Yearly Archive 2024年7月17日

Strengthening the Ability to Integrate and Apply

Through integration and application of knowledge and skills of the KLAs of Science, Technology and Mathematics Education, students would realise that the development of science, technology and
mathematics is closely related to the societal environment and that the advancement in science and technology could help improve the quality of life in the contemporary world.
The experiences of integrating and applying knowledge and skills to solve authentic problems and make inventions would help the development of positive values and attitudes among students as part of whole-person development. These learning opportunities can facilitate their career explorations in STEM fields and the nurturing of entrepreneurial spirit. This would not only enhance students’ interest in STEM areas, but also enable them to prepare for their future studies and careers in the areas and other fields requiring relevant knowledge, skills and attitudes.

Approaches for Organising Learning Activities on STEM Education

With the focus on strengthening students’ ability to integrate and apply knowledge and skills within and across the KLAs of Science, Technology and Mathematics Education, the following two approaches for organising learning activities on STEM education are recommended:
Approach One: Learning activities based on topics of a KLA for students to integrate relevant learning elements from other KLAs

Approach Two: Projects for students to integrate relevant learning elements from different KLAs

Teacher Collaboration and Community Partnership

As the KLAs of Science, Technology and Mathematics Education are closely connected in the promotion of STEM education, teachers concerned are encouraged to strengthen the cross-disciplinary collaboration at school level in planning and organising KLA-based and cross-KLA learning activities for students.
To facilitate the promotion of STEM education among schools, community partnerships with academics and practitioners specialising in various fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as well as professional bodies and other relevant organisations, have to be fostered for the benefit of student learning.

To maintain the international competitiveness of Hong Kong, a range of talents with different capabilities and at different levels are required to fulfill the needs of economic, scientific and technological
developments in the contemporary world, especially when opportunities arise for Hong Kong to contribute to major initiatives for national developments, e.g. the “Belt and Road” initiative. Along
this line, the Government is actively promoting Innovation and Technology, and the public awareness of the importance of innovation in STEM-related fields is increasing. These macro changing
contexts call for the promotion of STEM education in schools.
Promotion of STEM education is introduced as a key emphasis under the ongoing renewal of the school curriculum (also known as Learning to Learn 2.0), to nurture students to become effective lifelong learners
equipped with appropriate knowledge, generic skills as well as values and attitudes necessary for facing challenges in the 21st century.
Hong Kong students have generally performed well in science, technology and mathematics over the years as revealed from international studies (e.g. PISA, TIMSS) and competitions (e.g. International Junior Science Olympiad, Intel International Science and Engineering Fair). On the whole, they actively participate in a wide range of learning activities related to STEM disciplines inside and
outside schools.
While Hong Kong students perform well in science, technology and mathematics, they may focus on disciplinary studies and may not evenly participate in hands-on activities in schools. Therefore, it is
necessary to strengthen the ability of students to integrate and apply their knowledge and skills across different subject disciplines through solving daily life problems with practical solutions and innovative
designs.
Besides, although the elements of STEM education are embedded in individual KLAs of Science, Technology and Mathematics Education of the local school curriculum, the coherence
and collaboration among teachers of the three KLAs in planning and organising STEM related learning activities need to be strengthened. The promotion of STEM education provides an opportunity for
teachers of these KLAs to collaborate and further enhance the effectiveness of learning and teaching.

The Education Bureau (EDB) today (December 5) released the Report on Promotion of STEM Education – Unleashing Potential in Innovation. The Report sets out the final recommendations for the promotion of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education in primary and secondary schools after the consultation conducted from late 2015 to early 2016.

The promotion of STEM education was first proposed in the 2015 Policy Address and further supported in the 2016 Policy Address. It aims to develop students to become lifelong learners of science, technology and mathematics so that they can meet the challenges of the 21st century, and also to help nurture versatile talents in STEM-related areas to enhance the development of Hong Kong.

A spokesman for the EDB said, “We thank the school sector and other stakeholders for contributing valuable views and suggestions in response to the initial recommendations proposed in the consultation document. The general feedback about the promotion of STEM education gathered was positive and encouraging. Stakeholders generally agreed to the objectives of STEM education, which include enhancing students’ interest in STEM-related disciplines and strengthening their ability to integrate and apply knowledge and skills, as well as nurturing their creativity, collaboration and problem-solving skills.”

