Global research trends in educational evaluation: A bibliometric review

Abstract

 

Background/purpose. Educational evaluation has become an essential component in improving educational quality, accountability, and evidence-based decision-making. The rapid advancement of digital technologies, artificial intelligence, and online learning environments has transformed educational evaluation into more adaptive and technology-driven assessment practices. However, comprehensive studies mapping the global development and research trends in educational evaluation remain limited. Therefore, this study aimed to analyse global research trends in educational evaluation through a bibliometric review.

Materials/methods. This study employed a bibliometric research design using data retrieved from Google Scholar through the Publish or Perish application. A total of 500 publications related to educational evaluation published between 2020 and 2026 were collected and analysed. The data were exported in RIS and CSV formats and subsequently analysed using VOSviewer and Microsoft Excel to identify publication trends, citation patterns, keyword co-occurrence, thematic clusters, and emerging research topics.

Results. The findings revealed that educational evaluation research experienced substantial growth during the analysed period, particularly in relation to digital transformation, online assessment, and post-pandemic educational challenges. The visualization analysis identified several dominant themes, including assessment, teaching, systematic review, educational effectiveness, artificial intelligence, and digital evaluation. The results also indicated that educational evaluation research has increasingly shifted toward technology-supported and AI-driven assessment ecosystems involving learning analytics, adaptive learning, and intelligent educational systems.

Conclusion. Educational evaluation has evolved into a multidisciplinary and technology-oriented research field integrating pedagogy, educational technology, learning analytics, and quality assurance practices. Future educational evaluation research should continue emphasizing innovative, ethical, inclusive, and evidence-based evaluation approaches that respond to the dynamic demands of contemporary education.