Examines the shortcomings of traditional schooling and the promise of learning in nontraditional environments in addressing student needs, teacher's role, and curriculum issues. Notes that the articles in this special issue indicate that a variety of situations and conditions lend themselves to nontraditional educational approaches or methods. (SD)

This study compared the time use and perceptions of schools, teachers, and friends of approximately 290 demographically matched students in Montessori and traditional middle schools. We used the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) and questionnaires and conducted multivariate analyses showing that the Montessori students (a) reported more positive…

This study compared the effects of multi-age classroom strategies to those of traditional classroom strategies on the academic achievement of fourth grade students in reading and math. Standardized test scores from 20 fourth-grade students in two multi-age third- and fourth-grade classrooms were compared to the scores of 20 students from 7…

This guide, intended to help students and their parents select a college, offers analyses of the quality of instruction, the level of academic standards, the campus political atmosphere, and the college's liberal arts tradition. The book, with an introduction by William J. Bennett, describes 100 schools, which were selected on the basis of…

A study compared performances on a test of selective auditory attention between students educated in open-space versus closed classroom environments. An open-space classroom environment was defined as having no walls separating it from hallways or other classrooms. It was hypothesized that the incidence of auditory figure-ground (ability to focus…

A total of 59 Senegalese adult and college students filled out a questionnaire in a study designed to gather data about their reading habits. The 15-item instrument, written in English and French, required yes or no responses to questions that described students' satisfaction with reading ability, types of materials read, perceptions of reading…

To analyze the popularity and merits of the year-round school, this report reviews research and other literature on (1) the history of the year-round school including highlights of a few school district programs from 1800 to the present; (2) the academic, economic, and social impact of year-round schools; (3) school districts' concerns about…

Prepared for a 1984 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) conference, this report addresses the necessary reform of educational systems and the cost of new information technologies and their efficiency in education. A discussion of trends in public expenditures for education includes a review of trends since 1970 in OECD…

As a part of a longitudinal study of learning in open plan and conventional design classrooms, the present study focuses on school design and its influence on selected behavior of pupils and teachers. The behaviors of pupils and their teachers in eleven learning areas of open plan and seven of conventional design were observed. Among the 18…

The debate about appropriate student-teacher authority relations in schools has persisted at least since the movement for "progressive education" in the 1920's, and it is reflected today in the debate between "open" education programs and "traditional" education programs. This paper, based on data from 7,361 students in elementary and secondary…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there were significant differences in the academic achievement of children attending three different types of school: a model "open" school, a comparable "traditional" school, and a traditional school with a student population from a higher socioeconomic area. Data based on…

TO DETERMINE WHETHER THE GRADUATES OF MELBOURNE HIGH SCHOOL, IN BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA, WERE SUFFICIENTLY DIFFERENT FROM GRADUATES OF ANOTHER HIGH SCHOOL IN THE SAME DISTRICT TO WARRANT FURTHER RESEARCH, A PILOT STUDY WAS CONDUCTED. MELBOURNE HAS RECEIVED ACCLAIM FOR ITS NONGRADED, CONTINUOUS PROGRESS, INNOVATIVE CURRICULUM AND FOR THE NUMEROUS…

This paper, which presents a comparison of informal and formal preschool programs, describes the arguments used by proponents of the formal, more structured, teacher-centered programs and the informal, more child-centered, programs. Some of the evidence for the effects of early experience on child development and for the effects of teaching style…

Ten hypotheses were tested to evaluate the effects on pupils and teachers of open space construction. Over 2,000 students in open and traditional schools were selected for experimental and "control" groups. Grades 4 and 7 pupils were selected specifically since major data indicative of academic achievement were drawn from the County…

In the spring of 1973, a standardized test of reading and mathematics skills was administered to 564 grade 3 pupils distributed among two open plan schools (155 pupils) and seven conventionally constructed schools (409 pupils). The groups were matched on IQ, geographic location, the academic qualifications of their teachers, and average class…