The EDB came up with six final recommendations for the promotion of STEM education, summarised below:

1. Updating the curricula of the Science, Technology and Mathematics Education Key Learning Areas (KLAs), including KLA Curriculum Guides and relevant subject guides, with the focus on nurturing students’ creativity, collaboration, problem-solving skills and innovativeness through student-centred pedagogies, and on paving the way for nurturing students’ entrepreneurial spirit in senior secondary subjects such as applied learning courses;
2. Strengthening the provision of quality learning experiences to students through support to schools on whole-school curriculum planning and collaboration with relevant organisations;
3. Offering KLA-based and cross-KLA learning and teaching resource materials to schools to enhance the learning interest and effectiveness, and providing additional resources support for schools to cater to their school-based needs;
4. Enhancing professional capacity, knowledge transfer and cross-fertilisation among schools and teachers for building communities of practice on STEM education;
5. Synchronising contributions from different community key players to enhance the promotion of STEM education in the territory; and
6. Adopting actions to continuously review the development of STEM education, consolidate good practices for dissemination and generate knowledge for transfer.

Details of the above recommendations are set out in the Report.

“Building on the consensus among different stakeholders in the promotion of STEM education and concerted efforts of schools and relevant partners, we have advanced to a new phase in the pursuit of excellence in education, empowering our students to unleash their innovative potential and equipping them with necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to face the contemporary world with evolving developments in science and technology,” the spokesman said.

Among the four STEM subjects, Mathematics is a compulsory subject throughout the six-year secondary education in Hong Kong. While Integrated Science is still compulsory at junior secondary level, science subjects (i.e. Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Combined Science and Integrated Science) become optional at senior secondary level. In the school year of 2015-2016, as many as 51% of the 56 000 candidates of the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (“HKDSE”) did not take any science subjects at all. As to the 10 optional subjects with Technology or Engineering content, they were taken up by at most 39% of HKDSE candidates in 2015-2016.
STEM proficiency can be measured by the scores in the Programme for International Student Assessment (“PISA”), an international benchmarking exercise to assess teenagers aged 15 of their abilities in three core areas (i.e. science, mathematics and reading) on a triennial basis. Hong Kong used to perform very well in PISA, ranking the second in science and third in mathematics across the globe in 2012. However, for the latest 2015-round results released at end 2016, Hong Kong’s ranking in science slipped noticeably to the ninth position, along with a 6% drop in the overall score. In spite of advancement to the second position in mathematics, this has triggered renewed concerns over the effectiveness of local STEM education.
To a certain extent, the slip in scores in science may be attributable to the reduced intensity of science education in NSSC adopted since 2009. This is manifested in a steep decline of 23% in the average number of science-related sessions per week, from 7.2 in 2009 to 5.5 in 2015. Coupled with a sharp decrease in the proportion of students in senior secondary level taking three science-related subjects from 40% to 3% over the same period, this should have noticeable implications for the overall proficiency in science among students.
Since 2015, EDB has introduced a series of support measures to schools for the promotion of STEM education. The support measures on STEM education included: (a) updating/renewing the related curricula; (b) strengthening teacher professional development programmes; (c) enriching learning and teaching resources; (d) organizing a wide array of STEM-related activities/competitions; (e) setting up Professional Development Schools to showcase and disseminate good practices; (f) forging community partnerships to synergize efforts; and (g) consulting stakeholders to collect feedback and suggestions on the way-forward. More recently, EDB released the “Report on Promotion of STEM education – Unleashing Potential in Innovation” at end-2016, after a year-long consultation with stakeholders. The gist of the multi-pronged strategy to further promote STEM education is summarized below:

(a) Strengthening integration and application of knowledge across different STEM-related curricula: To enhance the capabilities of students to integrate and apply the knowledge and skills learnt in solving daily life problems, more efforts will be placed on “nurturing students’ creativity, collaboration, problem-solving skills and innovativeness through student-centred pedagogy”;

(b) Enriching STEM learning activities inside and outside classrooms: EDB has recommended schools to adopt cross-disciplinary learning in both classroom lessons and out-of-classroom activities through whole-school curriculum planning. Also, EDB will strengthen collaboration with professional bodies to provide STEM-related activities to enrich students’ learning experience;

(c) Providing resource support to STEM education: To kick-start or enhance school-based STEM education, EDB disbursed a one-off grant of HK$100,000 to each primary school in 2016 to procure and upgrade STEM teaching and learning resources. Similar grant of HK$200,000 will be delivered to each secondary school in 2017. At end-2016, EDB launched a new website to disseminate the latest information about STEM education in Hong Kong; and

(d) Enhancing professional development for school leaders and teachers: Professional development programme (in form of training, seminars, workshops and networking activities) will be organized for teachers and school leaders to enhance their capacity for cross-disciplinary teaching. To promote knowledge transfer and cross-fertilization between schools, EDB will disseminate the exemplary practices in STEM teaching and learning seen in pioneering schools to other local schools.
Notwithstanding these initiatives, there are concerns over whether they can adequately improve STEM education in Hong Kong. According to a study report released in January 2017, the imbalance of science and non-science education of the current senior secondary curriculum provides limited STEM education to students, and is not conducive to Hong Kong’s development into a knowledge-based economy.