Road to 5**﹕STEM education
【明報專訊】◆Source A
In your opinion, how helpful is the one-off grant of HK$200,000 in supporting STEM education in your school?(105 teachers interviewed)
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Source: STEM Education in Secondary Schools: Improving Resource Utilization, a research report published by the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups in January 2018
◆Source B
When deciding whether to introduce STEM education, what are the primary factors to consider?(105 teachers interviewed)
(see picture)
*In the survey, teachers were allowed to choose more than one option. Each percentage is the number of a specific choice divided by the total number of choices chosen .
Source: STEM Education in Secondary Schools: Improving Resource Utilization, a research report published by the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups in January 2018
■Questions and answering guidelines
1. Refer to source A and illustrate teachers' views on the one-off grant for STEM education.
It is obvious that a lot of teachers regarded the funding as helpful. This observation should be supported by further summarisation. For example, the percentages of those who thought that the funding was ''quite helpful'' and ''very helpful'' can be added together to present the proportion of teachers who thought the funding was helpful. The fact that no teachers thought that the funding was "completely unhelpful" can also be mentioned to support the observation that schools are generally happy with the funding.
2. Referring to the sources and your own knowledge, propose three viable measures that the government can take to promote STEM education.
The question requires you to make suggestions. As both sources are made up of figures, it is important to identify the factors that schools will take into consideration and base your answers on those factors. Remember not to make suggestions not supported by statistics. As the question does not specify which source to refer to, use both of them.
Suggested answer
First, the government should continue to provide funding and assistance for schools. According to source A, more than 80 percent of teachers agreed that the one-off grant of HK$200,000 was helpful in promoting STEM education. Source B also shows that 37.1 percent and 20 percent of teachers thought that ''existing resources'' and ''expenditure'' were the primary factors when deciding whether to introduce STEM education. It can thus be seen that grants and financial assistance are important to STEM education.
Second, grants for STEM education should be made a regular programme, and support should be provided for those seeking further studies in the area. Source B shows that 64.8 percent and 49.5 percent of teachers believed that ''sustainability'' and ''educational value'' should be the deciding factors respectively. Such being the case, the government should turn grants for STEM education into a regular programme to allow secondary schools and primary schools to do long-term planning. Furthermore, the government should delineate a path of STEM education beyond the levels of primary and secondary school. It should, for example, offer STEM subjects in university, while government departments and the business sector can work together to provide internships and career opportunities.
Third, appropriate training for teachers should be provided. As shown in Source B, 66.7 percent, 41 percent and 6.7 percent of teachers considered ''students' interest'', ''teachers' interest'' and ''popularity of the project'' as the primary deciding factors respectively. This shows that the government should update teachers' knowledge about STEM continuously so that their interest and curiosity can be maintained. Training should also be provided for serving teachers. Surveys of students should also be conducted to understand their interest and formulate STEM education accordingly.
Text: 唐金輝, Liberal Arts teacher at ST. Joan of Arc Secondary School
Translation: Terence Yip
[通通識 第548期]
