Nature of science (NOS) has become one of the major emphases in curriculum and assessment. This study explores what NOS is included and how this is achieved in the Hong Kong biology curriculum and 7-year high-stakes assessments. While conceptualizations of the official definition of NOS differ, this study employs the family resemblance approach (FRA) to analyze the inclusion of NOS in the curriculum and the high-stakes assessments. In one characterisation of FRA (i.e. Erduran and Dagher 2014), NOS comprises a cognitive-epistemic system and a social-institutional system. There is a total of 11 categories in these two systems and these categories are interconnected with one another. By adopting the epistemic network analysis (ENA), the frequency of connections among these NOS categories in the curriculum and the high-stakes assessments can be visualized and compared. Two main similarities are observed when comparing the epistemic networks of the curriculum and the high-stakes assessments: (1) a greater emphasis on the cognitive-epistemic rather than the social-institutional system and (2) the rarity of connections between categories in the social-institutional system. However, the high-stakes assessments differ from the curriculum in that they have more connections between the cognitive-epistemic system and the social-institutional system. Moreover, assessment items in the Hong Kong biology examinations involve a limited range of contexts and skills. Implications for the design of curricula and high-stakes assessments will be discussed. Copyright ©Springer Netherlands.

In recent years, research on students' scientific competencies has generated much discussion. According to the PISA 2015 Assessment and Analytical Framework, both scientific competencies and attitudes towards science - interest in science, valuing scientific approaches to enquiry (or epistemological beliefs about science), and environmental awareness - are integral aspects of scientific literacy. However, few studies have focused on the relationships between them. This article examines how students' scientific competencies are affected by their attitudes. Based on a theoretical analysis, the present study argues that the three attitudinal factors have a direct impact on scientific competencies, interest has an immediate influence on the other two attitudes, and epistemological beliefs are directly affected by environmental awareness. To test this hypothesis, a model was constructed to verify such relationships. PISA 2015 assessment instruments were used for data collection. The participants were 25,658 students from different parts of China, containing Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was employed for data analysis. The results confirmed our hypothesis. The way in which Chinese students' attitudes affected their scientific competencies did not differ (to a statistically significant level) by gender or district. The limitations and implications of this research are discussed below.
[Copyright of International Journal of Science Education is the property of Routledge.]

21世紀以來世界發展更加多元,變化更加迅猛,這給教育帶來了更大的機遇和挑戰。為能讓學生適應發展需要,許多國家和地區都在逐步開展關於核心素養融入基礎教育的課程改革研究。課程改革的關鍵任務是制定課程標準,課程標準的制定與完善對課程改革的成敗起著決定性作用。本文採用文獻法、比較法、文本分析法等研究法,將大陸新版高中化學課程標準《普通高中化學課程標準(2017年版)》(以下簡稱《2017版課標》)與舊版《普通高中化學課程標準(實驗)》(以下簡稱《2003版課標》)進行縱向對比,與香港2015年頒布的最新版高中化學課程標準《化學課程及評估指引(中四至中六)》(以下簡稱《2015版指引》)進行橫向對比。通過新舊兩版課程標準的比較,可幫助教師快速了解新版課程標準的特點,同時揭示大陸高中化學課程標準的修訂趨勢。通過與香港地區進行比較以期發現差異,為大陸化學課程改革、課程標準的進一步完善,提供理論參考。研究結果表明,大陸高中化學課程標準趨於內容越來越全面,文本詳細度越來越高,實施意見的呈現上更加注重宏觀上的整體指導與微觀上的具體實踐指導相結合的發展趨勢。但在課程銜接方面內容缺失,教學建議、學習評價等方面還有待進一步完善,這些方面可從香港《2015版指引》中借鑒有益經驗。

從商業教育的角度，回顧了香港STEM教育的實踐成效。通過參考國外(如新加坡及美國)STEM教育的經驗，認為香港STEM教育有可進步的空間。雖然創業教育在香港已發展成熟，並有大量專業團體的協助，但商業教育在 STEM 教育中仍未發揮應有的作用。建議推行創業 STEM教育，為學生提供一個實踐的環境，並透過跨科協助，來提升整個中學 STEM 教育的成效。 Copyright © 2018 中南大學.

This paper reports on the effectiveness and practicality of abstracting essential pedagogical methods that aim to promote high level thinking among junior secondary science students. Strategies include intensive professional development programme and design of lesson materials that can be integrated into the existing science curriculum in the Hong Kong schools. The professional development workshops focus on the distinction between the “Cognitive Skills Enhancing Lessons” (CSE) and regular science lessons. Teachers were stimulated to discuss ways to get students to discuss, think about and respond to teachers’ questions, and to ask questions. Classroom implementations of the CSE teaching materials tailor-made for the Hong Kong junior secondary science curriculum were initiated for 3 secondary two classes. The paper reports on the findings from the pre and post interviews, as well as interviews during the classroom implementations with all the participating teachers and a sample of 6 students from each class. Findings report on what teachers think about the CSE method, their general feelings about using CSE, their comments on the materials, the difficulties (if any) they met, the benefits to students and the perceived feasibility of implementing CSE-infused science activities designed by the project team in local classrooms.

Under the impetus of the Hong Kong education reform, curriculum development has brought a whole new range of perspectives with an emphasis on "Learning to Learn". Schools are encouraged to formulate their own curriculum development plan according to their individual situation and readiness. (Curriculum Development Council, 2001a). This School-Based Science Curriculum Development (SBSCD) project was established to echo the need for professional guidance and support in this area, with a focus in science education. The SBSCD project is one of the initiatives under the Hong Kong Schools Around the World (HKSAW) project funded by the Quality Education Fund. The benefits of mobilizing the resources from the Schools Around the World project in the SBSCD project is explained in the paper. This project, with a participation of seven schools, was designed for one academic term and has adopted an interactive approach embedded within three main phases: planning, implementation and evaluation. The aim of this short-term project is to reveal a naturalistic model of SBSCD that may lead the participating schools to realize their future science curriculum directions. Instruments were developed to obtain data on the school's existing situation as relevant to the SBSCD implementation, to investigate factors affecting the interaction between the schools and the HKSAW Curriculum Development Team, and to find out teachers' awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of their own teaching after the SBSCD. This paper serves as a preliminary report of this case study. Therefore, its main purpose is not to report on empirical findings, but rather to define the factors for the above study areas and to provide an initial reference on the process of implementation for school practitioners.
[Copyright © 2002 HKIEd APFSLT.]