Informal Education: 'Open Classroom' Provokes Change, Controversy. An Education U. S. A. Special Report.

Overview & Synopsis

This document defines informal education and discusses some common misconceptions held about what constitutes informal education. The early development of informal education is traced from several theories of child development and learning through its period of trial and error implementation in Great Britain and in the United States. In an effort to discover what it is that constitutes an "informal" classroom, the author examines selected informal classrooms throughout the country and describes how to set up an informal classroom in a formal school by the establishment of resource centers in art, science, language arts, and mathematics. Three chapters deal with the roles of the teacher, the child, and the administrator in informal education. One chapter discusses informal education in secondary schools and provides examples of ongoing programs being implemented at that level. The publication concludes with a discussion of the problems and future prospects of informal education. (Author/DN)