For the forty-first time, the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two volumes. Volume 1 contains twenty-seven…

Several extended tests of the relationship between the "openness" of a school's instructional program and student achievement fail to show sizeable or consistent positive or negative effects in a survey of 6,225 students from 39 elementary and secondary schools. (Author)

Discusses arguements for, but basically against, both open space classrooms and open education. Reviews studies which reveal that students in a traditional setting and program demonstrate higher basic and creative skills and reveal less anxiety than do those in a nontraditional setting. (KC)

Direct instruction is more effective for some purposes and students than for others. The approach used should depend on the type of student and the teacher's objectives. (Author)

The premises of open education and related developmental and social issues are explained as an aid to educational practitioners in choosing the proper measurement and evaluation strategies for this philosophy. In addition, a position statement on evaluation is offered and the present status of educational evaluation is outlined. Some…

Racism in Australian schools is indicated by an attitude survey which reveals that teachers from traditional classrooms believe that Aboriginal students will do less well than White students, whereas teachers from an open school predict that Aboriginal children should do as well as White children, given equal ability. (Author/EB)

Reviews data on (1) the adequacy and allocation of American educational resources; (2) students' achievement compared to foreign students today and American students in the past; (3) the impact of open versus traditional schools; and (4) public assessment of current education. Indicates recent declines in effort, achievement, attitudes, and…

A teacher self-report instrument, the Learning Climate Inventory (LCI), was used to gather teacher perceptions about their administrators, peers, and teaching job. An observational checklist was used on the same large sample. Data were gathered from 700 classrooms and 867 teachers in 30 schools in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Fort Worth,…

This report summarizes the results of three studies--the Regression Studies which investigated factors that are at least partly under the control of school personnel, the Outlier Study which used multiple regression analysis to identify schools that were performing either above or below their predicted levels of achievement as computed from…

This paper explores group cohesiveness, class discussion, and group size in relation to classroom environment and the cognitive-personal growth outcomes of classroom learning. Implications are drawn from the research on cohesiveness for teachers who employ open classroom techniques. (Author/SJL)

A critical review of educational and social psychological literature was undertaken in order to clarify the impact of schools' control orientation on student learning and on the teacher-student relationship. The propositions argued are (a) a strong control orientation is incompatible with helping students become responsible young adults, (b) the…

For the thirty-sixth year, the Research and Theory Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Anaheim, California. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two…

This book discusses how best to instruct students, reviewing and evaluating the many educational reforms and innovations that have been proposed and employed over the past century and comparing achievement rates resulting from traditional, teacher-centered approaches with those resulting from progressive, student-centered methods. Findings…

Three magnet middle schools which were established as part of a voluntary desegregation plan in a school system in a large, American city are described in this report. The schools are examined as organizations that differed in their innovative educational approaches to bring about desegregation. One school offered a system of open education, in…