A Systematic Review of Science Teachers' Use, Perceptions and Challenges of Technology-Enhanced Simulations

Technology-enhanced simulations (TES) have gained significance in science education because they can facilitate inquiry learning, represent abstract science concepts visually, and offer interactive learning opportunities. Although science teachers are increasingly incorporating TES into their lessons, they still face a few challenges that affect their effective integration of TES into their lessons. Despite the progressive use, science teachers still experienced some challenges that affect the effective incorporation of TES into the lesson. This systematic review aims to compile empirical studies from 2020 to 2026 that look at the use, problems, and perceptions of science teachers with technology-integrated simulations in science education. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework guided the review of peer-reviewed qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods studies retrieved from Google Scholar. The results show that science teachers frequently resort to TES to facilitate conceptual understanding, inquiry learning, testing of hypothesis and substitution of lab in limited physical resources. Overall, teachers believe that simulations are effective in improving student visualization, their active learning, and their engagement. However, several issues hinder effective implementation, including a lack of infrastructure, inadequate professional development, unreliable internet access, limited institutional support, and difficulty aligning simulations with curriculum standards. In addition, the review points to new trends like the use of virtual reality (VR), AI-driven simulations, and gamified learning settings, especially in pre-service teacher training. The results indicate that TES have high pedagogical potential, but the integration of TES into the system should be coordinated in terms of investment in teacher training, infrastructure, curriculum alignment and institutional support systems. This review provides an aggregated evidence base, which can be used for informing current educational policies, teacher preparation, and future research on science teaching through simulation.