Preparation of Teachers of Science for Open AreaElementary SchoolsAlan J. McCormack

Science Education Dept., University of British ColumbiaVancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Open area elementary schools constitute a major and burgeoningelement in the revision of school patterns in a search for better andmore economical education. As usually conceived, these new schoolsare intended to depart both architecturally and instructionally fromthe traditional school which is commonly a strikingly uniform structure,virtually always divided into equal-sized and similarly-shaped roomseach inhabited by one teacher and approximately thirty-five children.

Architecturally, open area schools usually blend space and shapeflexibly, replacing traditional rectangular classrooms with large roomshaving no fixed interior walls. Open areas typically provide learningspace for 50 to 140 pupils with teams of 2 to 5 teachers, often supportedby one of more paraprofessional teaching aides. The large open spacesare complemented by smaller audio-tutorial learning areas, activitiesareas, and a variety of specialized learning-centers.

Philosophically, the open area trend rests upon the followingassumptions:

1. Most learning takes place individually. Pupils must be permitted to progresscontinuously at their own rate, rather than at the average rate of a class. Thereare no time and space limits as to when and where a child can learn. Learningprocesses are not limited to teacher-structured sequences or formal classrooms.

2. For learning to be internalized, pupils should be included in the procedures ofchoosing what is to be learned, and how they will learn it. Multiple learningpathways need to be designed.

3. Children need the opportunity to work together in groups, as well as independently,to experience and develop skills in interpersonal interaction necessary to livingin a rapidly changing technological society.

4. Children need to discover the various disciplines as aspects of one world.Fragmentation of subject matter should be replaced by interdisciplinary andmultidisciplinary approaches.

5. Any good educational program must be inherently dynamic in order to survive.A complex, changing culture can only be served by an adaptable and flexiblelearning program.

Potentially, open area schools allow educational programs to bebased on assumptions like those listed above. The inherent flexibilityof the open plan allows teachers to teach, and children to learn,by means difficult to employ in conventional schools. Teachers arefree to work in teams, capitalizing on their individual strengths.Nongraded plans remove traditional age-grade labels, blending togetherchildren of different ages but similar abilities or interests. Teacher-developed materials for learning can be of higher quality, greater

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Preparation of Teachers for Open Schools 377

interest value, and made available to larger numbers of children.For reasons like these, open area elementary schools have become

widely popular. A Stanford University study indicates that more thanhalf of the new elementary schools built in the United States between1967 and 1970 were of open area design.{ Canada’s Province of BritishColumbia, with a population of only about two million, now has morethan 125 open area schools in operation, and more being constructedat a rapid pace.

Unfortunately, teacher education programs have not evolved tocope with the open area upsurge. The Stanford University studymentioned earlier indicates that significant percentages of U.S. schooladministrators rate preparation of teachers for open area teachingas woefully inadequate.2 A local survey of school principals ofmetropolitan Vancouver, British Columbia, suggests that these admin-istrators are virtually unanimous in expressing dissatisfaction withpreparation of beginning teachers for open area situations.3

THE OPEN AREA SCHOOL TEACHER PREPARATION PROJECT

In response to rapidly changing elementary school patterns andthe apparent ineffectiveness of existing training programs to prepareteachers for open area schools, a pilot phase of a unique teacher-edu-cation program has been conducted this year by the University ofBritish Columbia Faculty of Education. Specifically aimed at the specialrequirements of open area teaching, the Open Area School TeacherPreparation Project (OASTPP) is being supported by a grant fromthe Canadian Donner Foundation. The OASTPP is founded on thepremise that preparation for open area teaching is best done in actualopen area schools, with the aid of practicing successful open areateachers. The program attempts to blend the cooperative efforts ofthree groups: a teacher-consultant team, a university faculty team,and a university student teacher-trainee team. The five teacher-consul-tant team members work in organizing and implementing model openarea programs with 129 primary level children in a large four-stationopen area, and with 60 intermediate level children in a smallertwo-station area. The eight university faculty team members conductcurriculum and methods courses in a classroom-teaching laboratoryreserved for this purpose at the Queen Elizabeth School, Vancouver,British Columbia, the OASTPP pilot program site. (See Figure 1).

1. Open-Space Schools Project Bulletin, Stanford University School Planning Laboratory, Palo Alto, California,II (March, 1970), 9-15.

2. Ibid.3. "Principals Unhappy with UBC Training," The Vancouver Sun, Vancouver, British Columbia, LXXXVI

(February 21, 1972). 4.

