This special issue on early STEM education collects ten articles that present a series of studies covering topics about curriculum and pedagogy, teacher education and professional development, family environment, and inclusive education for enhancing young children’s STEM learning experiences. These collected studies have presented empirical evidence obtained from diverse cultural contexts, including Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Mainland China, Singapore, and the United States. With varying designs and diversified approaches, these studies jointly present a vivid picture of the STEM world and may therefore provide some contributions to theoretical developments and practical improvements. Copyright © 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This paper aims to report and discuss the findings of a research project examining the effects of students‘ use of self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies on their computer programming achievement in higher education. In the project, data were collected from 66 undergraduate students who enrolled in a 13-week introductory computer programming course offered by a Hong Kong university during the academic year 2018/19. Participants were asked to complete the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) to measure their use of SRL strategies. They were also asked to write weekly reflective journals to reflect on their learning progress and plan their future actions for improvement. Their programming achievement was assessed by individual exercises and an end-of-course examination as part of the course assessment. The project adopted a mixed method approach to data analysis. A quantitative correlational analysis on the questionnaire and assessment scores was conducted to explore the relationship between SRL strategies and programming achievement. In addition, a qualitative content analysis on the reflective journals was carried out to identify differences in programming problems and SRL strategies used to tackle the problems between high- and low-achieving students. The findings of the project indicate that higher-order cognitive strategies, metacognitive control strategies and collaborative learning strategies were positively associated with programming achievement. The findings also suggest that reflective journaling can be a good way for students to reflect on their programming performance and think about strategies for improvement. Copyright © 2019 ICEDU.

This paper proposes a novel remote-controlled laboratory (RCL) system, which was developed by using innovative ideas and methods for applying technology-enhanced learning to secondary school science education (grade 7-9 or ages 12-14) through three iterative cycles of design-based research. This Internet-based RCL system enables learners to control and observe the server side of the laboratory equipment and to perform real-time remote scientific investigations at distant places.In this study, three iterative cycle trials and refinements were performed. First, a newly developed RCL system involving four remote experiments was initially tested by 64 undergraduate students who studied science education and web technology and were enrolled in teacher training courses. Then, a refined RCL system involving eight remote experiments were then evaluated by 32 secondary school students from a local public school as a second iterative cycle (selected electricity, plants, light and sound topics). After the refined RCL system was further refined, it was again evaluated by 35 secondary school students from another local public school as a third iterative cycle. The evaluation of these three iterative cycles was performed using a mixed research method that included achievement tests (for the second and third iterative cycles only), questionnaire survey, open-ended questions and interviews specifically developed to collect data on student understanding, perception, and implementation of the use of the RCL system.The results of the achievement tests revealed that the secondary students more comprehensively understood the related science topics. In addition, the survey results indicated that the participants believed that the RCL system and methods for conducting the experiments were appropriate and educational. Nevertheless, negative comments and suggestions for improvement were identified. Accordingly, the researcher refined the RCL system and its design principles (integration with

This study explored the demographic predictors of teachers’ stages of concern (SoC) for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in Hong Kong. Results of multiple regression analysis demonstrated that teaching sector and participation in STEM education training predicted four SoC, whereas teaching subject area predicted two SoC. We discussed the significance of these findings by adopting a personalized approach to teacher professional learning. Copyright © ICCE 2020 - 28th International Conference on Computers in Education, Proceedings. All rights reserved.

There is an increasing need in Hong Kong kindergartens for exploring children with exposure to Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math (STEAM) in school settings. The aim is not the subject-based learning but the way of integrating the STEAM concepts in the holistic learning experience. Guiding children to explore the concepts in the process of solving problems, providing hands-on experience to stimulate children's intrinsic motivation. However, the challenge is apparent that the lack of professional development to prepare the teachers for STEAM education in early childhood education. This project adopted a Pedagogical Play-framework (Edwards, 2017) to prepare kindergarten teachers to integrate STEAM education through play. Accordingly, three types of play were explored, including 1) open-ended play, 2) modelled play and 3) purposefully framed play. The initial finding indicates that kindergarten teachers showed the positive attitude to involve STEAM education in the classroom practice, and used the Pedagogical Play-framework for improving children’s engagement. Teachers were lack of the subject concepts especially the science and the engineering areas. More school-based support were needed to create the multimodal learning spaces.越來越多香港的幼稚園開始探索融入STEAM的元素，包括科學、科技、工程、藝術及數學的學習範疇。但其目標不是主張孩子學習獨立學科，而是希望進行統整的學習，在解決問題的過程中探索所需的概念，以動手解難為基礎讓孩子整合學習經驗，激發孩子的內在學習動機。然而教師培訓是STEAM教育在幼兒教育推行的一個難點。本研究以一個幼師培訓課程為例，使用教學遊戲架構（Pedagogical Play-framework）來透過遊戲來設計STEAM教學活動，三類型遊戲包括1）開放式遊戲，2）示範式遊戲以及3）目的性的遊戲。研究初步發現大部分教師對STEAM教學的態度積極，使用教學遊戲架構能夠幫助教師提升兒童參與程度。但初步的研究結果顯示教師缺乏STEAM的學科知識，特別是在科學和工程方面，以及需要更多的校本支持來設計多元學習空間。 Copyright © 2018 Learning & Teaching Expo.

