Developing students’ interest in STEM careers in STEM education is important. This study explored the impacts of STEM instruction involving scientists or engineers on 224 Hong Kong students’ interests in STEM careers and their stereotypes about STEM professionals. The teachers who participated in professional development, namely “School-STEM professional collaboration”, implemented the STEM instruction with support from educational researchers and invited STEM experts. Throughout the STEM instruction, students were provided with STEM role models, and were engaged in authentic and hands-on activities to mimic the research work of invited STEM experts. Data were collected through pre- and post-surveys and were analysed using descriptive statistics, t tests, and ANOVAs. The results revealed increased interest in STEM careers, and more positive perceptions of STEM professionals among the students after the instruction. In addition, the impacts of the instruction were found to be influenced by gender-matching between students and STEM professionals. Girls were more likely to improve their interests and alter stereotypes with exposure to female role models. It can be concluded that the STEM instruction diversifying the stereotypes of STEM people can be beneficial to students. This study has implications for supporting more effective STEM education in primary schools. Copyright © 2020 National Institute of Education, Singapore.

This study examined the bidirectional relationships among Chinese children's mathematics, executive functioning, and visual–spatial skills during their transition from kindergarten to primary school. Participants were 172 Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong children (mean age at Time 1 = 62.75 months; 88 male) and their parents. At Time 1 (kindergarten K3), children were administered the measures of mathematics (calculation and applied problems), executive functioning (working memory and inhibitory control), and visual–spatial skills. They were reassessed on these measures at Time 2 (primary 1) 1 year later. Results from the cross-lagged panel model showed that, controlling for child age, gender, and family socioeconomic status, children's visual–spatial skills at Time 1 were significantly predictive of their mathematics at Time 2 and children's executive functioning and visual–spatial skills reciprocally predicted each other across times. However, children's mathematics at Time 1 were not predictive of their executive functioning or visual–spatial skills at Time 2. The findings highlight the desirability of improving children's executive functioning and visual–spatial skills to promote their mathematical performance during the formal school transition. Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This study assessed elementary school students’ conceptions of STEM professions and its potential influence on STEM career interest, as well as the moderation effect of gender on the relationships between conceptions of STEM professionals and career interest in STEM. A total of 216 grade 3 through 5 students in Hong Kong participated in this study. They were asked to draw images of professionals in specific STEM areas, and complete questionnaires about their conceptions of STEM professionals and interests in STEM careers. Drawings were analyzed using graphic content analysis, and survey data were analyzed using moderated hierarchical regression analysis. Analysis of drawings showed that the students had inadequate understanding of engineers or scientists in the air, food, and water area. Boys were more likely to hold gender-related stereotypes about STEM professionals than girls. Analysis of survey data revealed that students’ views about STEM career implications, STEM professionals’ personal aptitudes, and social relations significantly predicted their STEM career interest. Gender significantly moderated the association of Social relations and Interest, meaning that compared to boys, girls might express higher STEM career interest when they more strongly believed that STEM professionals are able to build good social relationships with others. This study has implications for the design and implementation of pertinent lessons on STEM for elementary schools. Copyright © 2020 Springer Nature B.V.

學校數學課程需要隨時代發展而持續變革。香港課程發展議會在深入總結、反思已有課程改革成果基礎上,根據時代發展需要,於2017年頒佈了《數學教育學習領域課程指引(小一至中六)》,提出了STEM教育、電子學習、跨課程語文學習、培養共通能力和價值觀及態度等四個數學課程持續更新的方向。基於對上述四個方面的評介,提出立足數學課程把握課程改革熱點、立足整體視野處理課程改革議題等深化數學課程改革的啟示。

課程評價是課程改革的一個重要方面,也是課程理念能否真正落地的保障.通過對香港小學數學課程相關的文件進行分析發現,其評價以學與教改善為目標,通過多種方式對數學課程教與學的內容進行全方位評估.在此基礎上對內地小學數學課程評價的改革提出了啟示和建議.

