Beliefs towards Mathematics in Elementary Education Teachers: a comparative study

This work is part of a broader investigation developed in Ibero-America, whose main objective is to carry out an analysis of the affective domain towards mathematics in elementary education teachers, and how that could affect the teaching practices. In particular, this work focusses on the beliefs towards mathematics and shows the comparison between teachers of two countries: Spain and Colombia. The methodology consisted on a quantitative approach at a descriptive level, using a convenience sample composed of 235 teachers (105 from Spain and 130 from Colombia); the instrument was translated to Spanish from the scale of Beliefs of Baroody and Coslick (1998); the statistical analysis was performed with SPSS v 22. The results showed in both countries a majority of teachers who manifested Euclidean beliefs, without differences by country. On the other hand, there were significant differences in the Quasiempirist category, with more Colombian than Spanish teachers lying on; in the importance provided to the context in the teaching of Mathematics, and in the conception of the mathematical skill as inherent. The limitations of the study are exposed and several suggestions to deepen the study in the future are made.