378School Science and Mathematics

QuietArea -smallgroups S-II

Primary Level Area5 teachers

1 teacher aide129 children

S-III

QuietArea -smallgroups

v V

xLarge GroupInstructional

Area xS-1

LaboratoryActivityArea

3-IV

S-V

VUniversity Classroomand InstructionalMaterials Center

Intermediate Level Area2 teachers60 children

A

vx

S-VIx xLegend:

== Learning Materials IS s Teaching Station

= Audio-tutorial Center

FIG. 1. The OASTPP School Floor Plan

In addition, many of the university professors teach the childrenparticipating in the project on a regularly scheduled basis, and actas consultants to the regular open area teachers. The teacher-traineeteam consists of nineteen fifth year education students who havevolunteered to take part in the pilot year of the program.

All of the methods courses organized for the OASTPP aim to providetrainees with skills and concepts in the following categories:

Preparation of Teachers for Open Schools 379

1. team teaching;2. development and use of individualized learning materials, emphasizing multiple

pupil options;3. a nongraded approach, with flexible grouping of pupils;4. social and cognitive growth of children; and,5. interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches to subjects.

Criteria relating to skills implicit in the above categories have beenincorporated into a Teacher Self-Analysis Instrument. Teacher-traineesemploy this device in self-evaluating video-taped episodes of theirwork with children in the open area classrooms.

THE OASTPP SCIENCE METHODS COURSEThe elementary science methods course for the project is designed

to incorporate and implement much of the open area teaching-learningphilosophy described earlier. In line with a "practice what you preach"approach, the science instructor and OASTPP students have developeda course characterized as follows:

Individualized Learning Contracts. A large portion of the courseis organized around an individualized learning contract approach.Contracts are mutually designed by instructor and student to providethe student with both a general acquaintance with current developmentsin science curricula and teaching methodology, and specializedpreparation for teaching specific units in the OASTPP classrooms.Relevant readings, group discussions, science activities, and projectsare included in the contract.Team Teaching Experience. Students work together on teaching

teams of three or four members. Each team is responsible fordeveloping and conducting at least one science unit. A learning-centeris organized for the unit in one of the open area classrooms, andthe student teaching team conducts its unit with a group of children.Occasional video-tapes are made of unit activities. Science unitlearning-centers generaly make available multiple individualized learn-ing pathways for children. The teaching team is also responsible fororganization of all unit-related "software" and "hardware," diagnosticevaluation of the children’s learning, and self-evaluation of the team’sinstructional performance. Science centers typically include job cards,reading material, apparatus for experiments, and audio-tutorial learningpackages. The development and implementation of the science unitlearning center is considered as the major science methods courseproject for the team members.

Science Workshop Sessions. Periodic "core" workshops are provid-ed for the entire methods course group. Workshops are intendedto involve the students in a "sciencing," investigative mode of learningsimilar in style to the open inquiry approaches encouraged in current

380 School Science and Mathematics

elementary science programs. The primary aim of these sessions isto develop positive attitudes toward science teaching and an activity-oriented approach to science learning.

Integration of Traditional Subjects. Learning-centers devised bythe student teams frequently fuse different subject areas. For example,art, music, and science might be merged in a unit on "Energy,"or social studies and science blended in "Environments."

Study of Children’s Thinking. OASTPP students use a portion ofthe time allotted to the science methods course to administer Piagetian-type tasks to individual children. Students report gaining a great dealof insight into child thought from this kind of experience, and theinformation gained concerning the children is used in designing scienceunits.4

THE FUTURE OF THE PROJECT

The first year of the OASTPP has largely been a developmentalone, intended chiefly to start the program operating, develop adminis-trative machinery, organize methods courses, and determine the initialfeelings about the approach of all the many individuals involved.No rigorous experimental design has been imposed upon the projectin its embryonic stages. Opinionnaires administered to the pilot groupof students indicate they believe it far superior to the standard fifthyear education program in which they would otherwise have partici-pated.

Plans for subsequent phases of the project include random selectionof students to comprise experimental and comparison groups. Instru-ments are being prepared to measure such variables as student attitudes,teaming abilities, personality characteristics, and teaching perfor-mance. Possible longitudinal studies involving the follow-up ofOASTPP students as they proceed into their first year of employmentas teachers are also being considered.Although it appears that somewhat different personality traits,

teaching skills, and attitudes may be requisite to successful openarea teaching, there is sparse research evidence available indicatingwhat type of training program effectively develops these attributesin a prospective teacher. Hopefully, the OASTPP may provide someof the needed information.

4. McCormack, Alan J. and Bybee, Rodger W., "Piaget and the Training of Elementary Science Teachers:

Theory into Practice," Science Education, LV (Fall, 1971), 233-40.