Center-Based Teaching and Children's Learning: The Effects of Learning Centers on Young Children's Growth and Development‪.‬

There are many reasons why early childhood professionals recommend the use of learning centers in classrooms for young children (Kostelnik, Soderman, & Whiren, 2004). Centers provide children with opportunities for making choices, working with others, being involved in hands-on activities, and becoming fully engaged in learning. In contrast, traditional classroom formats, in which children must remain quiet and at their individual desks for most of the school day, may discourage children's active engagement in learning, prevent them from taking responsibility for their behavior, and make going to school a generally unpleasant experience. In the undergraduate early childhood education course I (the second author) teach, titled "Play and Creativity," students must visit two early childhood classrooms, one arranged in learning centers and one in the traditional arrangement. They must compare the two by considering these criteria: * Children's behavior