Data Analysis in Early Childhood

What? Data analysis?! Yeah, sorry, let me explain. In PreK -12 mathematics, there is obviously a huge spectrum of what is covered, but mathematics in general has been broken down into categories that are the same across the board. Then, the subjects are defined as to what that means at each level. In early childhood, data analysis is the same as it always will be - collecting information and trying to make sense of it - but it is at a kid level. We ask simple questions, usually about the children themselves, and display it in ways kids can compare.

Start out with a question like, "Do you like to eat apples?" Find a way to collect the data (answers). Maybe the kids who like them can stand in one line, and the kids who don't like then can stand in another line. Maybe you will use red counters to represent apple-likers and black counters to represent the haters. Maybe you will use tally marks on a white board or a paper (not recommended for the first few times . . . always go first to concrete, then to symbolic). At any rate, collect the info.

Next, find a way to display the info in a way that allows it to be compared. Then compare it.  Maybe you will compare the two lines you made. Maybe you will compare a row of counters. Maybe you will have clothespins on different sides of a piece of cardboard, and you see which one goes higher. Maybe you make a bar graph (once again, do this after you have done something more concrete). Talk about it. Which is more, which is less? How many more, how many less? What does this mean or what are the implications of what we learned? Given the results of the survey, does it make sense for us to have apples as a snack for our class? Did you expect those results? Will we need to change our thinking as a result of what we did?

You can do this all the live-long day. Kids love answering questions about themselves. Start out with things with two options - yes or no, car or bus, cheerios or saltines . . . When all the details are down and the kids are proficient with two options, do things with a third option. It goes on and on until the kids are doing research for their Doctorate Dissertation some day. It's just that there's a lot of steps and complications between here and there, but we start small, laying solid foundations. Like asking kids if they like apples . . . it's a start!

In kindergarten, usually somewhere around this time of year when the kids were used to this kind of thing, I would give them each a blank t-chart. They would make up their own question, and the options. (Mostly they would say, "Do you like _____, yes or no." Some kids got creative, though!) Then I would let them walk around with clip boards asking the other children their answers, and recording them. They then got to make their own graph and share it with the class. They LOVED this, and felt so grown up. They would stand up there, and in all seriousness say, "I got 15 kids who don't like princesses and 12 who do, but I don't think it's because kids don't princesses, I think it's because our class has too many boys." Hooray for this thinking! So, that's where we head in kindergarten. Modify it down in preschool. Let them think of some questions, then lead them in an exploration of the answer. Have fun, they sure will!