Rethinking Performance-Based Science Assessment in Low-Resource Settings: A Systematic Review of Local-Resource Innovation, Digital Possibilities and Equity in Malawi
Keywords:
performance-based assessment, educational technology, science education, TALULAR, virtual laboratories, competency-based curriculum., MalawiAbstract
Performance-based assessment (PBA) is central to competency-oriented science education, yet its implementation is difficult where laboratories, digital infrastructure and teacher assessment capacity are uneven. This systematic review critically examines PBA in Malawian secondary science education and asks what the Malawian case contributes to educational technology research in resource-constrained systems. Following the PRISMA 2020 procedures reported in the source review, 1,417 records were identified, 1,170 were screened after duplicate removal, and 72 sources were included in the qualitative synthesis. A supplementary verification search of Scopus-indexed literature, Web of Science coverage and PubMed records was conducted in September 2026 to test and update the technology-oriented interpretation without altering the original PRISMA counts. The synthesis shows that Teaching and Learning Using Locally Available Resources (TALULAR) functions as a low-cost material technology for practical inquiry, while adoption is constrained by preparation time, teacher capacity, large classes and weak assessment-examination alignment. Importantly, the supplementary search identified direct Malawian secondary-school evidence that PhET simulation-based learning can improve physics achievement and motivation, showing that empirical digital evidence is limited but not absent. International studies further show that simulations and virtual performance environments can elicit rich evidence of scientific reasoning, although physical and digital formats should not be assumed to be interchangeable and task sampling remains a major reliability challenge. The paper therefore proposes a resource-technology continuum in which local materials, physical and virtual laboratories, digital evidence tools and teacher-support networks are selected according to assessment purpose, validity, feasibility and equity.
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