimodal resources to keep students engaged in learning abstract mathematical knowledge. This article aims to explore how an English-medium-instruction (EMI) mathematics teacher creates different hypothetical scenarios through embodied enactments to enhance students' mathematical understanding and motivate students' interest in learning mathematics. The data of this study is obtained from a focused classroom observation in a Hong Kong EMI secondary mathematics classroom. Multimodal conversation analysis is employed to analyse the classroom interaction data, and the analysis is triangulated with video-stimulated-recall interviews which are analysed with interpretative phenomenological analysis. This article aims to extend the notion of embodied enactment as a form of translanguaging to facilitate mathematical learning and develop students' motivation in learning mathematics in the EMI setting. Particularly, this article argues that embodied enactment creates a translanguaging space for the EMI teacher to achieve mathematical teaching. Copyright ©2023 Sage Publications Ltd.