Practical work in science education: a systematic literature review

163 records screened; 53 studies included

Practical work in pre-university (school) science teaching, international; open-access, peer-reviewed, English-language publications from 2011 onward.

PRISMA-style systematic literature review restricted to complete open-access English-language peer-reviewed studies published 2011 onward — restrictive filters that inflate the qualitative share, so the design breakdown below should be read as indicative rather than a census of the field. The review reports the research-design distribution of its 53 included studies explicitly, which is the reason to record it: 31 qualitative (58.5%), 18 quantitative (34.0%), 4 mixed methods (7.5%); within the quantitative subset, 6 quasi-experimental designs and 1 randomised trial. The review's own conclusion — that practical work's advantages outweigh its limitations when properly implemented — is not supported by anything in that evidence profile and should be discounted accordingly.

The headline number for the whole topic. Of 53 recent peer-reviewed studies of practical work in school science, ONE is a randomised trial and six are quasi-experiments; 58.5% are qualitative. The literature on the most expensive component of school science consists overwhelmingly of descriptions of what teachers and students do and how they feel about it, not of tests of whether it works. The review itself concludes that practical work's advantages outweigh its limitations 'when properly implemented' and that effectiveness depends on teacher training — a conclusion its own evidence profile cannot support, and a good illustration of how the consensus in this field is maintained by assertion rather than by trials. Recorded as grade D because the review's synthesis is narrative and its filters (open-access only, English only) are not designed for an unbiased census.

Not applicable.

Independent of Gericke et al. 2022 in search strategy, window and inclusion criteria, and reaches a compatible verdict on the structure of the field.