I attended a middle school that housed all of 7th and 8th grade within a single open classroom. It was a large, cavernous room that held almost two dozen classes only separated by a 4ft high wall. Hundreds of students were within earshot of each other. In the picture above, take a look at the ceiling lights and you can get a sense of how far back it goes.
As far as I can tell, these open classrooms1 started taking off in the 70s and were dying off by the early 90s. I wonder what choices led to this design. Was it based on some educational theory or was it just cost effective? Either way, why did it go out of fashion? Were there lessons learned that can be applied to today’s debate about open office plans?