Research on mentoring in science education: A bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Mentoring plays a crucial role in the professional development of science teachers by providing invaluable career-long support, guidance, and resources. Numerous prior studies have emphasized the significance of mentoring for the professional development of beginning and experienced science teachers. This study analyzed articles published in Scopus-indexed, peer-reviewed journals on STEM mentoring. Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 67 articles were chosen for analysis. The data were analyzed using VOSviewer software. According to the results, almost half (n=33) of the journal articles indexed in the database were published between 2019 and 2022. The articles with the most citations were published between 2012 and 2015. <i>Journal of Science Education and Technology</i> had the most citations on mentoring. Most research has been conducted in developed countries such as the United States, Australia, and Germany. The United States has performed the most mentoring research. Rockinson-Szapkiw, Wendt, and Mondisa are the authors who published the most mentoring-related articles. In addition, mentoring, STEM, women, higher education, and science education were the most frequently used keywords. The co-citation analysis of the cited sources yielded two distinct clusters, one of which consisted of a comprehensive evaluation and synthesis of research works focusing on mentorship and practices at the undergraduate level. Our co-citation study of published sources resulted in the categorization of the 13 sources into three distinct clusters.