Les aires ouvertes, un défi pour l’éducateur

Abstract

Open-concept schools are a recent phenomenon in the Quebec school system. The result of rapid expansion, several schools have experienced considerable problems, and have even returned to the traditional closed concept. Among the questions arising from this type of school, two warrant attention here: (1) the discovery of the potential of an open educational environment and its management; (2) the search for traits characteristic of a teacher involved in the experiment. To approach the problem one must make a clear distinction between the open architecture in itself and the concept perceived as support to the curriculum. For this purpose, an analysis of three components of the open educational context, namely, space, the timetable and the grouping of students, sheds light on the interesting possibilities of the open concept. However, the search for teacher traits remains the crux of the problem. The manner of instituting these three components serves as the basis for sketching the teacher’s profile and in this way provides an element of response to the challenge of the open concept schools.