Mapping the Research of Technical Teachers’ Pedagogical Beliefs about Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education

Abstract

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education have become increasingly popular among educators in recent times. Research on STEM education has been shaped by a great number of articles published across the world. This study attempts to objectively examine the STEM education literature on technical teachers’ pedagogical beliefs by analysing the bibliometric data extracted from the two popular scientific databases known as SCOPUS and Web of Science core collection. This paper highlights the current research trends in this domain by identifying the most impactful documents, topics, contributing authors, journals, and countries. A bibliometric review method has been employed to analyse the scientific research published on teachers’ pedagogical beliefs in STEM education. The findings reveal that this field of research is relatively new and began to publish in 1990. Recent trend shows a gradual increase in publications on the domain of teachers’ pedagogical beliefs in STEM education. Online pedagogy such as blended learning and its relevant pedagogical approach i.e., gamification etc. are found to be dominant research themes related to technical teachers’ pedagogical beliefs in STEM education. Also, technology integration, selfefficacy, gender issue etc. are the key research areas that were explored and studied in this domain of research. Developed countries appeared to be the dominating contributors in STEM education research. The findings of this study give insights and quantitatively synthesise the research development on teachers’ pedagogical beliefs in STEM education.