Bibliometric Review Methodology and State of the Science Review of Research on Problem-based Learning, 2017-2022

Bibliometric reviews of research have gained increased popularity since the mid-2010s. Yet, many readers may be uncertain as to the purpose and method of bibliometric reviews. This article provides an introduction to bibliometric reviews, clarifies their purpose, and elaborates on methods of data collection, analysis, and interpretation. The latter half of the article is devoted to an illustrative, state-of-the-science, bibliometric review of research on problem-based learning (PBL). In this illustrative review, the author applied descriptive statistics, citation analysis, and co-citation analysis to a database of 5,764 Scopus-indexed documents on problem-based learning published between 2017 and 2022. The analyses found increasing diversity of the PBL knowledge base with respect to geographical sources, subject area origins, and focus of the research compared with findings reported in past reviews. Author co-citation analysis visualized the intellectual structure of the recent PBL literature revealing four dominant schools of thought: Interdisciplinary PBL Theory and Practice, Active Learning, Social and Experiential Learning, and PBL Process. The findings highlight the continuing growth and spread of PBL, as well as a trend of integration with other methods of experiential and active learning.