This paper reports the results of a quasi-experimental study that evaluated the effectiveness of collaborative mind mapping in three Hong Kong primary schools. More than 200 grade 4 students, divided into three pedagogical groups, participated in a variety of science learning activities with the aid of a mind map and/or collaborative group work. The results of diagnostic tests reveal the synergy of peer collaboration and mind mapping to be more effective than either collaboration or mind mapping alone in enhancing students' scientific achievement. Analysis of the students' science discourse and follow-up interviews indicates that collaborative mind mapping fosters learning motivation and facilitates the joint construction of conceptual knowledge in science. Recommendations are made for the integrative use of graphic organisers and group work, and implications for future research on science teaching in Hong Kong and elsewhere are further discussed. Copyright © 2022 Springer.

This article begins with a historical overview of the STEM education policy and related classroom practices in Hong Kong. Against the backdrop that the Hong Kong education authority has been promoting STEM education over the past few years, there has been a pressing need for effective strategies of implementing STEM education in the context of reduced class size classrooms (i.e. small class teaching). With a view to addressing this need, this article strives to exemplify the incorporation of STEM education into small class teaching settings. Intended as a conceptual paper drawing on design approaches for STEM lessons and a small class teaching framework, the article demonstrates the relevance of STEM education to small class teaching. Two illustrative lesson design examples are provided to showcase how the design approaches and framework can be operationalised. In addition, the article also offers a thoughtful discussion concerning the potential challenges of delivering the two sample lessons as well as the coping strategies. It contributes to understanding of STEM education theories and provides a valuable reference for educational practitioners. Copyright © 2022 Springer.

Artificial intelligence (AI) education for K-12 students is an emerging necessity, owing to the rapid advancement and deployment of AI technologies. It is essential to take teachers' perspectives into account when creating ecologically valid AI education programmes for K-12 settings. However, very few studies investigated teacher perception of AI education. Phenomenography is an empirical research method that was widely used to understand teacher's interpretive understanding of new phenomenon, in this study, the teaching of AI in secondary school. Therefore, the present study investigated teachers' conceptions of teaching AI using a phenomenographic approach. Twenty-eight in-service teachers from 17 secondary schools in Hong Kong were invited to participate in an interview after implementing an AI curriculum. Six categories of teacher conceptions were identified: (1) technology bridging, (2) knowledge delivery, (3) interest stimulation, (4) ethics establishment, (5) capability cultivation, and (6) intellectual development. The hierarchical relationships of the six concepts were organised as an outcome space. The space shows a range of surface to deep conceptions and offers an understanding of how teachers perceive AI education through their teaching experience. Two learning paths have been suggested for cultivating technical and non-technical teachers for teaching AI. These learning paths provide insights for teacher educators and policymakers to enhance teachers' competence in teaching AI and promote general AI education for K-12 students. Copyright © 2022 Springer.

Background and aims: Mathematics is one of the critical elements of STEM education. However, the importance of mathematics has not been fully emphasized in the practice of STEM education (Martín‐Páez et al., 2019). Promoting STEM education in mathematics education is one of the focal points of the Hong Kong school curriculum (CDC, 2017). In this study, we introduced an innovative STEM learning activity in the classroom based on the topic of 3D shapes in the primary mathematics curriculum. The aim was to provide an example of a school-based mathematics curriculum integrated with STEM education and offer teachers the design and development of STEM pedagogy.Methodology or process(es) undertaken: Focusing on the learning objective of recognizing the concept of 3D shape, we designed an interdisciplinary STEM learning activity in grade two in a Hong Kong primary school. Students learned the concept of a cylinder in the Funny Zoetrope Project. A curriculum consultant, a mathematics teacher and a visual art teacher collaborated to implement the whole teaching design within seven lessons (five mathematics lessons and two visual art lessons). A series of learning booklets were designed for teaching and learning. Regarding the process of preliminary preparation, teaching arrangement, course implementation, and after-class feedback, the STEM learning activity was incorporated into the school-based mathematics curriculum.Results and conclusions: The STEM learning activity based on the mathematical topic provides students with opportunities to see, know and understand the mathematical concept in STEM education. Students experience interdisciplinary learning during the process of making a zoetrope. They learn to integrate and apply knowledge and skills they have learned in mathematics and visual art. Some generic skills such as problem-solving, collaboration, communication, and self-assessment skills are also developed. Copyright © 2022 7th STEM in Education Conference.

Background and aims: The theoretical rationale of STEM education has originated from the curriculum integration theories. Numerous studies have discussed the integration of STEM education in covering the interconnected nature of the four disciplines and real-life problems. Three approaches have been widely mentioned, which included multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary (Vasquez et al., 2013). Although teachers play a core role in designing and implementing STEM pedagogy at schools, little research explored mathematics teachers’ views of STEM. Hence, this exploratory study aims to explore mathematics teachers’ perceptions of STEM education to address the issue. Specifically, the study sought to describe the concerns and challenges faced by Hong Kong mathematics teachers in implementing STEM education, and to expand our understanding of implementing STEM education in mathematics teaching.Methodology or process(es) undertaken: By purposive sampling, nine Hong Kong mathematics teachers (4 primary, 5 secondary) were invited into online interviews. Interviewees were selected based on the criteria that they had taught mathematics in schools and had participated in STEM education. Their teaching experience ranged from 5 to 15 years. They were asked to report their views on the goals and values of STEM education, the approaches of STEM integration, challenges they faced, and its relationship to mathematics.Results and conclusions: It is found that two values of STEM education are recognized by Hong Kong mathematics teachers, which include promoting students' personal development and social technological innovation. Three integration approaches of STEM pedagogy (multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary) are identified. The transdisciplinary approach is most preferred, but the interdisciplinary approach is most adopted. Teachers perceives both internal and external challenges when implementing STEM at schools. The external challenges are related

