An Analytical Study of Professional Development in Preschool Education: An overview of the research carried out over the past 36 years

Preschool education is one of the basic foundations of any system and educational system. In all educational systems, this section has raised serious questions and challenges from public education. The question of goals, type and quality of training programs is one of these challenges. The importance and necessity of professional development to such an extent that it improves the performance of the teacher and the child's learning. In this article, research has been conducted over the past 36 years (from 1980 to 2016) on the development of vocational education in preschool and adolescent education indexed in the ISI database. A total of 917 articles and records were analyzed using a social network analysis and bibliographic review to identify existing trends and provide guidance for future research. Also, trends such as the countries with the most articles, universities and institutes producing articles in this area, covered areas and other trends were examined. An analysis of social networks was done using Wizard software. The research findings showed that five of the top five universities in the field of interaction in online learning environments, four of which are in Asia, and the first university in the United States is the University of Indiana, ranked sixth in the largest universities Science production. But in sum, the United States has the largest share in science production in most disciplines.