Since July 2000, this online science education journal has released 15 issues in 7 volumes together with a printed monograph called "Innovative Ideas in Science Teaching: Theories and Exemplars" published in 2002. Some readers and potential contributors may be interested in how our quality assuring mechanism is being exercised. In brief, all contributed articles will undergo a preliminary examination by our Editorial Board which consists of the Chief Editor and four Executive Editors who are experienced science teacher educators and experts in either primary science, secondary science, physics, chemisty and/or biology education research. In 2006, two contributions were rejected at this stage because either their contents were lying outside the scope and aims of this online journal or the quality of the paper was quite far away from what is normally expected for a professional article in science education. After this initial screening, two independent referees with relevant expertise will be invited to review each contributed paper. The referees' comments will then be forwarded to the authors who may either properly revise their manuscripts in accordance with the given comments or provide appropriate responses to those comments they disagree with.  After receiving the revised manuscript, the Editorial Board will decide on whether the article could be accepted for publication in an appropriate section of our journal or request the authors to make further revision to re-address all the referees' comments. In fact, our past records indicate that over 90% of contributed articles have been required to make some minor or major revision before being accepted for publication. As some contributions may eventually get published after many rounds of revision, it is not quite meaningful to calculate the "acceptance rate". Instead, it is reported that we had received 28 contributed articles (in addition to two specifically invited foreword articles) in the year 2006 and 18 articles (including two received in 2005) were published in Volume 7 Issues 1 and 2. Hence, the output to input percent is 64% but it should be noted that there are 4 new submissions plus a number of old submissions as accumulated from previous years still being processed. As compared with the figure for 2005, there is about 20% increase in the number of published articles.

Coming back to this December or Second Issue of Volume 7, the articles were contributed by 18 authors in 9 countries or regions around the world, including China, Egypt, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Turkey, UK and USA. It is our great pleasure to have Prof. Philip ADEY written for this issue a foreword on "Thinking in Science – Thinking in General?". Prof. Adey is emeritus professor of science, cognition and education of King's College London, University of London and he is also well-known for his extensive and pioneer research on teacher professional development.

Out of the 11 research or professional articles published in the present issue, we have 2 in the Academic Articles section, another 2 in the Exemplary Teaching Methods section and 7 in the General Articles section. Related to the historical and philosophical aspect of science education, there are one article on "historical models and science instruction" by Shu-Chiu LIU and two articles on "teaching or evaluation of nature of science" by Behiye AKCAY and Sufen CHEN, separately. Related to the 3 key technologies in the 21st century -- Biotechnology, Information Technology and Nanotechnology, there is one article in each field as contributed by David D. KUMAR & Kimberly SCAROLA; Ying-shu HU, Xian-qiu WU, Zhen-ning WANG & Hua-cai LIANG; and Emine Selcen DARCIN & Lutfullah TURKMEN, respectively. Related to the survey of localised context of science education in different regions, we have an article on "science teachers in Egypt" by Heba EL-DEGHAIDY, another article on "secondary science education in a remote province of China" by Xiaoqin LAI and a third article on "environmental consciousness in Turkish science curricula" by Haluk ÖZMEN & Orhan KARAMUSTAFAOĞLU. Related to students' science learning, we have the remaining 2 articles on "pupils’ learning difficulties" and "project learning" as contributed by Tin-Lam TOH and May Hung CHENG, respectively.

For all articles published in the aforementioned 4 sections, their corresponding pdf files are freely available for access in our Download section.

Finally, we would like to express our sincere thanks to the 23 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. Besides, we must express our special thanks to the University Grants Committee of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the HKIEd for their approval of providing the "matching grant" of donation to support this scholarly activity.