Open Education Essays - Educational Psychology,

Open Education Between 1967 and 1976, the ideas and practices of open education spread rapidly across the United States. Even today the idea of open education is still growing in popularity. Since it was just beginning to gain popularity in 1967, parents and teachers swarmed to workshops in hopes of better understanding the open concept. Many schools were switching over to an open philosophy. News of the successful educational style fanned the flames of many disbelievers. Many questions still remained about open education. What did children do? What did teachers do? Much earlier on, there was an effort to prevent the progression of open education. During the 1920 through 30's, private schools were set up to maintain a teacher's power and keep kids as her pupils. People wanted a new model of education and the open school model slowly replaced it. In the 60's there was a critical push for open education. The American population had reached a higher level of consciousness about our social and educational system. Yet, one question left people doubtful of open education. How can you "prove" that open education works? People were worried about educational change, because it could be devastating and expensive. It was never proven that open education worked, but more money was spent on workshops, teaching methods, and curricula to create more acceptance of open education. The word was also debated for a long time, because of the many different meanings. Was it opportunity? Relationships? Sharing? It was unknown. Finally, the word was decided apon--open. Open was trendy for the times. As Lydia A. H. Smith from Simmons College wrote "Open education is an approach to education that is open to change." As I have gone through open education, I have noticed differences in teachers. Teachers are not the typical drone model. Open education dropped the workbooks and lecture style learning and picked up discussion and hands-on developmental learning. An idea following this change in classroom materials and teaching styles was the position a teacher held in a classroom. No longer were they the directors that made everything this way or that, but teachers were now facilitators that would ease one's way through the educational system. Education is not just studying about, but about being. The word about never gave you the eyes to see being. In the US the open educational philosophy was spreading rapidly, in Britain primary schools were in a great push towards the movement for open education. Britain had closely been following open education. Many articles were being published on the idea of open school. These published articles were evoking positive feelings throughout the United States and Britain. As for today, there are many different types of educational philosophies. Once open education was accepted and found to work well society was more willing to accept new educational ideas. Educational philosophy The word philosophy comes from the Greek root philos (love) and sophia (wisdom), it means the love or search for wisdom. Philosophy covers a broad area of topics, but there is something that I want to explore more closely. I will look at educational philosophy, since that is what I am dealing with. Basically, I think philosophy in an educational context is the generalized theory of education or wisdom in education. Whatever education is, or becomes, is the basis of its philosophy. Educational theories are applied in a classroom to see if they show better results than before. If not, the theories are removed. Educational philosophy contains ideas of ideal ways education should be taught. Open philosophy wouldn't have been a popular philosophical education model, if it had not worked as well as it has. I believe that educational philosophy expresses ideas of how society should be taught. Since I have been in an open education program for my whole life, I'm going to talk about its ideals and my feelings. I think open education is based on 6 factors (1) the school as a community, (2) the school in the community, (3) the person and thier moral right to freedom and choice, (4) concern for individual differences, (5) the method of intelligence, (6) building curriculum through and with students. (Lydia A. H. Smith, page 376) To me the best a teacher can be is when they are learning from the students and when the students learn from them. It is best when material is not dictated, but presented through thought and participation. "I believe firmly, that education must be conceived as a continuing reconstruction of experience; that the process and the goal of education are one and the