Bibliometric Analysis of Educational Research in Turkey: 1981-2020 WoS Articles

Abstract

The aim of this research was to develop a comprehensive understanding related to the evolution of educational research in Turkey. For this purpose, bibliometric analyses were conducted on 6,731 SSCI articles in order to determine the general trends of Turkey-addressed educational research. According to the results of the analysis conducted with the VOSviewer program, the first article in the last 40 years of educational research was published in 1981. The number of articles increased rapidly since 2007 and reached the highest number in 2012. The most frequently used keywords in articles were teacher education, science education, higher education, gender, reliability, self-efficacy, validity, attitude, and academic achievement. In addition, although Turkey-addressed educational research' core topics tended to become obvious, differences were found in the core topics' components. This research revealed that Turkish educators were interested in misconceptions until 2005, validity and reliability during 2006-2015, attitude and motivation since 2006, and academic achievement and self-efficacy during 2011-2020. Teacher education and science education remained popular for 40 years. It was found that education researchers interested in higher education for the last 15 years and focused on distance education, teacher candidates, and professional development for the last 5 years. The most productive author in educational research was O. Geban. The most cited author for his articles was M. Calik. The most productive authors' specialties were science education and instructional technology education. The most cited authors in the articles' references were S. Buyukozturk and A. Bandura. In addition, this study revealed that 49.1% of the articles were published in journals with the address Turkey. The most productive universities in educational research were Hacettepe University and Middle East Technical University. The most cited articles' distinctive features were the use of instructional technologies in these researches.