Systems Thinking in Education: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to exhibit a bibliometric analysis of systems thinking research in the field of education. A total of 1020 articles from 459 sources indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) database in the years 1984-2022 were used in the analysis. The analysis aims to provide a review of systems thinking research in education by identifying the dynamics of research by presenting a wide in-depth knowledge concerning the periodical process, current situation, and future directions. Research on systems thinking has been acknowledged to demonstrate a significant increase in recent years. Bibliometric data proves that systems thinking research concerning educational studies exhibits a parallel increase too. This is mainly due to UNESCO’s declaration of “The Education for 2030 Framework for Action” in 2015. There, systems thinking was defined as a key competency among eight competencies for education for sustainable development. The analysis suggests that systems thinking research in education is mainly directed to subjects of science education and related fields. Although the current research view does not demonstrate an extensive collaboration among researchers worldwide, researchers can be said to acknowledge each other's work sufficiently.