A Systematic Evidence Review of Instructional and Nurturant Effects in Physics Learning

Abstrak

Physics education research frequently emphasizes conceptual achievement while reporting broader learner development unevenly. This systematic review mapped instructional and nurturant effects across physics-learning interventions, considering reported magnitude, evidence coverage, outcome balance, and methodological credibility. A PRISMA-informed search of Scopus and Web of Science identified 32 eligible publications; 29 contained quantitative outcome information. Secondary syntheses dominated the corpus, and overlapping primary studies and heterogeneous estimators precluded a new pooled meta-analysis. In the descriptive map, guided inquiry had a reported-effect summary of 0.87 and a relatively balanced profile of conceptual understanding and critical thinking. This value does not establish causal superiority or constitute a new meta-analytic estimate. Scientific reasoning, motivation, self-regulation, independence, collaboration, and scientific attitudes were less consistently documented, with limited longitudinal assessment. An explicitly targeted critical-thinking outcome also requires classification as instructional rather than automatically as nurturant. The synthesis supports aligning investigation, contingent guidance, representations, feedback, and assessment with the intended outcomes. Longitudinal studies with traceable effect reporting and explicit outcome-role classification are needed to assess the persistence and transfer of broader learner development.

Kata kunci

• Critical thinking
• conceptual understanding
• evidence mapping
• nurturant effects
• physics education