Collateral Education in digital childhood: evidence of Algorithmic Learning in 4 and 5 year old children.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69849/437a1c52Keywords:
Collateral Education, Algorithmic Learning, Digital Childhood, Early Childhood Education, Digital CultureAbstract
This article investigates forms of learning that emerge in contemporary childhood beyond formal schooling, focusing on the role of algorithmic systems in shaping behaviors, repertoires, and modes of interaction in children aged 4 to 5 years. It is based on the hypothesis that children not only learn outside school but are continuously shaped by digital environments that operate through content feedback loops, immediacy of responses, and induction of behavioral patterns.
The research, linked to a doctoral study, adopts a qualitative approach with a phenomenological basis and was conducted with early childhood education teachers in a public school located in Duque de Caxias, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The objective was to understand how these professionals perceive the manifestations of such learning processes in everyday school life. Data were collected through a semi-structured questionnaire and analyzed through thematic categories, grounded in phenomenological interpretation.
The results indicate that children arrive at school with previously constituted repertoires, revealing transformations in attention, behavior, language, and interaction patterns. There is a notable development of operational learning, incorporation of culturally mediated repertoires through digital platforms, and the occurrence of formative processes without direct pedagogical mediation.
Based on these findings, the concept of Collateral Education is proposed, understood not merely as learning parallel to formal education, but as a formative process structured by algorithmic systems that anticipate, repeat, and direct experiences. Unlike traditional conceptions of informal learning, Collateral Education operates through continuous feedback and immediacy, producing effects on subject formation even before formal schooling begins.
It is concluded that schools now operate in a context where formative processes are already underway, requiring an expansion of pedagogical frameworks to understand and engage with these new dynamics of learning in digital childhood.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Felype Lopes Bastos (Autor)
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