Digital Empowerment in STEM Education: A Bibliometric Analysis (2021–2025)

The accelerating pace of technological innovation presents both opportunities and structural challenges for STEM education. Key among these are: (1) the disconnect between traditional discipline-based models and the need for interdisciplinary integration; (2) the misalignment between standardized evaluation systems and the objective of nurturing creativity and innovation; and (3) the skills gap between teachers’ single-discipline expertise and the pedagogical demands of integrated, digitally mediated instruction. This study provides a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of STEM education research published between 2021 and 2025, based on data retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. Following PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews, we employed VOSviewer, CiteSpace, Bibliometrix, and R to analyze publication trends, author and institutional networks, core journals, and thematic developments. An examination of 798 peer-reviewed publications spanning 343 national and regional contexts demonstrates the sustained and expanding global scholarly interest in STEM education. The United States and China are identified as the principal contributors in terms of research output, while the University of California system is noted for its consistently high institutional productivity. Bibliometric mapping reveals a discernible shift in research emphasis toward interdisciplinary curriculum integration, the pedagogical application of artificial intelligence, the development of multimodal instructional frameworks, and the conceptual extension encapsulated in the STEM+ paradigm. These emerging focal areas underscore the transformative impact of digital technologies on the epistemological and practical foundations of STEM education. The observed trends signal not only a reconfiguration of instructional design and content delivery but also a broader reconceptualization of how disciplinary boundaries and technological affordances intersect in contemporary educational practice. This study offers a data-informed perspective on these developments, furnishing a robust empirical basis for the refinement of policy frameworks, the advancement of curriculum design, and the reorientation of instructional practices within digitally enhanced learning environments.