Mathematics Education Research in Texas (MERiT) Efficacy Research Group (MERG)

Project Overview

MERG is a nine-person research group consisting of mathematics educators from several universities in Texas. We are developing an instrument to measure self-efficacy for teaching and learning algebra for both pre- and in-service teachers. This is a multi-stage, long-term project. After creating the instrument, we will determine its validity and reliability. The collaboration of the universities will enable us to have a large enough and diverse population to do this analysis. The goal is to then use this instrument to study the potential relationships between efficacy for teaching and learning algebra and student achievement, teacher content knowledge, and teacher pedagogical content knowledge. There are also possible longitudinal connections related to pre-service teacher education and/or in-service teacher professional development.

Research Team