Hot Topics and Frontier Evolution of Science Education Research: a Bibliometric Mapping from 2001 to 2020

Bibliometric mapping serves as a method to systematically evaluate and visually demonstrate the development of a research field. CiteSpace and VOSviewer, two research tools of bibliometric mapping, were used in the present study to analyze, synthesize, and visualize the hot topics as well as frontier evolution of science education. Co-authorship analysis, co-citation analysis, co-occurrence analysis, cluster analysis, and content analysis were conducted based on 6278 articles selected from seven SSCI journals. Researchers from countries/territories in North America, Europe, Oceania, and West and East Asia had maintained relatively tighter cooperation with each other. Highly influential literature mainly focused on the standards, methods, practice, and reflection of science education. In the past two decades, the literature on science education covered seven hot topics: conceptual issues in science education, gender, scientific argumentation, professional development, science learning, evolution, and peer review. The research on science education in the past 20 years can be divided into three phases: the first stage focused on knowledge learning, identity, and informal education; the second stage emphasized formal education, scientific literacy, and social-science issues; and the third stage highlighted scientific argumentation and STEM education.