Professional development for science teachers: A bibliometric analysis from 2001 to 2021

Abstract

The context of innovation education has made policymakers and researchers more and more interested in professional development (PD) for teachers. Along with that, the development of science and technology also leads to changes in the teaching of science subjects in schools, and thus affects the science teachers’ PD in many countries. Analysis of publications related to this topic will create a picture of important trends and contributions of scientists and the scientific community and will have many implications for policymakers and researchers. This study uses bibliometric analysis to analyze 431 documents extracted from the Scopus database related to PD for science teachers. The results show a sharp increase in the number of studies on this topic, especially from 2018 to 2021 and mainly from research in the US and developed countries. Moreover, the issues of most interest are PD for in-service science teachers in terms of training, fostering and teacher competence related to sciences; various aspects of the science teaching process are student, curriculum and pedagogical content knowledge; and the belief of teachers, and inquiry in teaching science subjects. Policymakers and scholars can find great authors, research centers, influential studies and frequently published journals on this topic to read and research. Further studies based on the combination of bibliometric analysis with other methods may help paint a more profound picture of research findings on this topic.