In this December or Second Issue of Volume 6, it is our great honour to have a a very interesting foreword on "How do learners in different cultures relate to science and technology? Results and perspectives from the project ROSE (the Relevance of Science Education)" as contributed by Prof. Svein SJØBERG who is a Professor in Science Education, University of Oslo, NORWAY and the past Chair of the International Organisation for Science and Technology Education. This article provides a good insight to us on the views and orientations towards science and techonolgy as held by young people of different cultures.

In the Academic Articles section, there are two articles on two rather different but important themes of science education - "students' view on different models of the universe" and "effect of teaching language on students' conceptual understanding of science" as contributed by some authors in Germany (with Chinese background) and Turkey. In the Genearl Articles section, there are six articles covering a quite diverse spectrum of science teaching and learning in China, Singapore, Taiwan and Turkey. The themes of those six articles are centred around four main areas, to wit, physics, chemistry, environmental education and nature of science. Specifically, there are topics on "use of physics demonstration for inquiry", "helping girls to learn physics better", "teachers' content knowledge on a topic in physics", "students' conceptions of types of solution", "primary students' enivronmental knowledge level" and "college students' conceptions of the nature of science".

As an usual practice, the pdf version of articles in the Foreword, Academic Articles and General Articles sections are available for downloading in our Download section.

Finally, we would like to express our sincere thanks to the 16 external referees and all members of our Editorial Board who have carefully and critically reviewed those manuscripts considered for publication in this issue. Thanks are also due to all persons who have contributed articles in this issue and to all research assistants and colleagues in the HKIEd who offered their kind assistance in developing and promoting this online periodical.