Science Education Research within TPACK Framework at a Glance: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

We conducted a bibliometric analysis of the scientific articles in the field of science education research within TPACK framework published between 2012 and 2021. In total, 910 articles published in science education and technological education journals were extracted from Scopus databases. This study aims to present a summary of science education research within TPACK framework regarding number of annual production, most influencing authors and productive countries, the co-authorship collaboration, and research foci. The main findings show that the number of articles on science education research within TPACK framework throughout the period 2012 to 2021 fluctuated. Co-authorship collaborations were mostly made up of researchers from the same country. Furthermore, a shift in the research foci was observed. Recent research foci have emphasized higher education, self-efficacy, and STEM as important keywords. In addition, one of the most common articles published in the field is a literature review.

Examining the relationship between TPACK and STEAM through a bibliometric study

“…Australia, Indonesia, Spain, China, the United Kingdom, and Turkey have between 100 and 200 publications, while Malaysia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong have slightly less than 100. These tendencies are common with the articles focusing on STEAM or TPCK individually (Aguilera & Ortiz-Revilla, 2021;Irwanto, 2021;Lee et al, 2022;Porras et al, 2022;Putri et al, 2022).…”

“…Psychology, physics and astronomy, energy, mathematics, environmental studies, and arts and humanities are among the fields that have come up in the search, even if in a smaller percentage. It can be stated that there is a general interest from various fields in how TPCK and STEAM are combined (Aguilera & Ortiz-Revilla, 2021;Irwanto, 2021;Lee et al, 2022;Porras et al, 2022;Putri et al, 2022). As Figure 3 shows, when looking at the number of publications per year by source, a change in the tendency is observed.…”

“…Several such studies have pointed out that there are articles where these two concepts co-exist. In other words, in studies around TPACK, the concept of STEAM was observed and vice versa (Aguilera & Ortiz-Revilla, 2021;Irwanto, 2021;Kutluca & Merkan, 2022;Lee et al, 2022;Porras et al, 2022;Putri et al, 2022). However, there seems to be a limited number of bibliometric studies that specifically aim to determine whether there are articles that study both of these terms.…”

“…In a bibliometric study that examined 910 articles published between 2012 and 2021, Putri et al (2022) investigated the relationship between TPCK and science teaching. Their primary finding is that many articles on science education seem to include TPCK.…”

“…A final parameter is the country or territory of publication and the language. Generally, in both terms, there was a dominance of certain countries or areas, particularly English-speaking ones (Aguilera & Ortiz-Revilla, 2021;Irwanto, 2021;Lee et al, 2022;Porras et al, 2022;Putri et al, 2022).…”