Definition
In educational science there is no precise definition for open teaching. As a rule, it is understood that the learning process is completely shaped and determined by the students themselves. It is not a traditional frontal teaching, instead the teacher stays more in the background and supports the students in self-organized learning.
This means that the students work on the content themselves, according to their individual interests and abilities. In this way, a strong orientation of the lessons towards the student is guaranteed. In addition, the student can choose from a selection of learning materials, the learning material that corresponds to his learning type.
So if students learn particularly well about hearing, the learning material is available to them in a listening version. This creates optimal learning conditions for the student. In summary, it can be said that open instruction is a form of instruction in which each student can freely choose his or her learning time, location and content.
It is up to the student to decide which method he or she uses and whether this takes place in individual or group work. Falko Peschel (*20. 01.
1965), a German teacher and educator, defined the principle of open instruction and shaped it in a special way. At the center of open instruction is student centricity, i.e. self-determined learning by the students, whereby they themselves decide what they want to learn, when, how, where and with whom. At Peschel, the child is freed from the teacher’s material specifications; instead, the materials and the teacher must adapt to the child.
As a basis for determining the degree of openness in teaching, he names five dimensions, each of which can be specified in six levels.
- The first dimension is organizational openness. Here the question can be asked whether the student determines the framework conditions of learning himself, i.e. the time, place or social form.
- The next dimension, methodological openness, indicates whether the student is allowed to determine the learning path himself.
- In the dimension of openness of content, it is assessed whether the learning material within the curriculum is open.
- The dimension of social openness determines the openness of social interaction. This involves decision-making with regard to classroom management, the entire teaching process, lesson planning, and the concrete teaching process.
- The last dimension is that of personal openness. The focus is on the relationships between teachers and students and between the children themselves.
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