Effects of childcare classroom physical environment on the behaviour of children in Chinese kindergarten – a review

Children's participation in quality Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) programs has been shown to positively influence their physical, cognitive, and social development. Previous research has examined how environmental features relate to children’s social and play behaviours using both quantitative and qualitative methods. However, there remains a lack of in-depth studies focusing on the physical elements within kindergarten classrooms and their effects on children’s actions and behaviours in the Chinese context. This review aims to explore the dynamic process of child-environment interaction within kindergarten classroom settings. Based on this, the study proposes an ecopsychological framework of affordance to conceptualise the interconnectedness between children and the classroom environment. Future studies are encouraged to empirically validate this framework to further understand the child-environment relationship.