Full texts are provided of the individual papers presented at a symposium held to investigate technology-based systems for improving productivity in higher education. These systems, which marry an engineering systems approach with behavioral objectivism, are studied in the context of three specific learning environments: 1) grouped and bounded…

The British Open University is described in the first section of this paper as a multi-media system for teaching at a distance. Details are provided on the texts and other materials mailed to the students, the radio and television broadcasts provided by the British Broadcasting Company, and on the auxiliary sources of assistance offered to the…

Several factors support the new concept of open campus schools. Traditional high school study halls have outlived their usefulness as more and more teachers have found it appropriate to make nontextbook assignments to students. Youth's resistance to the arbitrary restrictions of school, the greater informality and freedom available in post-school…

A study was conducted to: (1) assess the equivalence of the Nowicki Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children, the Stephens-Delys Reinforcement Contingency Interview, and the Gruen-Korte-Stephens test and the construct validity of each; and (2) investigate the impact on IE of the open classroom Follow Through program sponsored by the…

Education should help people learn to use past experiences as a basis for acquiring new meanings, which frees individuals from what restricts and what enslaves. However, the curriculum has become a program for social purposes and the school an instrument of social control when, in reality, what is needed is persuasion (not coercion) and discussion…

An experiment tested the efficacy of "discovery learning" in a school setting. Fifty-two bright children ages one to seven were randomly divided into two groups: a discovery learning, non-directed group and a guided learning, teacher-directed group. After both groups had spent eight months using an individualized "talking…

Contents of this booklet include: (1) "What's wrong with reading tests?", Deborah Meier, covering the following areas: the definition of reading, the social context of testing, the trouble with the tests, and how children handle tests; (2) "An English view of evaluation," an excerpt from a longer interview with Kenneth Barker at Froebel Institute…

This paper describes a revised teacher training program that includes Internet-based learning materials, thus demonstrating the dual mode system in which both off- and on-campus studies are integrated. The first section discusses the changing role of the teacher, including traditional teacher education and new challenges imposed by technology. The…

This paper describes the online course, Pedagogy in Open Learning, offered by NITOL (Norwaynet with Information Technology for Open Learning). Target groups are teachers, developers, and providers of ODL (Open and Distance Learning). The main goal is to prepare a basis for development and applications of ODL material that uses ICT (Information and…

The choices involved in setting up an open learning system are discussed, and the case for the mixture of interaction and independence is established. Problems involved in effecting the synthesis between activities in which the student works alone and those which bring him into contact with others are detailed. (AF)

Two studies contrasted formal and informal teaching practices in open-plan and conventional classrooms, focusing on grouping patterns and pupil choice as discriminative components of teaching style. (BW)

Proposes three principles for a new progressivism. These establish the nature of individualism in education, the need to empower individuals through education, and the economy of means by which this can be achieved through progressivist methodology. Assumes a constructivist rather than a social-constructivist model of human development. (MJP)

Reports results of research on the effects of open education on student outcomes, using classroom authority structure analysis. Maintains that student outcomes are contingent on the congruence between formal and informal authority structure. Concludes that more congruent authority structure was related to higher reading comprehension and…

Based on Fiedler's Contingency Model of Leadership Effectiveness and Leader-Match program, this study's hypothesis is that experienced school principals increase their effectiveness by changing key organizational variables to suit their personal leadership styles. Following V. D. McNamara's application of Fiedler's contingency model in a study of…

This collection is intended to show what public libraries can and would like to do to support adult learning, encourage understanding and cooperation among libraries and adult and community educators, and publicize the work already being done by libraries. The following papers are included: "The State of the Art in 1985," by Robert…