Abstract

Introduction: The relevance of mathematical problem solving is reflected in the curricular documents of Primary Education. However, in order for this to be carried out, it is necessary to train teachers and know their study plans. Therefore, this work describes the presence of problem solving and its teaching in the syllabuses of the compulsory and elective subjects in the area of Didactics of Mathematics belonging to the university degrees of Teacher in Primary Education in Spain. Method: We have carried out a content analysis and cluster analysis of 151 syllabuses from 39 Spanish public universities. Results: The results show an emphasis on problem-solving competence over elements of specialized knowledge. Likewise, regarding knowledge about problem characterization appear more frequently, while regarding pedagogical problem solving knowledge, topics related to the problem posing are more frequent. Conclusions: We conclude that each university has interpreted the teaching and learning of problem solving from its own understanding, so the training among Spanish teachers is very heterogeneous. In addition, we highlight the need to include aspects such as the consideration of the solver or non-cognitive factors to improve teacher training on problem solving.