A Bibliometric Analysis of the Sports Education Model in Physical Education: Trends, Knowledge Structure, and Emerging Frontiers

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to track the research trends of Sport Education Model (SEM)  from  1974  to  2025,  and  reveal  the  trends  and  frontiers.  Method:  Using  a sample of 3315 documents from the WoS core collection, a four-layer quantitative framework  of  "statistics-co-occurrence-evolution-structure"  was  constructed  using Bibliometrix,  VOSviewer,  CiteSpace,  and  Pajek.Results:  There  was  a  significant increase  in  output  after  2005,  with  Europe,  America,  and  China  being  the  core contributors. Keywords and co-citations show a shift from curriculum structure to motivation, health, and digital integration, forming a "static core-dynamic periphery" knowledge  pattern.Discussion:   SEM  has   evolved  from  a  teaching  model  to   an interdisciplinary  educational  paradigm,  but  there   is   still  a  lack  of  multilingual evidence and longitudinal interventions. Future research should expand data sources and test its applicability in disadvantaged scenarios.