Sustainable Laboratory Practices and Environmental Problem-Solving Skills: A Systematic Review of Educational Evidence with Humanistic Perspectives Supporting SDG 4

This systematic review examines the relationship between awareness of sustainable practices in science laboratory education and students' environmental problem-solving skills, synthesizing evidence from 29 peer-reviewed studies published between 2016 and 2025. Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020 guidelines, a structured search was conducted across Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC, PubMed, and Semantic Scholar, with studies selected using predefined eligibility criteria and a methodological-quality threshold. The evidence generally indicates that sustainability-oriented laboratory interventions — particularly problem-based learning, inquiry-based science education, green chemistry curricula, and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics–Education for Sustainable Development (STEM-ESD) interdisciplinary models — are generally associated with improvements in both sustainability awareness and environmental problem-solving competencies across educational levels and geographic contexts, although causal evidence remains limited. The most promising approaches situate problem-solving within authentic, ethically grounded, and multidimensional environmental challenges. However, a persistent knowledge–behavior gap qualifies the transformative potential of these interventions, as awareness and attitudinal gains do not reliably translate into sustained pro-environmental behavior. The corpus is heterogeneous, so conclusions are drawn cautiously. Educator competence, institutional support, and the validity of sustainability competency assessment tools emerged as critical mediating factors. Structural barriers, including resource constraints, institutional inertia, and superficial Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) alignment, further limit scalability. The review calls for coordinated systemic reform encompassing professional development, competence-based assessment frameworks, and longitudinal research designs capable of establishing causal links between laboratory interventions and durable environmental problem-solving outcomes. Received: 24 July 2026 / Accepted: 14 October 2026 / Published: November 2026