“This one goes with this one, that one doesn’t go with that one”: teaching and learning classification in early childhood education

Abstract

The advancement of research in Statistical Education has led to reflections on the importance of introducing statistical concepts from Early Childhood Education. This study investigates data classification as an essential skill for developing statistical thinking in young children. The research was conducted with four classes of 5- and 6-year-old children enrolled in public schools in Recife and Jaboatão dos Guararapes, exploring a structured teaching and learning process that involved different skills and resources, including: identifying the criterion of a classification; recognizing the class based on a criterion/descriptor; creating their own criteria to classify data. The results show that it is possible to develop a systematic and appropriate approach for Early Childhood Education, enabling children to enhance their classification and information organization skills. These abilities are fundamental for understanding the physical and social world, contributing to the development of logical and statistical reasoning from an early age.