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ABSTRACT
This two-year study investigated the differences in the level and amounts of change in teaching efficacy of secondary pre-service mathematics teachers who completed one of two different research projects during a methods course. The first type, field research, involved a three day trip to an urban school to investigate successful mathematics teaching and learning from engaging directly with practitioners. For the second type, text-based research, participants remained on campus and investigated successful mathematics teaching and learning through text-based literature. Pre-service teachers were separated into two self-selected groups based on the type of research project they completed. The two types of research projects were focused and grounded one source of self-efficacy: vicarious experience. Within the possible vicarious experiences that inform pre-service teachers’ sense of efficacy, two are readily applicable for teacher educators: watching others teach followed by discussing results (field research) and reading professional literature followed by discussions of enacting those ideas (text-based research). Data revealed that pre-service mathematics teachers showed improved teaching efficacy. Those who did field-based research had a higher level and greater increase on measures of teaching efficacy compared to peers completing text-based research. Implications for mathematics teacher educators are discussed.