La visione della matematica e la scelta universitaria

In this paper we describe the results of the analysis of a questionnaire, designed and exploited within a national project, founded by MIUR : “Negative attitude towards mathematics: analysis of an alarming phenomenon for the culture of the new millennium”. The questionnaire investigates the role that the presence of a Mathematics course may have on the choice of the University degree. Hence, the study deals with the problem (which is well known) of the decreasing enrolment to University Degrees with scientific orientation: we notice that those university degrees, in Italy, have at least one compulsory Mathematics course. Furthermore, the questionnaire was conceived in order to study the attitude towards mathematics and the view of mathematics held by students that are going to choose their university career (students attending the 12th and 13th grade). The cross analysis of the answers to the items of the questionnaire gives some interesting results on the link between view of mathematics and choice of the University degree. The particular structure of the questionnaire (and the fact that the study was carried out nationwide) gives important theoretical results for the research on affect.