Operationalizing and validating disciplinary literacy in secondary education

Abstract

The goal of this study was to define the construct and establish the validity of disciplinary literacy, which has recently gained attention from the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers in Common Core State Standards for English language arts & literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects [PDF]. Authors, Washington, DC, 2010). After defining disciplinary literacy in the four core disciplines of English language arts, science, history and social studies, and mathematics, scales were developed and administered to a snowball sample of professionals nationwide, with 857 respondents. The data showed evidence of disciplinary literacy as a multidimensional construct with three related factors: source literacy, analytic literacy, and expressive literacy. Based on EFA and CFA results, we can conclude that there are at least three types of literacy in operation among the four core disciplines. The three factors of literacy varied significantly by the four core disciplines of English/language arts (ELA), science, history and social studies, and mathematics, supporting the notion that each discipline uses literacy uniquely. This is the first study of its kind to attempt to define, quantify, and validate the construct of disciplinary literacy.

SOLO taxonomy as EFL students’ disciplinary literacy evaluation tool in technology-enhanced integrated astronomy course

“…The recent study by Spires et al (2018) brings new insights on disciplinary literacy in STEM education and argues that literacy is a multidimensional construct that represents students' competency in reading, writing, and thinking processes. Thus, reading and writing in science are the means by which various phenomena could be explored, described, and explained (Goldman et al 2016), or that reading and writing reflect students' cognitive processes.…”

“…According to Fang (2013), the major genres of science discourse are as follows: "procedure, procedural recount, description, report, explanation, and exposition" (p. 277). Spires et al (2018) define disciplinary literacy in science as a combination of fluency in scientific terminology, an ability to synthesise multiple sources such as prose and various graphic representations, for example, graphs or diagrams (Goldman et al 2016;Shanahan and Shanahan 2008), and to apply analytical thinking, for example, linking data to arguments and conclusions (Gillis 2014).…”

“…In their research, Spires et al (2018) identify three core literacies that comprise the disciplinary literacy concept: source literacy-an ability to work with sources, for example, identification of an author's point of view; analytic literacy-an ability for quantitative reasoning; and, expressive literacy-an ability for interpretation of figurative language and rhetorical devices. The authors argue that science disciplinary literacy is mainly a combination of source and analytic literacies, and claim that science teachers are mostly employing the analytic component of disciplinary literacy since an understanding of authors' claims and data interpretation in science require learners to move between prose and visual representations whilst reading (Spires et al 2018). Moje's (2008) definition of science disciplinary literacy summarises all of the abovementioned features and is therefore adopted for the purposes of this study.…”

“…The increase of foreign student populations in education causes a discrepancy in the academic science performance between the students who learn English as a foreign or second language (EFL/ESL) and monolingual English speakers (National Assessment Program 2015; National Center for Education Statistics 2017, 2018). Since literacy is multidimensional (Spires et al 2018), literacy acquisition may not be a linear process (Shanahan and Shanahan 2008). The differences in the literacy development process for monolingual and non-monolingual speakers of English suggest that EFL/ESL students may experience more difficulties whilst learning school subjects.…”

“…The role of literacy for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is gaining international recognition (Bauerle et al 2014;Dutton and Rushton 2018) that ignites a debate about how to define literacy within and across each of the STEM disciplines. Research recognises that "disciplinary literacy" is a unique and independent phenomenon, but does not provide a clear understanding of what it comprises as an empirically valid measurable construct that is generalisable within the educational context (Spires et al 2018). Inconsistency in defining disciplinary literacy creates an assessment issue as the construct is unclear.…”