Abstract

Understanding students’ thinking and learning processes is one of the main challenges teachers are faced to during teaching. This occurs in a process that includes perceiving relevant information, interpreting it and finally making pedagogical decisions. In particular, mathematical errors constitute a rich source of information about students’ reasoning. In this paper, the diagnostic competence of future primary teachers in error situations is analyzed, focusing specifically in the process of interpreting the perceived information by hypothesizing about causes of students’ errors. Results suggest that this competence can be fostered in teacher education and show that not only mathematical content knowledge but also practical experiences and beliefs are relevant for its development.