Pupils in an open plan (as opposed to traditional) school were found to have more positive attitudes toward school and themselves and scored higher on some measures of productivity; on measures of curiosity there were no differences. (Editor)

A descriptive look at the environment of one English primary school. An analysis of how the balance between freedom and control is achieved. (DN)

A sample of 2175 students in 116 science classes provided their perceptions of actual and preferred classroom openness along five continuous dimensions (personalization, participation, independence, investigation, differentiation) and responded to cognitive/affective measure. Among findings reported are relationships between actual classroom…

The purpose of this follow-up study was to determine 14 high school graduates' perceptions of the open-informal learning environment they had experienced in elementary school. Subjects were interviewed individually on their recollections (facts and feelings) of their fifth grade year, and were shown videotaped scenes of themselves in the…

The primary focus of this study was on differences in satisfaction with school between seventh grade students enrolled in the two junior high schools. One junior high school had made major modifications in its environment, the other maintained a more standard approach to education. A second focus was to investigate the relationship between these…

Identification of general effects for open education is hindered by differences in the implementation of open education programs. Seven possible features of programs were identified. Effect size estimates were used to identify effective open education programs from 153 studies. Further analysis revealed the characteristics of the effective…

The author gives examples of how the concept of open education can be implemented and of what its successes and satisfactions can be. She also discusses the relevance of Dewey's philosophy to open education, noting the relationship of setting, evaluation, and curriculum to the larger issue of moral and social development. (AJ)

Project DEEP (Diversified Educational Experience Program) was developed to improve the behavior and attitudes of secondary students in schools where dropouts, absenteeism, and poor attitudes are existing problems. The open classroom with student involvement and participation in goal setting, presentation, and evaluation is the basic concept of…

A study sought to determine whether intermediate age children exposed to open classroom teaching strategy have a more positive attitude toward school than intermediate age children exposed to conventional teaching strategy. The hypothesis was that there would be no significant difference in attitude between the two groups. The study was limited to…

Relates the experience of students and a teacher in an alternative high school in designing a biology curriculum based on Foxfire practices. Describes student efforts to gain approval from school officials to study evolution and creationism and the conflicts in values and belief systems among the students. (LP)

In the West African Region of Africa, the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) is the first full fledged university that operates in an exclusively open and distance learning (ODL) mode of education. NOUN focuses mainly on open and distance teaching and learning system, and delivers its courses materials via print in conjunction with…

A study examined the relationship between the motives and needs of 658 adult students enrolled in a Dutch adult high school program and the curricular and instructional design of an educational reform--an open learning program. The population was all 4,442 adult learners in 3 schools who started an open learning experiment. When the students…

"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,…

Mariemont High School in Mariemont, Ohio, has an open facility that enhances the school's goal to train the student to "think reflectively, critically, and constructively about the problems of his world." (Author/MLF)

This study was a 2-year comparison of the effects of open classroom versus traditional instruction on children's self-concept, attitudes toward school and achievement of basic skills. The 250 participants were students in grades 1-6 of two elementary schools -- one utilizing an open classroom approach and the other a traditional approach. The…