Research trends in science education from 2003 to 2007: A content analysis of publications in selected journals

The present study was a follow-up to Tsai and Wen's (2005) earlier research, in which 802 articles published in the International Journal of Science Education, Science Education, and the Journal of Research in Science Teaching from 1998 to 2002 were analysed in terms of author's nationality, research type, and research topic. In the present study a total of 869 papers published in the three journals from 2003 to 2007 were analysed, and the results were compared with those of Tsai and Wen. Moreover, this study also identified 31 highly-cited papers published during 1998-2002 and 20 highly-cited papers published during 2003-2007. The results showed that authors from countries other than the four major English-speaking countries (i.e., the USA, the UK, Australia, and Canada) published an increasing number of articles in the past decade. During these five years (2003-2007), science educators showed relatively more interest in research topics involving the context of student learning. Besides, science educators have changed some of their research interests during 1998-2007, with a shift in the research topics from student conception learning and conceptual change (1998-2002) to student learning contexts (2003-2007). Moreover, the investigation of highly-cited papers in the past decade revealed that studies on argumentation have gained significant attention among science educators.