When bibliometrics met mathematics education research: the case of instrumental orchestration

Abstract

Thanks to digital technology, methods for finding and analysing research literature have become dramatically more powerful over the last decades. Also, new bibliometric techniques have been developed and applied to the results of such literature search queries. The application of these bibliometric tools to mathematics education research, however, is rare. In this paper, we explore the value of these techniques for mathematics education research through triangulating bibliometrics and expert findings. To do so, we address the case of instrumental orchestration, and want to know how this notion developed over time and was used in research practices. The results show that bibliometric clustering techniques provided a sense-making sketch of the ‘landscape’ of instrumental orchestration research. Triangulating the bibliometric findings with expert interpretations seemed an appropriate method to set up compact ‘identity cards’. In the case of instrumental orchestration, we identified five main clusters in research literature, characterized by the following labels: Managing teaching complexity, Designing living resources, Teaching with technology, Adult learners, and Interacting with computers. The paper ends with some reflections on the potential of bibliometrics in our field and on future research on instrumental orchestration.