The role of pre-service physical education teachers in physical education – A bibliometric and systematic review

Abstract

Pre-service physical education teachers (PSPTs) have long been an important area of specific development in physical education and have become a significant force in the field of physical education and research over the past two decades. However, exploratory research on pre-service teachers remains relatively scarce, and lack a comprehensive scientific exploration of the scope of their role. Therefore, this study provides a comprehensive overview of pre-service physical education teacher education (PETE) from both a broad and specific perspective. Specifically, it includes the current state of PETE, the most influential authors, countries, journals, and literature, as well as specific research topics and future directions within PETE. Following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, a total of 340 articles were included, with 84 of them being empirical studies. The findings reveal that teacher training, diversity, equity, and inclusion in education, educational attitudes and beliefs, educational quality, educational methods and technology, career motivation, teaching models and strategies, and teacher assessment and reflection are major research themes. Visual analysis of the application of pre-service physical education teacher research highlights teacher training, diversity, equity, and inclusion in education, as well as instructional technology, as key areas of future focus. These insights contribute to the reasonable application of bibliometrics in the field of pre-service physical education teacher research.