The research trends and contributions of science education during the COVID-19 pandemic: A narrative systematic literature review of publications in selected journals

Abstract

The COVID-19 global pandemic was a socio-scientific issue (SSI) that had an impact on various aspects of life including education. Educational institutions adapted to new learning, teaching and assessment approaches to be effective in responding to the pandemic. This study aims to determine the research trends and contributions of science education during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to follow up on possible impacts and other crises in the future. The study involved a narrative systematic literature review of 898 articles published in three selected journals from 2018 to 2021. The analysis was divided into two stages. First, to compare research trends between 2018 and 2019 as the baseline with research trends for 2020–2021 during COVID-19. Second, to systematically analyse the content of articles published between 2020 and 2021 to explore the contribution of science education amidst COVID-19 descriptively. The results show that the empirical type of research during the COVID-19 pandemic has increased compared to the baseline. Research topics on learning contexts dominate the baseline and amidst the pandemic, but ‘teaching’ topics are current and future trends in science education research. The three selected journals contributed many publications related to understanding and resolving the crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic directly and indirectly. In addition, science education amidst COVID-19 contributes to preparing the younger generation to become resilient citizens capable of dealing with crises. Direct evidence of preparing resilient citizens amidst the COVID-19 pandemic is contributed by technological and pedagogical knowledge, content and context knowledge, futurising education, and student mobility programmes in science education. Furthermore, indirect evidence is contributed by science education publications published in the three selected journals between 2020 and 2021. Most publications are carried out at the high school level. More articles in the integrated sciences are published than in separate disciplines such as physics, chemistry, biology and earth/space science. Furthermore, the details of research trends and contributions of science education amidst the COVID-19 pandemic are discussed.