Creating purposeful and aesthetically pleasing environments for young children

With more children under the age of five spending time away from home and attending some type of day care, the aesthetics and physical characteristics of classrooms should be an area of early childhood education that demands awareness due to the long-term effects that the physical environment can have on children's overall development. In the current thesis project, a workshop was developed to help early childhood teachers understand and apply 8 dimensions of the physical qualities of the classroom. The acronym of APPROACH was used, which stands for Age-appropriate, Personalized, Private, Reflective, Open-ended, Autonomy, Challenging, and Home-like. In the 60-minute workshop, 92 teachers participated (N=92), of whom 29 taught preschool and 33 of whom were infant-toddler teachers. Workshop evaluations revealed that preschool teachers felt they were meeting the key environmental features of age-appropriate, autonomy, and personalization. The infant-toddler teachers, they believed they were meeting the environmental needs of their children through an environment that was age-appropriate, nurturing autonomy, and challenging. The infant-toddler teachers compared to the preschool teachers revealed different kinds of environmental goals. Suggestions for improving the workshop and expanding professional development regarding early childhood environments are included.