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

Coding is a crucial foundation for young children's cognitive development that enhances their logical and computational thinking skills for long-term learning. This study examines how young children in Hong Kong acquire coding skills through integrated STEM activities. In an innovative educational program enacted in a technology-rich 'Creative Lab' with augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and a 3D printer, the study focuses on three children aged 6–8. An explanatory case study approach was employed to collect data from classroom observations and teacher interviews. Observations targeted children's learning progress in coding activities, while the interview unpacked the applied teaching repository. The findings reveal that young children developed early coding skills using various technologies to create and apply symbols. Three strategies scaffold children’s skills enhancement stemmed from situated learning theory: 1) integrating learning content in an authentic context, 2) leveraging learners' intuitive knowledge through inquisitive practice, and 3) providing immersive learning resources. Copyright © 2025 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Purpose This article takes a postfoundational lens to reflect upon my ethnographic (re)searching experience in a Hong Kong high school biology classroom to expose ignorant theoretical-methodological assumptions of researchers and teachers on critical thinking for new realizations.Design/Approach/Methods Using an encountered embodied thinking moment as a trigger, this article examines the texts/discourses collected from teachers/teaching and students/learning to unpack underlying philosophical-theoretical-methodological traps and ignorance.Findings The analysis exposes three ignorant assumptions. First is a mind-body dualism that has historically disembodied thinking as an abstract and invisible mind/cognitive activity. Second is a knowledge-skill/thinking divide that upgrades critical thinking as a transferrable higher-order skill above and external to knowledge. Third is a naturalized assumption that didactic instructions in Asian classrooms are not as conducive to thinking cultivation as (Western) student-centered pedagogies.Originality/Value My postfoundational reflections interrogate and expand these philosophical-theoretical-methodological grounds to reconstruct effective thinking curricula and classrooms. Copyright © 2024 SAGE Publications Ltd.

The aim of this research was to investigate the synergistic effects of peer collaboration and graphic organisers (i.e. mind maps) in Hong Kong science classrooms. Over two hundred Grade Four (i.e. Primary Four) students were assigned to different pedagogical groups, namely, ‘individualised learning with mind mapping’, ‘collaborative learning without mind mapping’ and ‘collaborative mind mapping’, in which they learned a number of science concepts (e.g. living organisms) through such classroom activities as brainstorming tasks and self-reflection exercises. Whilst the quantitative results (i.e. one-way ANOVA) on the elementary science questions revealed that collaborative mind mapping markedly enhanced students’ academic achievement, the qualitative findings elicited from their collected mind maps, triangulated by interview data, highlighted the advantages of this integrative learning approach for boosting students’ joint construction of conceptual knowledge in science. Valuable insights on the employment of mind maps as peer diagnostic instruments to identify science misconceptions are discussed. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

Background: Recognizing the declining interest of school students in Physics, this study sought to explore the situation in England, Hong Kong and Singapore. Purpose: To ascertain students’ views about various aspects of physics. Sample: A total of 2719 students participated in this study. Design and methods: A survey approach was used to ascertain the views of students. It was earlier validated in one of the countries. The Rasch model was used to treat the survey data. Results: On the utilitarian factor, the students from Hong Kong and Singapore held significantly negative attitudes towards career prospects for physics graduates. To them, obtaining a degree in physics would not, as compared to other subjects, appreciably assist them vocationally, which was in contrast to the view held by the students in England. On the intrinsic factor, while the students from all three countries found physics to be interesting, it did not appear to significantly motivate them to want to continue with physics at tertiary level. Nevertheless, they asserted that good grades do motivate them to study physics. On the social aspect, the students from the three countries endorsed significantly positively on the influence of their physics teachers in inspiring them to study physics, with the students from Singapore and Hong Kong endorsing slightly higher agreement. The former group also reported that their close friends generally think that physics is ‘uncool’ while those from England felt otherwise. Students’ views were similar in terms of parental influence, with parents significantly discouraging them from studying physics at tertiary level. They did not exhibit significantly different views on subject matter. Enrichment activities and laboratory work were important to them in nurturing and maintaining interest in physics Conclusion: The survey data has provided useful insights on students’ views of various aspects of Physics in the three countries. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

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.

Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 data revealed that Grade 8 science teachers in several Asian countries (Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, and South Korea) reported lower job satisfaction levels than the international average. For example, while Japanese Grade 8 students ranked among the highest in science achievement on the TIMSS 2019, their science teachers reported the lowest job satisfaction composite scale score compared to the other 63 participating countries. Using teacher questionnaire data from TIMSS 2019, we utilized correlation analysis and multiple linear regression to uncover the answers to this research question: Which factors contribute to Japanese Grade 8 science teachers' job satisfaction? The results from the analysis indicate that working in a safe and orderly school environment was the strongest predictor of Japanese Grade 8 science teacher job satisfaction. The number of working hours, amount of perceived pressure exerted by their students' parents, participation in professional development focused on science curriculum, and adopting a constructivist orientation to science teaching were the other significant factors that predicted job satisfaction. Findings from this study have implications for Japanese educational policy stakeholders, school administrators, mentor teachers, science department leadership, and those invested in science teachers' professional development. Copyright ©2024 International Council of Associations for Science Education.

The information technology industry has been identified as a priority industry for development in Hong Kong. Within this sector, there are a growing number of “new collar” jobs that may not require a traditional four-year degree. However, these jobs require a combination of technical and soft skills that are not often taught in secondary schools. The Applied Learning course titled “Tech Basics” was introduced to five secondary schools in 2019. It has the unique feature of bringing together secondary schools, a local public university, and industry partners in curriculum design and program delivery, to provide students with work-integrated learning. The curriculum includes authentic work environment exposure components such as company visits, mentorship programs, industry-led project competitions, and internships. This paper is a case study presenting detailed information on the program’s model of work-integrated learning as. well as its evaluation. It explains the different roles of secondary schools, higher education institutes, and industry partners. To assess the impact of the program, three rounds of surveys were conducted among students taking the course and a control group over a three-year period. The theoretical framework of work integrated learning and mentoring was reviewed. Survey results and additional qualitative data are presented. Feedback from secondary school teachers and mentors from the industry is analyzed. Challenges for the future development of the Tech Basics course are discussed. Copyright ©2024 Springer.

Through the lens of science capital, this research aims to detect the key factors and their main effects in identifying students with science‐related career expectations. A machine learning approach (i.e., random forest) was employed to analyze a dataset of 519,334 15‐year‐old students from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015. The global analysis identified 25 key factors out of 88 contextual features: (1) for “how you think,” making students feel science is relevant, enjoyable, and interesting is relatively more crucial than being ambitious and confident; (2) for “what science you know,” students' science and math literacy, epistemological beliefs, and awareness of environmental matters were the key factors; (3) for “who you know,” parents valuing science, expecting their children to enter science, and providing emotional support were as similar as or even more important than their economic, social, and cultural status (ESCS)‐related constructs, while teachers fairness ranked the top among all teaching‐related features; and (4) for “what you do,” appropriate science learning time, engagement in science activities, and ICT use for schoolwork were key factors. These findings indicate a relatively optimistic situation, as the most key capitals were malleable for educators. Accumulated local effect plots further discriminated how these key capitals related to students' career expectations in four distinct ways: “increasing,” “S‐shaped,” “inverted‐U‐shaped,” and “decreasing,” shedding light on how we could optimize key resources to enhance aspirations. The comparison between global and Hong Kong analyses suggests the key factors identified by the global model were generally effective but not necessarily essential for a specific region. The cross‐cultural generalizability or prevalence of capitals might vary by their forms. Copyright ©2024 John Wiley & Sons, Inc..

The impact of evolving feedback ecology on students’ feedback literacy development remains underexplored. This study examined the effects of transitioning from secondary to higher education on students’ conceptions and practices of feedback literacy. The research involved 35 first-year associate’s degree students from various disciplines at a Hong Kong higher education institution. Through semi-structured interviews and reflective journals, changes and continuities in students’ feedback literacy were explored, alongside the critical ecological factors influencing these transformations. Three types of feedback literacy emerged – passive, bidirectional and self-regulated – representing varying degrees of student autonomy and teacher involvement in the feedback process. The study also identified contextual factors (e.g. continuous assessments, teacher–student consultation sessions, alternative communication and group dynamics) and individual factors that influenced students’ feedback practices. The implications of these findings for cultivating conducive feedback ecology and enhancing student feedback literacy are discussed. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.