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

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.