The present paper summarises tendencies related to research in lighting for school environments from 1980 to 2020. Methods and tools used to evaluate and analyse both daylight and electric lighting are presented. The studies in this literature review were grouped in four decades and are presented chronologically. The review suggests a shift from on-site evaluations in the early decades, both when using qualitative and quantitative research methods, to software-based research and analysis in more recent studies. during the past decade, there appears to be a general increase in both software and user-based techniques for evaluation and design of educational spaces. However, it is interesting that the lighting layout in classrooms does not show significant changes during the four decades since it follows the same grid pattern regardless of the changes in architectural, design and teaching tendencies.