Dr. John L Pecore

Project method, popularized by William Heard Kilpatrick, has seen resurgence in 21st-century education under the auspices of project-based learning. This chapter first presents a short biography of Kilpatrick to highlight experiences influencing his writing of the popular essay, “Project Method.” After providing a synthesis of Kilpatrick’s project method, which includes the thoughts of critics at the time, more current and prominent types of project-based learning are discussed. Research and critiques of project-based learning are also offered, concluding with a summary of the transformation of project method to its contemporary, project-based learning.

Perceived self-efficacy for teaching has been linked to a variety of teacher and student outcomes, but research on the development of teaching efficacy during alternative certification programs is limited and mixed. The purpose of this chapter was to
understand what particular components of an alternative certification program contributed to middle school teachers' mathematics self-efficacy. We used interviews throughout the program and at the end of the first year of teaching to understand how
self-efficacy development was impacted by the program. Findings suggest that knowledge of and experience with teaching are important for teachers throughout their training and first year of teaching, but in general, vicarious experiences, verbal
persuasion, and stress reducers might be time-sensitive. Variation among individual cases is also discussed.

To help address current concerns about the strength and diversity of the United States scientific and technical workforce, expert panels and organizations recommend recruiting young people into active research environments. Here we present a brief review of the construct of self-efficacy and its related social cognitive career theory, as they pertain to research and careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). We focus on the use of measures of self-efficacy (SE) for tasks that predict academic preparation in STEM fields and intent to persist in STEM careers, particularly for undergraduate students who are members of demographic groups currently underrepresented in the sciences ( e.g. racial and ethnic groups, individuals from disadvantaged socioeconomic or educational backgrounds, and those with disabilities). We present a sample study from our own work, wherein we compare two approaches to providing undergraduates with a summer research .experience in neuroscience: a traditional mentored apprenticeship model (AM) and a. collaborative learning model (CLM). We used measures of scientific research self-efficacy and leadership/teamwork self-efficacy, among other instruments, as tools to assess and compare the models. We further present results of a qualitative case study of four individuals in our program to help describe their research experience and identify potential sources of self-efficacy. Both the AM and CLM significantly increased scientific research and leadership/teamwork self-efficacy. The qualitative data helped identify specific program components, essentially mastery experiences in scientific research, that were sources of gains in self-efficacy. We relate our measures of self-efficacy to those of other relevant constructs, such as science anxiety, identity, and commitment to science, and discuss these results in the context of social cognitive career theory. Continued work applying self-efficacy and social cognitive career theory will help strengthen and diversify the scientific workforce.