Status, Hotspots, and Trends of Teacher Competence Research in Education: A Bibliometric Analysis Based on CiteSpace
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54097/hra3j422Keywords:
Teacher Competence, CiteSpace, Bibliometric Analysis, Educational ResearchAbstract
Teacher competence has become an increasingly important topic in contemporary educational research, particularly in the context of educational digitalization and technology-supported teaching. This study employed CiteSpace and bibliometric methods to analyze teacher competence research in education based on publications indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection database from 2022 to early 2026. A total of 2,946 publications were included in the analysis. Publication trends, country and institutional distributions, keyword co-occurrence, clustering analysis, timeline visualization, and burst keyword detection were conducted to identify the major research hotspots and developmental trends in this field. The results indicate that teacher competence research has shown a continuous growth trend in recent years and has gradually expanded from traditional pedagogical competence toward more technology-related and interdisciplinary research areas. Major research topics include teacher education, higher education, medical education, nursing education, inclusive education, and self-determination theory, while digital competence and technology-enhanced teaching have emerged as important cross-cutting themes across different educational contexts. The keyword evolution and burst analyses further suggest that recent studies have increasingly focused on online learning, student learning outcomes, digital pedagogy, and teachers’ psychological adaptability in changing educational environments. In addition, the findings reveal that teacher competence research has become increasingly contextualized and practice-oriented across different educational settings, including higher education, medical education, and inclusive education. Contemporary studies place growing emphasis on teachers’ technological adaptability, instructional innovation, and continuous professional learning in digital educational environments. This study provides a systematic overview of the knowledge structure and evolutionary trends of teacher competence research and offers references for future teacher education, educational technology integration, and professional development research in the digital era.
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