Misconceptions in Biology Education: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

It is of great importance to examine and organize the misconceptions researches in biology education at regular intervals and to determine the trends. The aim of this study is to examine the studies on misconceptions in biology education in terms of different variables. Bibliometric network analysis method was used in the research. Here, firstly, reports on misconceptions in biology education were obtained by using “biology and misconception” in the “Social Sciences” category from SCOPUS. Accordingly, 410 publications was recorded. The documents were exported to CSV form and in turn subjected to the bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer Software.  According to the results obtained, it was determined that the most studies were carried out in 2013. It showed that the most frequently used keywords in articles were “evolution” and other related words. Looking at the most frequently used terms, the terms "respiration" and “photosynthesis” are respectively according to their high relevance scores. In conclusion, we must state that misconception studies on the subjects that students have the most difficulty with in biology have remained up-to-date for many years.