Countries like India are engaged in exploring appropriate ways of tackling the urgent problem of educating their large and growing populations in relatively little time and with limited resources. Against this background, achieving universal primary education is a major concern. If this Millennium Development Goal is to be achieved, the…

Zimbabwe like most developing countries continues to experience shortages in skills. One such area that has experienced skills shortages is education. This has resulted in governments and education institutions coming up with innovative ways to improve the training of of teachers. Such innovative models include the Open & Distance Learning…

The belief of educational researchers that teacher self-reports cannot be trusted, and the provision of validation evidence for a teacher self-report questionnaire on open education are the purposes of this study. Data were collected in two classes in each of eight schools, which were a stratified (by architecture and by programmatic openness)…

The XX IDEA annual conference has been focused and reflected on different ways and means of meeting various kinds of methodological challenges, new technologies and multi-media developments, newly emerging partnerships and collaboration between emerging sectors on one hand and between the institutions functioning with similar objectives and…

Explores some of the differences in open classrooms as they are being implemented in the United States, Great Britain, and Israel. Comparisons are discussed in light of psychological, social, and ideological variations. (Author/DB)

This paper describes the general philosophy, programs and schedules of elementary schools in Leicestershire, England, recognized for emphasis on the individual approach to learning in which each child travels at his own level or pace. The teacher's role is to provide opportunities for children to explore and investigate a wide field of interests.…

A study examined the effects of open and traditional classes on the academic attainment of elementary school students of different socioeconomic backgrounds in Israel. No evidence was found to support the hypothesis that students from upper socioeconomic classes benefited more from learning in an open classroom than students from lower…

A national study was designed to examine open-space education in Great Britain. The study's purpose was to provide an accurate, comprehensive description of the teaching-learning processes within such schools and their administrative and architectural services in order that policy implications could be delineated. (Author/DB)

Considers three social theories--actor-network; marginalization; and intentionality and action--that can be used to reconceptualize open learning to reconstruct openness through research conducted in remote primary home schools and itinerant primary classrooms in Australia. The notions of center/periphery and mobility/immobility are examined. (PEN)

Findings from a study of 42 Israeli elementary schools indicate that schools which adopted technological innovation (open education) were characterized by significantly more of the organizational processes associated with the self-renewing school than when schools which adopted managerial (the management team) or multilevel (the management team…

Observations, anecdotes and reactions resulting from a 3-month exploration of British educational approaches are presented. The people-centered approach, organic nature and local conduct characteristic of English primary education are also discussed. (SDH)

Based on a meeting of experts convened in Lome, Togo in June, 1989, this digest aims to demonstrate what is understood to be the broad potential of the child-to-child approach, which many people think of as being applicable only to health education. The digest contains three main sections. Section A highlights the original cultural references of…

"Gruppo Futuro" (Future Group), a novel educational project linking futures studies to multimedia and giving children control of the content of their instruction by focusing on their views of the future, was implemented in a Swedish fourth-grade class. Participating in the project were 29 children in Tullingebergsskolan, their teacher,…

During this period of social and political transformation in the former Soviet Union, there is no typical Russian school. Open-type schools generally emphasize student self-development. Students' intellectual, personal, and spiritual upbringing depends on a school's socioeconomic, cultural, and environmental context. Teaching practices must be…

The major focus of interest in the present research is the question of congruence between parental and school attitudes toward issues of authority and freedom. It was hypothesized that the child's adjustment to his/her particular type of classroom (either open or traditional) would be affected by whether he/she came from a family which shared…