Open Education: Critique and Assessment.

Overview & Synopsis

This booklet on open education contains seven articles. The first two articles describe the concept of openess and give a description of open education and how it is affected by American values. These articles also discuss some of the differences between open education and traditional education. The third article contains the author's reflections on the ways the ideas and practices associated with the British Infant Schools have accommodated themselves to, and been assimilated by the American educational field. The fourth and fifth articles contain case studies. They explore the success and failure of open education in a variety of settings. Specific details are given which enable the reader to draw his/her own conclusions about what might have been done in trying to achieve some of the goals set forward for open education. The last two articles discuss research on open education and tell where open education has been and where it is going. They state that research has indicated positive results in many aspects of open education, and that this provides a rationale for continued interest in the approach and a basis for further development of research in this area. (RC)