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, pa-radigms, 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 pre-sented, 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.

, and Vygotsky (1978) have proposed theories, paradigms, models and ideologies regarding children's relationships with the social and physical environment. Based on these theoretical approaches, a teaching model continuum of learning for young children would illustrate child-centered active learning models at one end, project-centered models at the center of the continuum, and teacher-directed instruction models located at the other end. The physical layout of early childhood education and care centers is related to the center's theoretical or ideological perspective whether that is an active learning perspective with play as a teaching approach, a thematic teaching approach, or a directed-instruction approach. 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 designed classroom space offers children opportunities for exploration, reflection, and learning by the use and application of design principles and elements.
Early childhood classrooms are rich and complex in their design and in their meaning to young children. Therefore, it is important 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. Children's experiences in the designed environment are impacted by a classroom's myriad design elements and principles which include the circulation, spatial layout, degree of enclosure, material, color, and lighting of the space (Barrett, Davies, Zhang, & Barrett, 2015;Jalil, Yunus, & Said, 2012). The focus of this paper is on the use of color, a design element, in the early childhood education classroom and the association with current research on color preference.

Background
Children and adults respond to color in a myriad of ways. Findings from empirical studies include, among others, the impact the color red had on knowledge retrieval for high school students (Gnambs, Appel, & Kaspar, 2015). University students found warm colors to be attractive in the environment (Hidayetoglu, Yildirim, & Akalin, 2012); and young preschool children benefited from bright color cues for a spatial reasoning task (Joh & Spivey, 2012). These studies revealed that color is a design element that acts as an influencing factor for a variety of human/environment interactions. These studies focus on diverse environmental variables without a clear direction of which hue, value, or chroma may be the optimal color for use in the early childhood environment. Recent research by Palmer and Schloss (2010) focuses on the primacy of color preference.
The findings from the initial studies are discussed in the next section.
Empirical research in color preference has focused predominantly on individual reactions to stimuli in the environment (Beke, Kutas, Kwak, Young Sung, Park, & Bodrogi, 2008). This approach to understanding color preference is limited for designing community spaces. Palmer and Schloss (2010)  Colors that were less preferred included dark orange, a brown appearance, and dark yellow that appeared as an olive color (Palmer & Schloss, 2010;Palmer & Schloss, 2015). Their findings reveal that that people associate the colors they preferred with environmental objects (Palmer & Schloss, 2010). The association of the valence of a color focuses on how much an individual likes an object. For example, the color blue connotes images of water and the sky, which are generally positive associations for people. Additionally, the research with the Ecological Valence Theory illustrates the importance of harmonious color. Schloss and Palmer (2017) described individual differences in color preferences for design; however, an important factor for understanding preferences was color harmony, meaning colors experienced in combination with other colors.
Research with infant color preference has found that infants prefer hues or colors relative to white (Zemach & Teller, 2007 general rather than specific in nature. Therefore, it is a challenge for teachers to analyze and synthesize interior design concepts and design details for their own classrooms. Color is not a central concept for design in either resource.
The purpose of this report paper is to narrow the focus of the designed environment to illustrate optimal application of color as a design element in the early childhood education classroom. To evaluate color within the early childhood education classroom, teachers, staff, and students review the existing colors and materials in the space. The first step is to separate each activity setting, for example, reading, large motor play, etc., thereby focusing on the focal point of the activity setting. Describe the color in the activity setting. The second step is to photograph the settings in the early childhood education classroom. Describe how the colors relate to each other and the interrelationships of the design elements between two or more areas. It is useful to take photographs of the classroom and the designed elements from different heights, multiple angles and different perspectives. Photographs help to reveal color application and color value by focusing on one specific area within the frame.
The third step is to complete the color questionnaire (see Appendix 1) which is proposed as a tool for teachers to use to design the classroom environment.
The fourth step is to reflect on the findings from the visual research completed by teachers, staff, and children. The fifth step is to determine how color in the environment is supportive of an optimal design of the early childhood education classroom. In a classroom that does not have effective use of color, consider adapting lighting and finishes in the design to create a harmonious environment.
Changes can be made with addition of fabric, posters, or murals to adapt the designed environment.
The next section illustrates case studies of color in the early childhood education classroom environment with photographs of existing classrooms.  therefore, they are a focal point in the image. They clearly define the activity areas in the space from the reading and writing area in red, the manipulative play section in red, yellow and blue, and the dramatic play section against the wall and sectioned off with the yellow partition. Flooring variety with carpet and linoleum also helps to define the settings for the three activity areas.

Case Studies of Color in Early Childhood Education Classrooms
In Figure 3, color is used sparingly; however, the location where it is used is effective for adding contrast and interest to the space. The colors of the chairs are bright and warm, red and yellow with high saturation. The tables are dark blue which contrasts well with the white cabinetry on the back wall as well as the white storage units on the left side of the space. The blue frame around the door helps to define the circulation of the space with clear access into the hall area.
The flooring has random tiles of bright colors, yellow and red.     The space on the right shows the use of blue for the wall color. Color is used in both classrooms as a focal point for young children. Both colors are visible through the window.

Conclusion
Color is an important design element that contributes to the aesthetic qualities of the early childhood education classroom. Balancing application of color within the classroom helps children by offering them a focal point for an activity area. Careful consideration of how color's hue, value, and brightness affect the interior of the classroom benefits children's experiences in the space. A harmonious classroom environment that balances color and other design elements can be achieved with small changes in a designed environment. In conclusion, color is a complex design element with the potential to enhance a classroom environment for an optimal experience for young children.

Conflicts of Interest
The author declares no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.