Influencing Factors of Secondary Students’ Mathematical Communication Competence from Teachers’ Perspectives: An EFA-CFA Study

Abstract

This study aims to identify and validate the latent factors influencing secondary students’ mathematical communication competence from the perspective of mathematics teachers in Vietnam. A quantitative cross-sectional survey design was employed. Data were collected from 533 mathematics teachers and randomly split into two subsamples for exploratory factor analysis (EFA, n = 266) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA, n = 267). The results revealed a five-factor structure explaining 65.95% of the total variance, including teaching methods and models, students’ individual characteristics, mathematical communication competence, classroom environment and interactions, and learning resources and support tools. CFA results confirmed good model fit and established reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. These findings contribute to the identification and preliminary validation of a context-specific measurement model. Practically, the results provide a provide a basis for designing instructional strategies and improving classroom practices to enhance students’ mathematical communication competence in alignment with Vietnam’s 2018 General Education Curriculum.