DOI: 10.36347/sjpms

Pages: 57-78

This investigation focuses on beliefs, attitudes, emotions and valuation in training about mathematics of 200 students from Universidad Privada Boliviana (UPB) in Bolivia. An instrument was designed to measure these aspects by verifying the structure proposed by Caballero and Blanco[1] and by Caballero, Guerrero and Blanco[2], using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), consisting of 6 factors, 19 dimensions and 75 items. The scores obtained in each factor and dimension were analyzed, showing that the students from UPB have beliefs, attitudes, emotions and valuations about their training in mathematics that are positive and of a moderate level, and are increasing as the student goes into higher mathematics subjects level. A structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed to observe the relationships among the 6 factors studied. The most remarkable finding was that the factor of the role of the teacher of mathematics in teaching and the factor of beliefs that the student has as an apprentice of mathematics are the most influential in his valuation of his training in this area. Subsequently, a much shorter measuring instrument was proposed, with 6 factors, 11 dimensions and 31 items, making an exploratory factorial analysis for the elimination of items and dimensions, due to the fact that a robust structure was not obtained through the CFA. Also, we obtained personal and academic profiles of the students of UPB that presents positive characteristics about mathematics. Finally, some implications were analyzed that help to improve the academic management of the UPB.