Science education in Hong Kong: Opportunities for research and development

Changes in primary and secondary science education curriculum and the overall education policy in Hong Kong over the years have directed the way researchers conducted local science education research. Increasing school-based support and development programmes has also opened up opportunities for action research. Despite the large body of research work, no comprehensive review has been administered to examine the work done. This article presents a review of research studies, though not exhaustive, related to science education in Hong Kong. Research work here refers to the studies which involve the collection and analysis of quantitative and/ or qualitative data methodically and scientifically. Due to the a large amount of academic publications related to science education in Hong Kong, research work reviewed in this article are identified from main local, Asia-pacific and international science education-related journals, and also by authors from the websites of all science-education related faculties or departments of local universities and teacher education institute. The identified studies are classified into a number of category areas including curriculum studies; teaching and learning; student learning; teacher education; and influences of learning environment and social issues. By presenting a review of literature, this article aims to give readers a lens through which they can have an overview of what has been done to support science education at the primary and secondary level in Hong Kong in the past few decades and to provide researchers with a foundation on which future research studies can be built.