2025 Theses Doctoral

Assessing Pre-Service Elementary School Teachers’ Use of Mathematics’ Discipline-specific Language

Gibbons, Alanna

Existing studies have defined and assessed (a) disciplinary literacy, (b) mathematical literacy, and (c) general academic language. However, there is a need to define and assess teachers’ use of mathematics’ discipline-specific language (MDL), particularly elementary school teachers’ use of MDL.

The purpose of this study was twofold. First, I defined MDL, developed an instrument to measure it, and tested it with a specific population. Second, after validating the instrument, I used it to analyze the characteristics of teachers’ use of MDL. This analysis was based on data collected from a sample of pre-service elementary teachers who were enrolled in the same special education graduate program.

The iterative development of the instrument resulted in an MDL scale (MDLS) that included 20 items rated on a 4-point Likert-like scale distributed between three distinct MDL categories: technical language, symbolic language, and visual language. Validity of the MDLS was confirmed using the set of 211 video recordings and corresponding lesson plans of mathematics lessons taught by pre-service special education elementary teachers.

This research led to a modified MDL framework that indicated five distinct factors: technical language precision/explicitness, technical language fluency, symbolic language, visual language precision, and visual language fluency. Results highlighted varying levels of MDL use among elementary school teachers, with symbolic language use being particularly limited.