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)

The response cost (RC) procedure has been applied in regular classrooms and playgrounds, self-contained and resource rooms, and residential settings with normal children and elementary-age, behavior-disordered children. RC involves the removal of previously awarded or earned reinforcers for the purpose of reducing deviant, maladaptive, or…

The effects of open-plan and conventional classrooms upon patterns of friendship and levels of creativity, extraversion and neuroticism were studied in samples of 11-year-old middle-school children, matched for socioeconomic background in two schools with the different layouts but similar philosophies and teaching styles. (Author)

A study involving three elementary students with emotional/behavioral disorders in a self-contained special education classroom compared the effects of choice and no choice conditions on academic and social behaviors. Opportunities to make choices during academic situations positively affected the academic and social behaviors of two of the three…

The professional concerns of beginning teachers of students who are deaf or hard of hearing were examined. Five first-year teachers of deaf and hard of hearing students served as participants. Two of the participants were itinerant teachers; three taught in self-contained classrooms. Participants were selected from programs serving deaf and hard…

Many teachers celebrate the last day of school, but the author has always found it a bittersweet time. Teaching in a self-contained classroom with not more than five students, ranging in age from 15 to 20, at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and had them most of the day, is emotionally consuming, for good or ill. While he had…

This study investigated the effectiveness of Modified Cognitive Strategy Instruction in Writing (CSIW) with mildly mentally retarded students' skills in writing problem/solution texts. Participants were from two self-contained and multiage classrooms in Turkey. Instruction had a positive impact on the amount of time students spent planning and…

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) Division of Special Education (DSE), per Section 162.1136 RSMo, conducts an annual study of the educational status of eligible blind/visually impaired students and reports the findings to the Missouri Legislature on December 1st each year. The information contained in this report…

This guide describes the development and implementation of a functional/vocational program for self contained severely and mildly handicapped students in grades K-12. The model emphasized instruction in skills needed by students to live as adults in the least restrictive way. Elementary children receive instruction in self contained classrooms and…

Surveys were conducted to investigate contemporary thought regarding organizational practices at the elementary level, with particular attention to identifying the extent to which departmentalization was supported by research and actually employed in 24 elementary schools in the Midwest and in 41 Des Moines elementary schools. Four committees…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a self-contained classroom approach in comparison with two other reading approaches. The self-contained approach classes consisted of fifteen pupils, all nominated by their teachers. In the self-contained approach, reading and communication skills were given the most emphasis. The students in the other two…

The study sampled 145 elementary school handicapped children in order to compare a mainstreamed and self-contained special education program in a large urban school district. (Author/PHR)

Flexibility is a key term to emphasize when grouping students for instruction, since a student might be in a different group for one academic area as compared to another academic area. This paper describes grouping for different methods of reading instruction and other disciplines. The paper discusses the following: using basal readers, using…

An elementary school was used in a case study for a directed room program in order to exemplify an individualized, self-guiding curriculum with a hierarchy of instructional objectives. The individualized curriculum was designed to shift the responsibility for learning from the teacher to the student. (JN)