A study of the ecological approach to formal learning in elementary school: a systematic review

The current research aimed to evaluate the current state of research in connection with the use of the ecological approach in elementary school for formal learning, which seeks to analyze (1) methodological approaches and (2) ecological approaches. The knowledge adopted in the research was in the form of a systematic review. Articles published from 2013 to 2022 were searched in Scopus, WebScience, Wiley, and Jstore databases. Systematic search according to selected keywords reached 203 studies, which were reduced to 57 in the next stage, and finally, 10 studies were determined according to the criteria and from the point of view of research method, tools, participants, time, and place of research, the research implementation space, the topic, and the target concepts were analyzed. The findings showed various images of data collection methods and tools, topics, spaces, and characteristics of learners. The ecological view of learning is suitable for today's needs of elementary school students, and its design and development can ultimately positively facilitate learning in the formal context. In this regard, it was concluded that in order to develop the ecological approach in the official context of elementary school, we should move towards the analysis of the ecosystem, situational, open-ended, and dynamic goals, active interactions of body and mind, and the natural and digital environment, targeted networking, controlling communication modulating factors, diverse learning paths, and initial evaluations and a process took more serious steps.