Evolution of teacher training in gamification: a bibliometric analysis of global trends and collaborations

Gamification has emerged as a pivotal technique for reinventing teacher education, fulfilling the necessity to cultivate digital and pedagogical competencies in swiftly changing educational environments. Nevertheless, an integrated perspective that synthesizes its scientific evolution, collaboration networks, and global trends is still lacking. This study conducts a bibliometric analysis of the academic production on gamification in teacher education to identify growth trajectories, international collaborations, and emerging themes. A total of 405 documents indexed in Scopus and Web of Science between 2014 and 2025 were analyzed using the Bibliometrix package in R. The findings indicate an annual growth rate of 20.95%, with Spain leading the field (140 publications), followed by the United States and Turkey. Network analysis highlights a central core of highly connected authors and an increasingly consolidated international collaboration network. Themes such as teacher training and intrinsic motivation emerge as conceptual hubs, evidencing a convergence between initial teacher education and ongoing professional development. A transition is noted from employing gamification as a motivating instrument to its incorporation as a systematic educational technique associated with active learning, self-regulation, and formative evaluation. This paper offers an extensive overview of the conceptual maturity within the subject and suggests future research avenues centered on the personalization of teacher learning using artificial intelligence and adaptive gamified settings.