Eight and nine-year old students in an open classroom engaged in many activities designed to increase their care of their teeth. The teeth of these students and those of a control group were examined and rated on the Podshadley Hygiene Performance Index both before and after the activities. A significant difference existed between pre- and…

Differing points of view on the relative merits of open schools and traditional schools are examined. (JD)

As many schools move toward more "open" environments, it is possible that the roles of the media specialist and the classroom teacher are beginning to merge. (Author)

Individualized instruction in Westorchard elementary school has resulted in high scores on standardized tests of achievement in reading and mathematics. (IRT)

The author explores the central goals of the open education movement and suggests that if the movement is to achieve these goals it must make use of educational technology. (AK)

The General Teaching Model is a procedural guide for the design, implementation, evaluation, and improvement of instruction. The Model is considered applicable to all levels of education, all subject matters, and any length of instructional unit. It consists of four components: 1) instructional objectives, 2) pre-assessment, 3) instructional…

Describes a district in Minneapolis where students must choose either the contemporary or traditionally self-contained classroom school, the continuous progress school, the open school, or the free school. (GB)

The initial chapters of this textbook on individualizing instruction address the issues of humanism in education and self-development through personalized approaches to instruction. Following a discussion of how individualized instruction accommodates differences in educational needs and learning styles, later chapters consider in detail: (1)…

This document explains the reasoning behind the need for individualized instruction. After a brief description of the task of education and its philosophy, the paper goes on to define the educative process in terms of a number of dimensions and aspects: a) the substantive dimension, or actual curriculum design; b) the procedural dimension, or…

Although any definition of the educational philosophy of informal education is sure to be incomplete, for the purposes of this paper the following characteristics will be sufficient: a) informal British schools are "de-institutionalized"; b) they stress individualization; c) detailed observation of a child's work over a long period of time is the…

The success of educational programs is often determined by the coincidence of the testing instruments with instructional procedures and program content rather than by the actual performance of adults and children in the classroom situation. Standardized achievement tests, which are the principal instruments used for assessing program effects,…

The third in a series defining the field of distance education and its related concepts, this article focuses on flexible education, a term closely associated with open education. Discussion includes flexibility, autonomy and learner control; individualizing instruction; and management of instruction and instructional management software. (AEF)

This paper presents a brief overview of current research on learner-centered curricular reform and of some of the issues attendant to its character and quality. Seven groupings of learner-centered reform are discussed in relation to current research and findings: performance and competency-based programs, personalized instruction, cooperative…