Abstract

RIOS, Hernán Sánchez. Classification Strategies in Preschool Children. Rev. Guillermo Ockham [online]. 2023, vol.21, n.1, pp.31-43.  Epub Jan 26, 2023. ISSN 1794-192X.  https://doi.org/10.21500/22563202.5569.

The classification is a representational capacity that allows children, since an early age, to build categories with the objects they relate to on a daily basis in order to group them in accordance with their similarities and order them according to their differences. The current article presents a descriptive exploratory study, with a cross-sectional design, that analyzes the classification strategies used by 405 boys and girls from 3, 4 and 5 years old who live in poor urban sectors of Cali and Santa Marta. The micro-genetic analysis model allowed us to identify the differentiated strategies used by children in the resolution of a problem that demanded the use of multiplicative classification. The results show that the performance levels in the problem solving were significantly high in all three age groups. The analysis of the strategies enabled us to examine the progressive complexity of the action schemas subjacent to the resolution strategies that require the use of multiplicative classification with the purpose of inferring children’s cognitive activity; to document the phenomenon of variability and to analyze the processes of change in preschool children’s thinking in terms of what they know and are able to do.

Keywords : classification; cognitive processes; variability; microgenetic analysis; cognitive development; problem solving situations; culture; interaction contexts; preschoolers.

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