Students’ Learning of Representation in Tables in the Early Years of Elementary School

We investigated how table teaching and learning can be developed in the elementary school through an experimental study with 70 students from the second and fifth grades. The tasks addressed interpreting and building single and two-way tables. In the pre-test, second grade students could find frequencies in tables, although they had trouble using data in tables to make decisions or to evaluate conclusions. After the intervention, they learned to establish relationships between data, no longer justifying them based on life experiences. The second-grade students started building simple tables and fifth grade students built two-way tables. Thus, we highlight the possibility of learning the topic as long as teaching addresses activities that lead students to reflect on real contexts to confront conclusions and make decisions.