2017年6月15日星期四

Adding Color to Children's Educational Furniture

Educational theorists have known for decades that color can stimulate learning in classrooms, but most of the children's education furniture produced today does not recognize the importance of using hues as part of their functional appeal. Too often we think of color as being only about aesthetics, as being important only because it makes them look prettier. However, research has shown that color in the classroom can be a critical element to a child's academic success.
The U. S. Navy a few years back did a study to test some of the benefits of adding color to their recruits' environments. During the three years after the color additions were made, the rate of accidents fell by 28%. A similar study done in businesses by an independent researching team found similar results: the use of white and all-white in offices increased inaccuracy by up to 25%.
While neither of these studies took place in classrooms, the connection is clear. Our students, like the business workers and Navy recruits, are going to be less likely to make errors and to have accidents in a colorful learning environment. Fewer errors usually leads to more self-confident learners who take on greater academic challenges and push themselves to keep learning more and more. Both of these are key traits in students who end up doing well throughout their school careers.
Studies of classroom and color have also been conducted. One of the most famous was a study in 1983 by Harry Wohlfarth. In the study, schools which had made recent improvements to their lighting and had added more color to their environments and those which had not. The schools that had made the changes showed significantly higher levels of academic improvements over those that did not. That's definitely a good reason to add more color to the children's educational furniture used in the classrooms.
Further research has shown that color, especially when combined with other organizational elements, can help children as young as 3, to navigate new environments. At a young age, children learn that color helps to signify importance. Even kids who can't read, for example, understand early on that a red stop sign is important enough to pay attention to even if they don't know what the sign says. In a classroom environment, color can help children figure out what parts of the room are important. Using color, therefore, can cause children to gravitate towards the reading area and may be able to motivate students to read more.
Obviously adding color to children's educational furniture would be desirable for achieving these aims. Even making the cubbie storage units colorful can remind students to place their belongings there before class begins while a colorful art storage piece might motivate students to put their supplies up when they are finished using them.
Of course, not all colors are created equal. You want to use different colors for different age children. For example, cool colors such as blues, greens, and purples are most appropriate for older children. For preschool and elementary classrooms, bright primary colors, such as red and yellow, are more desirable. Incorporating these appropriat

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