Cultivating students' enjoyment of science is one of the significant aims of science education. However, it seems challenging to achieve this goal in most countries or economies. Using the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 Hong Kong data, this study aims to identify multiple configurations of school conditions to…

Background: STEM education and research are increasingly emphasized by governments worldwide to foster national development and productivity, economic competitiveness and societal wellbeing. There is no exception in Hong Kong, with its desire to promote STEM education and to strengthen Innovation and Technology development in the future. Purpose:…

In classrooms worldwide, the use of English to teach science subjects is becoming increasingly common. There is an increasing number of English-as-a-second/foreign-language learners studying science in English. This review examines 66 empirical studies on this topic published from 2000 to 2021. We critically review and synthesise evidence of the…

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…

Teachers' professional development (PD) is considered to be a topic of interest in science education. This study examines the impact of professional development in science pedagogy (PD in PED) on students' achievement and how it influences teachers' instruction based on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science (TIMSS) 2019. The sample…

Students need procedural understanding--that is, knowledge of the procedures that scientists use to establish scientific evidence (also known as "concepts of evidence"), to successfully perform scientific investigations, and to evaluate public and scientific claims. However, concepts of evidence are seldom explicitly targeted in routine…

Previous studies suggested that epistemically more sophisticated students learned better in a constructivist learning context than epistemically less sophisticated students did. This study further examined if students with "higher" prior epistemic beliefs (EB High) had better learning gains than students with "lower" prior…

Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is an international comparative study that has been implemented by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) since 1995. This proposed study is aimed to identify the correlations of science classroom teachings with eighth graders' science…

The intended curriculum is arguably one of the most important components within any national educational system although those in primary science have not been subject to extensive research scrutiny. Based on reformed primary science curricula from Hong Kong, mainland China, and Taiwan, we compared them on two key features: (1) levels of knowledge…

This study assessed elementary school students' conceptions of STEM professions and its potential influence on STEM career interest, as well as the moderation effect of gender on the relationships between conceptions of STEM professionals and career interest in STEM. A total of 216 grade 3 through 5 students in Hong Kong participated in this…

A previous study mentioned that students' action responses towards water pollution are incongruent with the training they received in schools. Conducting a course of two weeks with elementary students (N = 22) aged 9-10 in Hong Kong, the study aims to connect primary students' perceptions of the causes, consequences and responsive actions on water…

Resilient students attain high levels of academic achievement despite the presence of chronic socioeconomic disadvantage. Identifying factors that promote resilience in the domain of science is crucial to making equitable and high-quality science education accessible for all students. Rooted in the opportunity-propensity framework, this study…

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.…

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…

Conventional school science has often portrayed obesity as a self-inflicted problem. It tends to ignore perspectives at the systems level, such as social, political, marketing and economic factors that shape an obesogenic environment that determines individual eating and lifestyle patterns. Therefore, socioscientific decisions (e.g. fat tax) are…