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When should we start teaching data literacy skills?
This is an obvious question, in the context of creating a learning trajectory that spans a student’s education career. Our early ODI projects focused on high school and early undergraduate students and teachers. We then shifted to middle school and elementary grades. And in the Preschool Data Collection and Analysis (DCA) project, my EDC colleagues Ashley Lewis Presser and Jessica Young have started working with preschool teachers and children. Starting in 2019, they have been iteratively designing, testing, and revising curricula and a tablet-based, teacher-facing app that supports the collaboration of preschool teachers and children in collecting data, creating simple graphs, and using the graphs to answer real-world questions.
I recently discussed this project with them, and wanted to share our conversation with all of you:
Randy: How have you seen preschoolers engage in data collection and analysis in your work over the years?
Ashley: If you think about it, all of us are engaging with data all the time. In preschool, teachers often pose a question of the day, such as “Do your shoes tie, have Velcro, or have a buckle?” or “Do you prefer to use paint or play dough at the art center today?” They make tally charts or bar graphs of children’s responses to help decide what artistic medium will be at the art center that day. Children understand that the medium with the most votes is what they will be playing with that day, and so they are invested in the process, and are excited to count and compare to learn the outcome. This also shows them that voting can help with decision making in a fair way. Preschoolers are very attuned to fairness!
Randy: I'd love to hear more about the curricular investigations and app you're developing.
Jessica: All of the investigations are hands-on and play-based and include identifying research questions, collecting data, creating simple graphs or charts, and discussing and interpreting the data in the visual displays. The app helps by allowing the children to quickly and easily use the touch screen to enter their data and create a chart or graph. The teacher can then focus the discussion on the interpretation of the data. One of my favorite investigations uses the Eric Carle book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, to graph how many pieces of fruit the caterpillar ate Monday through Friday. Children are able to look at the graph and easily see the +1 growing pattern (he ate one apple on Monday, two pears on Tuesday, etc.). They love that the bar graph looks like stairs, which leads them to make thoughtful predictions about what might happen next. Of course, the caterpillar surprises the reader with all the different things he eats on Saturday, which is also why the book can be so fun to read with preschoolers! This then leads into new questions and data collection around the children’s favorite fruits and vegetables.
Randy: How are you helping preschool teachers support their students in data collection and analysis activities?
Ashley: We used an iterative process of designing, testing, and revising the investigations and app to ensure that the activities engage preschoolers in developing and using their data skills. We observed teachers implementing the investigations and then revised them to better foster children’s engagement and support teachers. The investigations are designed to promote children’s participation in all aspects of asking questions, gathering data, creating graphs, and talking about the data. Teachers have told us that they enjoy the investigations, appreciate the app, and would like to use it more. In addition to creating some investigations for the teachers to use with their students, we have also included a “create your own” investigation option within the app so that teachers can use the app to support their own curricular goals and activities. This also allows teachers to further build their own data skills by thinking about when and how to incorporate the app into lessons, which gives children even more opportunities to deepen their understanding and use of all aspects of data collection and analysis. So it’s really the design of the investigations and app that is independently supporting the learning in an ongoing way. We have seen a lot of creativity with this already, both by teachers and preschoolers!
Randy: What a great idea. So, what’s next?
Jessica: We are currently implementing final revisions based on observation, survey, and interview data so that the curricular investigations and app are ready for wider use and distribution. Our goal is to encourage preschool teachers to see how data skills can be developmentally appropriate—and by providing a freely available app and investigations as a resource—those preschool teachers will be able to implement DCA activities more easily in their classrooms. The app and investigations will be freely available on the GBH website in 2022.
We will certainly be sharing updates, and links to the app and investigations, in future newsletters!
Best Wishes,
Randy Kochevar
ODI Director
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