Flying into the Future: A Scoping Review of Drone Integration in Educational Contexts

Drones have been found to hold great promise to enhance STEM education with experiential learning and project-based learning that promotes 21st-century skills like creativity, problem-solving, and collaboration. This scoping review addresses the education adoption of drone technology between 2018 and 2025 based on UAV applications, pedagogical strategies, and associated challenges. PRISMA-ScR and thematic content analysis of 36 peer-reviewed articles accessed through Scopus informed the review. The findings indicate that, although UAVs are applied extensively in higher and STEM education, their application in primary and interdisciplinary education is very low. Drones facilitate student participation, allow real-world data collection, and dissociate theory from practice but are limited by teacher training issues, the law, and expense. Pedagogical designs such as experiential, inquiry, and challenge-based learning were adopted universally when drones were employed for learning. This review concludes that UAVs are appropriate pedagogical tools but need broader incorporation into curricula and the generation of ethical standards. Follow-up research needs to respond to closing the under-researched areas, deepening professional training, and inclusive policymaking for fully embracing the learning capacity of drones.