Although encouraging student creativity is a commonly recognised goal of STEM education, there is a lack of research in this area. In this study, the effects of epistemic beliefs on STEM creativity and the mediation of intellectual risk-taking were investigated. The subjects were 461 primary students in Hong Kong. The findings revealed that (i) intellectual risk-taking was a significant and positive predictor of STEM creativity; (ii) the certainty and justification dimensions of epistemic beliefs had direct, negative and significant impacts on STEM creativity; and (iii) the complexity dimension of epistemic beliefs had both direct and indirect significantly positive impacts on STEM creativity, and the indirect impacts were mediated by intellectual risk-taking. This study revealed the complicated relationships between different orientations in epistemic beliefs and STEM creativity, which include both constraining and facilitating effects, and both direct and indirect impacts. We argue that although reducing naïve and relativistic epistemic beliefs is essential for the development of creativity in STEM education, the effects of cultivating mature epistemic beliefs may not be sufficient. Further direct and explicit approaches are required to more effectively enhance students’ STEM creativity. Copyright © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Guided by the Boundary Activity based Learning (BABL) principle, mobile technology-supported inquiry learning activities were implemented in a primary four science class in Hong Kong. An exploratory study was conducted to examine the effects of the BABL guided inquiry activities on students' learning performance and to explore how the key element, the boundary object, operated in different learning spaces. In the study, mixed research methods were used to evaluate students' conceptual understanding and their engagement in and attitudes toward BABL activities. The reciprocal interactions of students' cognition were qualitatively analyzed in terms of the forms and functions of boundary objects in the BABL environment. The results showed that students made significant improvements in conceptual understanding and were engaged in BABL activities. The study also revealed that the generation of abstract boundary objects, together with physical boundary objects, promoted students' learning and thinking as they shuttled between the classroom and the outside. This research contributes to informing educators about how to design and implement technology-supported teaching and learning through the use of boundary objects in crossing learning contexts. Copyright © 2020 International Forum of Educational Technology & Society.

The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two teaching approaches for senior secondary biology students to learn about the nature of science (NOS): the History of Science (HOS) approach, which is the most commonly used approach in Hong Kong schools, and the Socio- scientific Issue (SSI) approach, which develops students’ understanding of NOS through analysis of socio-scientific issues. This study was motivated by the consistent reports by the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA) on the poor performance of Grade 12 Biology students in the Hong Kong Diploma of Education Examination (HKDSE) regarding their understanding of the Nature of Science (NOS). From the literature, the SSI approach presents a viable alternative in improving students learning of NOS. Three research questions were construed. 1) Could the SSI or HOS approach enhance Hong Kong senior secondary students’ understanding of major tenets of NOS? 2) Which approach, SSI or HOS, could help Senior Secondary Biology students develop more informed conceptions of major NOS tenets? 3) Are there any influences of gender or biology performance on students’ learning of NOS using either approach?This research was based on a quasi-experiment design. The sample consists of 67 secondary students from four intact classes, two of which were biology classes at Grade 11 and two biology classes at Grade 12. They were divided into two treatment groups (HOS and SSI), with each group comprising one Grade 11 and one Grade 12 class. All students received a pre-test consisting of 10 open-ended questions based on the Views of Nature of Science form D+ (VNOS-D+) instrument to test students’ understanding of NOS before the intervention. After this, both groups went through a 3-day learning process to enhance their understanding of NOS. The only difference was that one group was taught through the HOS approach, while the other group received the intervention by using SSI. After almost two weeks of the