Research Findings: This study employed data from the TIMSS 2015 survey to investigate whether parental educational involvement behaviour in early childhood and parental attitudes towards education can enhance children's mathematics achievement in the 4th grade via influencing children's learning interests. Samples from Singapore (N=6237) and Hong Kong (N=3316), which share similar cultural backgrounds, and students demonstrating outstanding mathematical performance were selected to examine whether a hypothesized model fit the data. The overall model fit was found good. As hypothesized, after controlling for gender, immigration status, and family learning resources variables, both parental involvement in learning activities and parental attitudes towards education had positive significant effects on children's mathematics achievement in the 4th grade. However, a variation was also discovered in terms of the influences of parental attitudes in the two samples. Practice or Policy: The current findings shed light on the importance of parents' attitudes on education and their involvement in their children's mathematics activities during early childhood. The importance of family education should be communicated thoroughly to the public, and the government should provide more support for parents to involve more in early learning activities at home.
[Copyright of Early Education and Development is the property of Routledge.]

Values, as a culturally specific notion, have a vital role to play in classroom mathematics learning. In this chapter, we argue that valuing, especially from the student's perspective, serves as a lens for us to better understand how they perform in mathematics learning. To develop such a lens, we investigated the componential structure of Hong Kong mathematics students by utilising a values questionnaire as a lens to better understand what the students find important in mathematics learning. A principal component analysis has been used in this study with the objective to interrogate the data. The analysis of the data led to the identification of nine components valued by Hong Kong students in their mathematics learning. We discuss the findings in terms of the Hong Kong culture and context and the value categories and we suggest implications for future research studies. Copyright © 2018 Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

數學是一門具有抽象性的學科,數學知識表徵是教材編寫的關鍵,教材對知識進行合理表徵,有利於抽象的數學知識直觀形象化。香港地區在教材編寫方面吸收了英國教材編寫的經驗,但我國對香港地區的教材研究相對較弱。因此,本研究選取西師版教材與香港版教材,比較分析兩版教材在數學知識表徵上的異同,汲取香港教材在教材知識表徵方面編寫的經驗與長處,為修訂與改進本國教材以及教師對教材知識表徵的處理提供有價值的參考意義,優化教師的教學方式,促進數學教師的發展。本文採用了文獻研究法、文本分析法、案例分析法和比較研究法等研究方法。基於數學表徵的含義,建立教材知識表徵的比較框架,對西師版教材與香港版教材的數學知識表徵形式、多元性以及關聯性進行靜態比較,再以大陸教師與香港教師的課堂錄像轉譯成文本形式,統計分析兩位教師在代數課和幾何課中對教材知識表徵的使用情況,對教材知識表徵進行了動態比較,最後根據研究結果對我國教材的編寫提出了參考建議。本研究得到了如下的結論:(1)教材知識表徵形式方面,兩版教材都是以文字表徵為主,但香港版教材比西師版教材更加注重圖像表徵。(2)教材知識表徵多元性方面,香港版教材比西師版教材更加注重多元性。(3)教材知識表徵關聯性方面,兩版教材都比較注重知識表徵形式的關聯性,並都以並列關係和承接關係為主,但香港版教材並列關係所佔比例大,而西師版教材承接所佔關係比例大。(4)教師對教材知識表徵使用情況方面,大陸教師和香港教師對教材知識表徵進行完全使用的情況較多,香港教師在對教材知識表徵進行改編使用的部分比大陸教師多,在教材知識表徵的創新使用相對比大陸教師少。根據上述研究結論,為我國教材的編寫提出了以下參考建議:第一,注重加強教材的多元表徵,促進學生對知識的內化;第二,注重教材知識表徵形式間的聯繫,促進多元表徵形式的轉換;第三,注重教材知識表徵形式的課堂處理,促進數學知識的建構。