This study draws on the findings from a STEM education project to examine Hong Kong in-service primary school teachers’ perceived challenges in implementing STEM education, the support they received in STEM teacher professional development (STEM TPD), and their needs for future STEM TPD. The study engaged teacher professional development through a school-university partnership and adopted a practitioner research approach that aimed at enhancing primary school teachers’ professional capacity of designing STEM activities relevant to the Hong Kong curriculum, with an emphasis on the learning of crosscutting concepts and inquiry-based teaching. STEM TPD is aimed at collaborative curriculum development as an opportunity to foster active learning through co-creating curriculum materials among teachers and university facilitators. Twelve primary school teachers from various subject teaching backgrounds were interviewed. Semi-structured interviews were carried out to collect the teachers’ experiences with the STEM TPD and their views on the integration of cross-cutting concepts in designing STEM lessons. Findings of the study revealed teachers' perceived challenges during the preparation and teaching phases related to STEM instruction and lesson planning, limited resources, and other concerns embedded in broader contextual situations. While teachers reported to have received different types of support from the STEM TPD relating to the pedagogical knowledge of STEM, future directions for STEM TPD were expressed in relation to content components of STEM TPD, opportunities for authentic learning and first-hand experiences, and coherence. Finally, this chapter discusses areas that need to be resolved before a further enhancement in terms of quality and quantity of STEM lessons could be expected. Copyright © 2022 The Author(s).

In many disciplines of STEM education, online experiments (OEs), commonly called remote-controlled experiments, become an emerging practice in technology-enhanced learning because of their many merits perceived in educational research. We recently formulated an innovative, low-cost, and open-source approach to developing new OEs rapidly. It won a gold medal and a special prize in an international innovation and invention competition in 2018. Using this new approach, teachers and students can easily access OEs with a lightweight web browser using any hardware and any operating system without installing additional software or apps. They can observe and/or control the experiments and collect authentic data (over a very short or long time) for further analysis by plotting graphs and/or conducting calculations to obtain important results. Some well-accepted instructional approaches or pedagogies have been integrated into online science/STEM experiments, which can also be aligned with school-based curricula to provide self-contained courseware for students’ online self-regulated learning. In this chapter, we will focus on whether OEs could really and effectively provide the essential elements of experimental learning to ‘school students’ as expected in traditional laboratory work. From our pilot implementation in four Hong Kong (HK) and Mainland China (CHINA) secondary schools with a total of 172 participants, we explored the OE experiences of different experiments and cognitive performance among students from different regions and genders using the conventional mixed methods research and design-based research. Students’ feedback and suggestions for improvement of the OEs were also analysed together with some specific implications for science/STEM education. Copyright © 2022 The Author(s).

The aim of this research study is to investigate and evaluate the effectiveness of innovative use of an open-source digital technology, Arduino, which is an information and communications technology (ICT) tool for practical work in physics in the senior secondary curriculum. The study also seeks to ascertain factors affecting the effective use of the technology in students’ learning of physics with a view to informing possible extensive use of the Arduino technology in senior secondary science education and its application to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. The importance of harnessing ICT in education is well recognized in the education arena. Educators have viewed ICT as an enabling tool for higher levels of analysis to take place in science teaching and learning. However, the use of technology does not guarantee meaningful and effective learning. What is crucial is the transformative, appropriate use of ICT to enhance students’ learning. In this regard, proper integration of ICT into the curriculum, or even across disciplines in the context of STEM education, for meaningful study is an area of concern. While ICT integration has been advocated for many years in the senior secondary physics curriculum in Hong Kong, there remains a gap in its holistic integration into the curriculum. This study demonstrates successful development of seven Arduino-based experiments and an entire set of courseware that covers a wide range of experiments in the topic of “mechanics” in the senior secondary physics curriculum. Design-based research (DBR) methodology is adopted in the development, which is characterized by rounds of systematic iteration, feedback gathering, and modification. The final outputs are encouraging for performing the series of experiments in “mechanics”. The study bridges the gap between theoretical framework and practical application in an authentic setting, and it informs of the suitability of DBR in developing ICT tools for

The mixed methods study detailed in this thesis, which involved 238 Higher Diploma of Early Childhood Education students, investigated the influences on the environmental attitudes of pre-service preschool teachers (hereafter, pre-service teachers) in Hong Kong. The research design adopted both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The quantitative approach was the dominant method of data collection, and it consisted of a web-based self-administrated survey, namely, the Environmental Attitudes of Pre-service Preschool Teachers Scale (EAPPT Scale), which had 52 items that were measured by a Likert-type scale. The qualitative approach aimed to supplement the quantitative findings, and the method involved three face-to-face focus group interviews. The quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed using Rasch modeling and the thematic approach, respectively.In this study, the Rasch Rating Scale Model (RSM) was utilized to examine the quantitative data of the EAPPT. Person supportiveness and item agreeability were both expressed as probabilistic units (i.e., logits or log-odds) in reference to the same continuum. The Rasch RSM is a probabilistic approach that converts non-linear data (i.e., ordinal data) into linear data (i.e., logits) for the in-depth analysis of psychometric variables.The Rasch modeling analysis found that the EAPPT Scale and its five subscales, namely, education, alternative experiences, beliefs, social interactions, and action potential, fit the Rasch model well, and the respective reliability of the subscales was good. Through the triangulation process, the qualitative results mostly concurred with the quantitative findings. The pre-service teachers’ scores in the action potential domain were comparatively lower than those in the other domains. The most influential factors of the environmental attitudes of the pre-service teachers were in the education and alternative experiences domains. The key findings were encouraging in that, overall, the pre-service