Establishing common ground in empirical research on science teachers’ lesson planning competence: A scoping review

Although lesson planning is considered a crucial competence of

science teachers, research in this area remains limited. Currently,

there is a lack of both a comprehensive heuristic model describing

the necessary knowledge and skills for effective lesson planning

and an overview of the recently emerging research field consolidat-

ing current findings and suggesting future research directions. To

address this gap, we conducted a scoping review of N = 66 empiri-

cal studies (1987-2022) focusing on pre-service and in-service

science teachers’ lesson planning competence. Our analysis reveals

that most studies emphasise the identification of conceptual

knowledge, with less attention given to procedural knowledge or

skills in the lesson planning process. Additionally, while the majority

of studies examine the creation of mental or written lesson plans,

few consider the justification of planning decisions. A bibliographic

coupling analysis indicates that researchers in this field have yet to

establish a common theoretical foundation. To address this, we

present our findings within a modified version of the Refined

Consensus Model of Pedagogical Content Knowledge. This adapted

model aims to facilitate future research on lesson planning compe-

tence for both pre-service and in-service science teachers, provid-

ing a cohesive framework for understanding this critical aspect of

science education.