Examining the general structure of learning environments designed in education: bibliometric analysis between 1970 and 2022

In this study, we aimed to identify the basic structure, trends, and dynamics of research about designed learning environment in the field of education between the years 1970 and 2022. In this process, we determined the most-effective concepts and words used in keywords, abstracts, and titles in articles on creative thinking, as well as the most effective studies, journals, and countries in this field. Also we determined the historical roots and current trends of the field, to identify priorities of future studies and visualize networks of collaboration among authors. The data for this study were compiled from a total of 3946 publications available in the Web of Science database as of June 2022. For bibliometric analysis, Vosviewer software was used. As a result of the citation analysis, it was seen that the most influential publication in the field was written by Dabbagh and Kitsantas (2012), the most influential journal was Computers & Education, the most influential author was M. J. Hannafin, and the most influential country was the USA. According to co-word analysis, the most-frequent keywords in the field are 'higher education', 'e-learning', and 'learning environment'. Furthermore, the authors and countries that cooperated in these studies were identified through co-citation analysis.