Visual Analysis Of The Progress Of International Continuing Education Research In The Past Decade

As an important way to practice the concept of lifelong education and build a learning society,Continuing education has greatly promoted personal development and social progress.Under the background of the deepening development of globalization,a comprehensive understanding of the research subjects,research hotspots and knowledge bases of international continuing education,an accurate grasp of the pulse of the times of international continuing education development,and a reference to and absorption of the outstanding achievements of international continuing education research will,on the one hand,help China's continuing education research to reach a new level of international dialogue ability and improve the quality of continuing education discipline in China.Quantity and level,building a learning society and building a lifelong education system have important theoretical value and practical significance.On the other hand,it provides a reference for domestic scholars to carry out relevant research and discipline construction.By using the visualization analysis method of knowledge atlas and CiteSpace software,this paper makes a statistical analysis of the articles published in the three major SSCI journals of Adult Education Quarterly,Studies in Continuing Education and Australian Journal of Adult Learning from 2008 to 2017.The results show that Sweden,the United States,Canada,the United Kingdom and Australia are the leading countries and the frontier setters of international continuing education research;Sweden's Linkoping University?Canada's University of British Columbia and other institutions are the backbone of international continuing education research;three major continuing education journals have been formed.The community centered on top-level universities and a small number of universities have established stable cooperative relations.The academic community has contributed to the horizontal and vertical development of international continuing education.Sharan Merriam,Jack Mezirow and Paulo Freire occupy important nodes in the co-citation network.In terms of research hotspots,it mainly focuses on the continuing education of the disadvantaged groups of adults,the enhancement of their abilities ?the transformation of their identity and the improvement of their quality of life,the analysis of the internal factors and external environment of adult learners,and the improvement of the relevant theories of continuing education.In terms of knowledge base,Community of Practice,Situated Learning: Legitimate peripheral and Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning have laid a solid foundation for international continuing education research.Highly cited journals mainly include Adult Education Quarterly,International Journal of Lifelong Education,Studies in Continuing Education and Australian Journal of Adult Learning.In view of this,the future research trend of continuing education in China should be to introduce scientific standardized scales and construct theoretical analysis models;pay attention to critical academic attitudes and create high-quality academic journals;build academic communities to focus on tackling major academic issues;fully interpret the outstanding academic ideas of leading figures and actively absorb other disciplinary theories;and pay close attention to continuing education in developed countries.Research hotspots.