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Pedagogical Approach

Open Classroom

Named Pedagogical Models and Movements

The open classroom is a school-organization movement of the late 1960s and 1970s, drawn partly from British informal-education practice, that replaced walled, single-grade classrooms with large open-plan learning spaces, mixed-age groupings, and child-chosen learning centers in place of a whole-class lesson schedule. Enthusiasm for it peaked in the mid-1970s before a widely reported backlash over noise, distraction and inconsistent outcomes led many schools to physically wall the open spaces back in, though some of its practices persisted inside conventional classrooms afterward.

Facts
Central Question
How can school organization let students learn in ways suited to their individual differences rather than through one fixed whole-class lesson 1
Most Effective For
Third graders with low levels of anxiety, who were found to be more creative in open schools than in traditional schools 1
Sources
1. Open classroom - Wikipedia
  • Open-space school section
    students 'should be allowed to learn in ways suited to their individual differences'
  • Open-space school section, research findings
    third graders with low levels of anxiety were more creative in open schools than in traditional school
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