NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION USING COLOURS IN THE CLASSROOM

Abstract

In the framework of the 100 year anniversary of Waldorf pedagogy in the field of kindergarten pedagogy, a month long research was carried out in Engelberg (Germany), in the world centre of Waldorf pedagogy, from the second half of June 2018 till the first half of July. The aim of the first research was the examination of non-verbal communication among the students and the teacher using the symbolism of colours, in order to create the most harmonious communication-information space. The colour structure of space with the colours of toys made from natural materials represent all primary colours of the rainbow. The colour world of children’s cloths makes alive the communicative space being actualized at the time. Kindergarten teachers base the content and site of collective occupations upon this non-verbal communication. The second research was related to the colour symbolism of nations. Namely, the focus was on communicative content  associated by certain nations through drawings from national cultural heritage in case of identical colours. Goethe considered Theory of Colours the most significant work of his own oeuvre. The European scientific community and Waldorf pedagogy experts also consider Goethe’s Theory of Colours as their base. This research also relies on this source. The chapter entitled Allegorical, symbolic, mystic use of the colour frames the spine line of this research: all  seven colours are present, since this choice harmonises the most with the basic principles of Waldorf pedagogy: with the completeness of life and physiological processes typical of all living creatures and with the entire human image (body-soul-spirituality). The pace of the curriculum applies the self-motivational method synchronized with the developmental peculiarities typical of each individual (everybody competes with one’s own  achievement, everybody has to exceed their  own capacity and notthe other’s ).

This non-verbal communicative  informational space between the child and the teacher is the allegorical, symbolic and mystic mediation of colours that carry morals and spirituality shaping weight.  It is present in Waldorf kindergarten centre in various forms (Frei Waldorfkindergarten Engelberg): in all volumes of the centre’s library, the octagonal space of the group room, the exterior and interior kindergarten community spaces.

Based on Goethe’s theory of colours, the kindergarten teachers are familiar with the ancient collective ethical and emotional duration of colours, and easily decode the children’s emotional state and moral courses on a given day by their clothes . The ancient collective principle of consciousness and the emotional harmonisation function instinctively when it comes to children, and the self-correction processes occur unconventionally. It is necessary to emphasize here the significance of the emotional harmonisation processes happening without directed activity, which is the physical peculiarity of every human being. The research presents these non-verbal commu nicativeprocesses of colours on the basis of allegorical andsymbolic meaning in the process of selecting  daily activities by kindergarten teachers, and the t non-verbal role  colours play in children’s ethical and emotional harmonisation processes. The non-verbal communicative and emotional effect, as well as the effect colours have on the development of the moral, can be applied to the Serbian educational model as well.