This paper reports on alternative programs to current educational practice as a means of overcoming some institutional barriers to change. The program reported on the Tucson Early Education Model, a comprehensive educational program which encompasses all of the criterial attributes of the open classroom as specified in the introduction to this paper. Specifically, this paper specifies how certain psychological principles may be used to provide an effective learning environment for young children. In the natural environment children acquire many complex skills, largely through observational learning. The teacher who is aware of the ways in which modeling influences children, and of the conditions which facilitate the effects of modeling, is in a position to influence the growth of children in a very positive and natural way. Another way in which the environment can teach is by providing cues, i.e., objects or events in the environment which, as the child learns to discriminate them, signal appropriate behavior. A third characteristic of an effective learning environment is that it reinforces children for their purposeful and constructive behavior. An important assumption in the program is that responsibility for learning must in the final analysis rest with the student. (CK)