Jaottellaan

Jaottellaan is a Finnish verb form derived from jaotella, meaning to divide into parts, partition, or categorize. In its present passive form jaottellaan, it denotes that a subject is being divided or classified into categories or groups rather than performing the division itself. The term is widely used in education, statistics, data management, library science, and organizational contexts to describe processes of organizing phenomena by criteria such as topic, function, or characteristic.

Jaottelu implies a systematic partitioning of a whole into distinct parts. It can be hierarchical, such as levels and subcategories, or flat, with non-overlapping groups. The process is usually guided by explicit criteria or rules, ensuring that each item fits one category or a defined set of categories. The emphasis is on the act of dividing and organizing, rather than on the final labels alone.

In practice, jaottelu and luokittelu are related concepts and are sometimes used interchangeably, though jaottelu can carry a broader sense of division into subgroups beyond simple labeling. Different fields adopt their own conventions for how categories are defined and named, which may affect terminology and methodology.

Typical applications include organizing educational content, classifying research data, structuring library or database catalogs, and formulating taxonomies in information science. It is also used in marketing and user analysis to create segments or groups, such as partitioning survey responses by demographic criteria or dividing a dataset into training and test subsets.

Related terms include jaottelu, ryhmittely, segmentointi, and kategorisointi, with luokittelu or luokitus appearing as synonyms in some contexts depending on the discipline.