Jean Biggs
Professor Weber
Early Childhood Education Ed11
December 2, 2003
The Open Classroom
The theory or vision behind the open classroom was to emphasize, multiage grouping “decentralized learning areas, freedom of movement from area to area and even from room to room, group and individual student activities and unstructured periods of study”. (www.encylopedia.com/html/o1/openeduc.asp) all which helped the child to develop a positive self-image by getting away from the teacher only driven curriculum, and allowing the child to explore different areas of the classroom. There are many benefits to the open education philosophy. The learning centers in the open classroom environment are specifically designed to stimulate and promote learning through independent and interactive play. Differentiated Instruction, Cooperative Learning and Team Teaching are all exceptional ways of fostering a healthy attitude in the child towards his/her education.
The advantages of these learning centers are numerous. “As far back as John Dewey, it was known that a child will learn quicker and retain more information by hands on learning” (The History of Early Childhood Education Professor Weber). These learning centers may include a manipulation area such as blocks or puzzles. “Because there are so many “right” ways to play with them, blocks nurture children’s creativity. When they talk about what they are building, children increase their vocabulary and their language skills” (Play and Learn “Blocks” Totline publications) When you give a child enough time to manipulate and explore you are encouraging self discovery and giving the child a sense of power that he/she would not get by sitting at a desk listening to a lecture.
Since no child learns the same thing at the same, teachers have to come up with ways to ensure each child can embrace the curriculum in a way that constantly challenges and encourages the child to learn. This is called Differentiated Instruction. In a Differentiated classroom “Teachers serve as coaches who attend to individuals as well as to the whole class. The goals of teachers are to meet all students at their starting points and to move each one along a continuum of growth as far and as quickly as possible. Learning has no ceiling” (Tomlinson Carol Ann and M. Layne Kalbfleish Teach Me, Teach My Brain A Call for Differentiated Classrooms) Even though this would be the most proficient way for the individual child to advance his learning, the size of the class which averages twenty three students, makes this a very difficult if not impossible task for the educator to accomplish.
Cooperative learning could best be explained as children learning from one another. In a cooperative learning environment”Every student learns something what he or she doesn’t already know, all students contribute to a common goal”. (Schniedwind, Nancy and Ellen Davidson How to differentiate Instruction, Educational Leadership Vol. 58 #1 September 2000) However “A classroom that is largely teacher-directed and based on obedience and constraint is unlikely to reap the intended benefits from peer learning activities. In such a context, the team is likely to focus on trying to please the teacher and will be less willing to share ideas in an open ended fashion. (De Lisi Richard From Marbles to Instant Messenger: Implications of Piaget’s Ideas About Peer Learning) Working as a group there is no competition but rather the children learn to work together as a team
Another teaching method found in the open classroom is Team Teaching. In team teaching students can benefit from another teachers expertise. For example if the children are learning about the evolution of the caterpillar into the butterfly from the scientific point of view from the classroom teacher, they might have a tank or a net with a live caterpillar, where he/she can watch the changes on a daily basis. By introducing another teacher such as the librarian or art teacher, these respective teachers can extend the child’s learning. The librarian has an enormous wealth of books that the child could borrow allowing him to not only study the specimen in the classroom, but to also see other types of caterpillars. The art teacher could have the child paint or create a piece of artwork to show how he/she interprets this miracle of nature.
In the open classroom environment there are many good methods of teaching such as discussed previously (cooperative learning, team teaching and differentiated instruction). However, even though all of these methods of teaching help the child develop his cognitive and social skills there are other factors that also must be taken into consideration when discussing the open classrooms. These factors might actually hinder the same skills it is trying to develop. They include but are not limited to:
· The noise level
The architectural design in the open classroom is exactly that, “open.” If there is more than one class within the environment (cluster) the only option the teacher has to define her/his classroom space is to facilitate, blackboards, cardboard boxes and desks, (or anything else available) which also act as room dividers in lieu of walls. However these inventive walls do little to cut down on the noise and teachers as well as students become easily distracted by either another teacher’s agenda, a child being reprimanded or even the sound of laughter from another class. “Young learners typically have short attention spans and high distractibility, which makes them ineffective at sorting speech from noise. Figure ground discrimination, is the skill that allows listeners to pay attention to a specific sound, such as a teacher’s voice or to ignore listen though distracting background noise. These skills do not develop until approximately the age 13” (Anderson, Karen L. Voicing Concerns About Noisy Classrooms Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) “Moreover background noise significantly effects student attention, behavior and achievement”. (Anderson, Karen L. Voicing Concerns About Noisy Classrooms Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) It’s no wonder there is such a high degree of Attention Deficit Disorder diagnosed or sadly misdiagnosed in the school system.
Once again there are many benefits to the open classroom theory, but are they benefiting every child? Is this theory developmentally appropriate for the child who might need a more structured environment, or the child who needs one on one attention? What happens to the child who has been diagnosed with ADD (by a pediatric psychiatrist and not by the teacher or school system); how is this environment affecting him/her? What about the child who has been misdiagnosed by the teacher or someone else in the school system, and is assuming this child has ADD, when it could be possibly be a sleep disorder, auditory processing disorder, or stress. These of course are only a few of the many possibilities. By not considering other options, the school system is negligent in promoting a positive learning atmosphere. Instead they are labeling a child as learning challenged, a label that will follow him throughout his school years.
Bibliography
http://www.encylopedia.com/html/ol/openedu.asp
The History of Early Childhood Education Professor Weber
(Tomlinson Carol Ann and M. Layne Kalbfleish Teach Me, Teach My Brain A Call for Differentiated Classrooms)
(De Lisi Richard From Marbles to Instant Messenger: Implications of Piaget’s Ideas About Peer Learning)
Schniedwind, Nancy, Ellen Davidson “Differentiating Cooperative Learning” Educational Leadership/ September 2000 page 24
Dunn, Mary Ann, Sustaining Change “Educational Leadership vol. 57 #7 April 2000 page 20
Anderson, Karen Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development “Voicing Concerns About Noisy Classrooms”
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