Abstract

This presentation investigates how continuing professional development can support early childhood teachers in promoting statistical literacy among children under six years of age. The study focuses on the relationship between teacher professional learning, the mobilization of fundamental mental processes, and the development of pedagogical practices that introduce statistical ideas through meaningful everyday experiences. Fundamental mental processes, including correspondence, comparison, classification, sequencing, and seriation, are examined as cognitive foundations for early statistical thinking and as entry points for intentional pedagogical design. The research adopts a qualitative case study approach and draws on a continuing professional development experience conducted across four early childhood education schools in the municipality of Rio Grande, in southern Brazil. The analysis centers on how teachers come to recognize opportunities for statistical learning within everyday childhood situations and how they integrate fundamental mental processes into classroom activities in intentional and sustained ways. The study identifies both pedagogical possibilities and persistent challenges associated with introducing statistical literacy at this educational level, contributing empirical evidence to an underrepresented area of research and offering practical insights for the design of professional development programmes in early childhood mathematics and statistics education.