Open Education: An Operational Definition and Validation in Great Britain and United States

British Infant School, Developmental Classroom, Leicestershire Plan, Integrated Daythese phrases refer to an educational movement that began in Great Britain and is growing rapidly and generating a great deal of interest among administrators, teachers, and parents in the United States (Silberman, 1970). However, there has been very little research and evaluation on Open Education, aside from testimonials by exponents and reporters. Recently Educational Development Center, a United States Office of Education-sponsored educational laboratory, commissioned TDR (Training-Development-Research) Associates, Inc. to review available Open Education literature, analyze the concept into its component parts, verify the analysis with prominent Open Educators, and develop instruments for classroom measurement of its properties (Walberg and Thomas, 1971). The present paper presents a validation of the instruments in United States Open and Traditional classes and British Open classes.