Countries like India are engaged in exploring appropriate ways of tackling the urgent problem of educating their large and growing populations in relatively little time and with limited resources. Against this background, achieving universal primary education is a major concern. If this Millennium Development Goal is to be achieved, the…

Zimbabwe like most developing countries continues to experience shortages in skills. One such area that has experienced skills shortages is education. This has resulted in governments and education institutions coming up with innovative ways to improve the training of of teachers. Such innovative models include the Open & Distance Learning…

Reaction to an article printed in the April issue. (IRT)

Presents facts and figures to document the case that open education is a permanent educational format rather than a fad. (DW)

Moving beyond open education is a progressive, developmental step. The next stage may see diffusion and demythologization of the valuable ideas, methods, and beliefs of open education and their selective assimilation by teachers. (Author/IRT)

A model of open education is presented to help school staffs clarify, analyze, and plan activities for open classrooms. (BRT)

The open classroom program instituted in 1973 in the elementary schools of Grand Haven, Michigan, continues to grow although similar experiments elsewhere have failed. Six critical factors in the program's success have been community support, orderly transitions, freedom of choice, proven skill development, student satisfaction, and parent…

The experts on open education who responded to a questionnaire (included in the article) on seven components of teaching style in open education disagreed substantially. The majority of respondents disavow three elements commonly associated with open education: freedom of choice, student-initiated learning, and student-directed learning.…

Describes an open-plan school with an open curriculum that has had success in academics and in winning the support of parents. (IRT)

Illustrates and discusses the nonlinear curriculum and suggests some implications of the teacher's role in this approach to informal learning. (ED)

Perhaps the most important implication of the metaphor is to suggest that it may well be the main purpose of education to provide conditions under which each child will identify and find satisfaction through a chosen field or fields of work. (Author)

Discusses the problem of defining "open" school programs; reviews four instruments (Walberg and Thomas rating scale and teacher questionnaire, Barth Scale, Dimensions of Schooling questionnaire, and the Personal Record of School Experience) that can access the degree of openness of schools; also makes recommendations for further research. (DS)

Describes the method used by one teacher in teaching reading in an open education setting. (DD)

A primary school teacher discusses three major areas that are important to consider in creating an open classroom: instructional grouping, social interaction, and responsible freedom. (CS)

Presents some of the characteristics of open education, discusses some of the difficulties in evaluating it, and offers recommendations to improve the classic approach to evaluation and to encourage the use of methods outside the classic approach. (IRT)