Psychophysiological characteristics and school performance of children in open and traditional classrooms

98 children in 3 open and 3 traditional 1st-grade classrooms were observed and tested on physiological and performance measures (e.g., Star and Pyramid Mazes) at the beginning and end of their 1st yr of school. Skin conductance level and mean pulse rate were used to categorize subgroups as either high or low in physiological arousal level. It was predicted that the greater amount of external stimulation in an open classroom would provide a more suitable learning environment for low-arousal Ss in that their needs for stimulation would be satisfied and their behavioral manifestations of an arousal deficit would be reduced; the opposite was expected for high-arousal Ss. ANOVAs revealed that performance (e.g., visual discrimination scores) of high-arousal Ss in open classrooms decreased over time in contrast to all other S subgroups. (14 ref)