Biology

PAST Activities

Learning from Hong Kong Biology Olympiad for SecondarySchools

2012/2013: Strengthening the Learning of Curriculum Emphases

LI, Jimmy Chi-man; CHAN, Idy Wing-man; LEE, Sarah, Hoi-man

HongKong Association for Science and Mathematics Education (HKASME) 

NB: The authors expressed sincerethanks for advice given by Dr. Valerie W.Y. YIP and Dr. Ching LAI during thewhole competition.

Abstract 

    Learning nature of science (NOS), scientific inquiry (SI) and the inter-connections between science, technology,society and environment (STSE) have longbeen viewed as major components of scientific literacy, and as importantlearning outcomes of the science curricula in many countries. Following the internationaltrend, Hong Kong has incorporatedthese three emphases in the New Senior Secondary Science curricula since 2009. Inregard to this, the Hong Kong Biology Olympiad for Secondary Schools 2012/2013- a localized assessment - was organized to understand how students perform inthese areas after the implementation. A total of 1376 students from 275 localsecondary schools participated in the exercise. Results show that studentsperformed poorly in NOS questions (mean= 3.26 out of 15 marks) and SI questions(mean = 5.10), when compared with the inter-connections between STSE (mean =9.44) and the subject content knowledge (mean = 7.64). Further analysissuggests that there is a moderate correlation between the average scores ofsubject content knowledge and the inter-connections between STSE. The rationaleof designing the assessment, sample questions and the implication of the studyto Hong Kong science education will bediscussed.

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