Kowloon Tong Mingde College, Hong Kong, China

Abstract: Hong Kong’s Secondary School Science Education Curriculum Guide (2017) stipulates that junior secondary physics instruction should abandon rigid knowledge indoctrination and prioritize inquiry-based empirical learning to foster students’ core competencies in scientific observation, critical reasoning, and real-world application within local contextual settings. Contemporary English Medium of Instruction (EMI) physics classrooms in Hong Kong exhibit three prevalent instructional limitations: teacher-centered demonstration experiments dominate lesson procedures, resulting in passive student participation and superficial scientific inquiry; physics concepts are often isolated from Hong Kong’s coastal urban living contexts, limiting students’ knowledge transfer and practical problem-solving capacities; and standardized whole-class activities fail to accommodate the bilingual disparities and diversified academic levels of EMI learners, leading to obvious student achievement stratification. To address these persistent front-line teaching challenges, this study establishes an innovative instructional paradigm for the core junior secondary physics topic “Refraction of Light”, adopting a five-stage framework: local situational enlightenment, differentiated empirical inquiry, collaborative critical induction, context-based knowledge transfer, and closed-loop literacy consolidation. Utilizing only conventional laboratory equipment without technological assistance, this case study presents authentic student-centered operations, interactive classroom dialogues, and generative learning outcomes. This paper comprehensively elaborates the full-cycle implementation procedures of the innovative classroom, objectively evaluates teaching effectiveness based on Hong Kong curriculum benchmarks and local student characteristics, analyzes practical instructional deficiencies, and proposes targeted optimization strategies. Featuring strong local adaptability, high operability, and reliable replicability, this case provides robust practical references for advancing inquiry-based reform, differentiated instruction, and context-driven science education in Hong Kong EMI junior secondary physics classrooms.

Keywords: Hong Kong junior secondary physics; classroom teaching case; empirical inquiry; life-based experiment; differentiated teaching; refraction of light