Designing with Color in the Early Childhood Education Classroom: A Theoretical Perspective

Early childhood education and care centers provide young children with opportunities to explore, create, reflect, experiment, and learn in the classroom environment. Theorists of human development have proposed theories, paradigms, models and ideologies regarding children's relationships with the social and physical environment. The physical layout of the early childhood education classroom is related to the center's theoretical or ideological perspective. For every theoretical model and teaching perspective, the designed environment will play a role in the quality of children's experiences in the classroom. The optimally-designed classroom space offers children a setting for exploration, reflection, and learning through the use and application of design principles and elements. The objective of this paper is to connect the concepts from the interior design field with the concepts from early childhood education perspectives on best practices for the design of early childhood education classrooms. Current research on color preference is presented, followed by an analysis of color in early childhood education classrooms. A color questionnaire is provided to assist teachers with the use of color as a design tool in their classrooms.