The making of a Master of Education (Teaching Science in International Contexts) programme - alignment with IB philosophy

Abstract

We will discuss our design of a new masters programme for IB science teaching – Master of Education (Teaching Science in International Contexts, TSIC). This programme started in September 2016. It was based on our long-established Master of Education (Science Education), which has four core courses: (1) Teaching and Learning in Science, (2) Assessment in Science Education, (3) Science Curriculum and Assessment, and (4) Trends and Issues of Science Education. Although we have enrolled students from Hong Kong and from different countries (e.g., Canada, China, England, Japan, Korea, Singapore), and that Hong Kong is a special region between East and West where has been shaped by theories and practices from different cultures, our students mainly worked in the local context. Our design geared towards the needs and interest of them working in the Hong Kong curriculum context. The needs of teachers teaching the IB programme brought us new challenges and insights into the long-established MEd (Sci Ed) and the new MEd (TSIC). We revisited our understanding of science teaching and learning in both international and local contexts, and hence worked towards a better alignment with the IB philosophy. In this presentation, we will briefly discuss our existing MEd (Sci Ed) programme and then focus on the development of the MEd (TSIC) programme, especially on the embodiment of the re-conceptualisation of those aspects as highlighted in course (1) which relates to the understanding of our science teaching & learning in an international context, and the relationship between science, theory of knowledge and international mindedness. Also, in relation to course (3), we will discuss the potential impact of international curriculum and assessment practice on local development in curriculum and assessment. We will exemplify this by reporting a small scale survey that investigated attitude towards science as reported by two groups of students from the same school but taking the local curriculum and IB curriculum respectively.