Informal science learning has been proven to have effects on a variety of science learning outcomes. This study explored the direct and indirect influence of both prior and current informal science learning on science performance by using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment 2015. More than ten kinds of informal science learning activities were measured. Multi-level structural equation modelling was used to investigate the mediating role of science interest and self-efficacy in the relationship between informal science learning and science performance in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and South Korea. The results showed that prior informal science learning has a positive effect on current informal science learning and a direct influence on science performance. In addition, informal science learning significantly influenced science performance through science interest and self-efficacy. These results were consistent across three countries or regions with different cultures and science learning conditions even after controlling for background variables at student and school level. Copyright ©Routledge.

This commentary aims to discuss an overarching boundary crossing framework under which integrated STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) pedagogy can be conceptualized. Four potential learning dialogical processes for boundary crossing are presented and used as the main theoretical construct for the discussion. A proposal of an interactive pedagogical framework is put forward accompanied by a provisional statement to relate the connective factors that are critical in the formation of a boundary crossing STEM pedagogy. These factors are situated learning, communities of practices, problem solving, learning dialogical processes, and boundary objects. A Hong Kong school STEM case is employed to illustrate the applicability of this framework. The commentary ends with a reflective remark on boundary crossing STEM pedagogy. Copyright ©SpringerOpen.

This study questions whether Hong Kong (HK) students' engineering aspirations are facilitated within their secondary school STEM curriculum or elsewhere. HK students perform strongly on international science and mathematics assessments, although its economy is reliant on a dwindling number of engineers. We consider STEM education metaphors, recent government attempts to improve STEM education and lack of Asian STEM literature. A representative twenty-four students (sex, age, secondary school type) were interviewed to elicit school/home e/STM (engineering within/STM subjects) experiences and aspirations. Thematic content analyses found: e/STM aspirations most susceptible to (pathway-based) home and cultural inequalities; younger students excluded from engineering interests; and, inhibiting in-school activities/pedagogies. Within this high-performing Asian society, inhibitors to engineering engagement were similar to current Western findings. Copyright ©Elsevier Ltd.

This study draws on the activity theory to explore how bilingual first-year secondary school students appropriate resources strategically in response to linguistic challenges in learning science through English in Hong Kong. The study explored 12 bilingual students' self-regulated strategy use by conducting in-depth interviews, stimulated recalls, observation and analysis of learning materials. Through analyzing these data, we examined how and why they appropriated and used resources strategically for self-regulated learning. The analysis revealed that the participants had used various artefacts (e.g. dictionary) and rules (e.g. evaluation criteria) to negotiate their respective roles (e.g. subject content learners and language learners) in situated communities of learning that consist of subject teachers, classmates, family members, private tutors and friends. Similarities and differences were found between the high achievers and the underachievers with regard to the use of resource-mediated strategies and the underlying reasons. The results inform the development of pedagogical schemes to enhance bilingual students' self-regulated strategic learning of academic subjects through English. Copyright ©Routledge.

This paper reports the findings of a quasi-experimental study that investigated the impacts of effective group work on Hong Kong science classrooms. One hundred and fifty-two Secondary 2 (or Grade 8) students from two schools participated in a teaching intervention (comprising 16 lessons) in which they studied the topic 'Making Use of Electricity' and resolved a series of related scientific inquiries. Informed by both the quantitative (i.e. diagnostic tests) and qualitative (i.e. science inquiry questions, audio-recordings of group discussions and focus-group interviews) results of the study, this paper reveals that effective group work can narrow the social and gender differences in Hong Kong students' science performance. Whilst a dynamic and respectful learning environment was found to help economically disadvantaged and female students to overcome such barriers to science learning as low self-esteem and high anxiety, a gender-balanced and socioeconomically diverse arrangement was found to be an important element of social group work practice. Finally, the study's broad implications for teacher and peer support for science teaching worldwide are also discussed. Copyright ©Routledge.

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.

This paper examines the roles of multimodality and thematic patterns in the teaching of the particle model of matter. Although the particle model is a fundamental topic in science education, there is no consensus on (1) whether or not the model should be introduced in early grades and (2) how to introduce the model to students for the very first time. Drawing from teacher development projects in Sweden (Grade 3) and in Hong Kong (Grade 7), we suggest that the learning and teaching of the particle model can be facilitated by utilising a variety of modes. With multimodal scaffolding, Grade 3 students were able to demonstrate aspects of the particle model related to the expansion of gases in a warmer environment. The paper illustrates teaching episodes from the two projects in terms of (i) aspects of the particle model that were constructed using different semiotic modes, (ii) shifts in the salience of different modes in the teaching and learning process, and (iii) a thematic pattern that the classroom interactions adopted to explain puzzling phenomena. For a theoretical advancement, we suggest that thematic analysis should be extended to multimodal interactions. Copyright © Routledge.

Positioned in the Hong Kong education context, this article evaluates the effects of teaching science through home and second languages (i.e. Chinese and English) in Secondary 2 (or eighth grade) science classrooms. A total of 479 students, divided into two language instruction groups, participated in a teaching intervention comprising 16 lessons on the topic of ‘Making Use of Electricity’. Informed by the results of a mixed-methods study with a quasi-experimental design, with data collected from science diagnostic tests, inquiry questions and focus group interviews, this article reports that Chinese is the most advantageous language of instruction for low- and middle-ability science students, whereas English is more favourable for their high-achieving peers. Whilst Hong Kong students who learnt the focal topic in English were able to rid themselves of certain naive ideas generated from the translation of science terms into Chinese (e.g. pencil ‘鉛筆’ is translated as ‘lead pen’ in Chinese), they were also found to have misconceptions about certain scientific concepts. For example, they were confused about ‘open’ and ‘closed’ circuits because they mixed up the words ‘open’ (‘開放’) and ‘switch on’ (‘開啟’) in English. The study’s broad implications for language support and a mixed-code approach in science teaching worldwide are discussed.
[Copyright of International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education is the property of Springer Netherlands.]

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.