Abstract

The Teacher Professional Development System, existing in Chile since 2016, requires universities with teacher training programs to make a diagnosis in the first year of the degree. In this context, we present a study that allowed us to describe the beliefs regarding mathematics, it's teaching and learning, as well as the mathematical school knowledge corresponding to the levels from 1 to 6, which have the future primary education teachers, considering that it is the mathematics that they should teach in their professional life. This diagnosis was made by applying a pencil and paper questionnaire to a stratified random sample of 511 first-year primary school students from 14 universities in Chile. From this, we develop a characterisation of students regarding their beliefs and knowledge of school mathematics, investigating the relationships between them. The results show that students consider mathematical activity differently, and have greater mastery of arithmetic content.