Measuring opportunities to develop mathematical literacy and their prediction on mathematical literacy outcomes

Being mathematically literate empowers people to make decisions for their lives and contribute to society Instruments for measuring the related construct of opportunity to develop mathematical literacy, including its functional and critical aspects, remain scarce. Focusing on functional mathematical literacy, this study develops a valid and reliable instrument to measure the opportunity for secondary preservice teachersand investigates its predictive power for the participants’ mathematical literacy outcomes. The confirmatory factor analysis shows that three factors – use of mathematics in contexts, mathematical literacy tasks in schools, and tasks that develop an appreciation of mathematics – provides a sound structure for measuring the opportunity. Via path analysis, the three factors significantly predict the related mathematical literacy outcomes regarding the appreciation of the role of mathematics in real life and the use of mathematics in contexts, as measured by modeling competencies. Suggestions for conceptualizing and measuring opportunity to learn are included, including considerations of who, what, and how.