Developing self-efficacy through the social constructivist mentorship

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this article, I connect self-efficacy and social constructivism and how this shaped me as a researcher and academic, as well as how connections to my advisor, Dr. Terry Wood, gave me the self-efficacy to persevere during the personal and scholarly challenges of my doctoral program. I discuss, using Bandura’s social cognitive sources of self-efficacy, how my development from graduate student, to researcher, to professor was influenced by verbal persuasions, mastery experiences, vicarious experiences and emotional/affective states. I also take up how social cognitive theory informed the lens I use in my current research. My interactions with Dr. Wood as a graduate student also showed me how to apply theory to my ideas and how it looks different in different settings. From her, I learned how to formulate studies that inform mathematics education through a situated learning perspective and be confident and efficacious while doing so.