Open Classes: Evaluation of an Innovation Program

Abstract

A two‐year research program was carried out to evaluate the workings of open education classes in primary schools. Four studies were conducted. Two were comparative: instruments testing cognitive and non‐cognitive variables by the use of standardized as well as behavioural probe measures were administered to experimental (open) and control (traditional) classes. Tests of mathematics, reading, inquiry, cooperation, yielding to authority and creativity showed no differences between children in open and traditional classes. The work of children in the experimental class was less affected by the teachers' absence from the classroom than that of children in the control class.A third study involved interviews aimed at assessing children's views about the open classroom. A fourth study involved behavioural observations of the use a sample of children made of the special features of the open classroom.