BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF PUBLICATIONS ON STEM AND STEAM EDUCATION IN EARLY CHILDHOOD FROM SOUTHEAST ASIAN COUNTRIES

In recent years, STEM and STEAM education in early childhood have become topics of interest in most countries and territories worldwide, both in application and research. In this study, a bibliometric method was applied to evaluate 54 publications extracted from the Scopus database. Our main findings indicate that the research trend in this field has seen a significant increase in scientific output over the past 5 years, with publications accounting for 85.19% of the dataset. While Malaysia led in the number of publications, Singapore had the highest citation rates and the strongest international collaboration among the countries. The most active research institutions mainly came from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Research on STEM/STEAM education for early childhood in the region primarily focused on issues such as teaching methods, skill development for children, and professional development for teachers. The paper also discussed some potential directions for research on STEM/STEAM education for early childhood in the Southeast Asian region. Keywords: ASEAN; bibliometrics; early childhood; STEM; STEAM; Southeast Asia.