Open education is defined operationally in terms of the Roland Barths (1971) open education scale plus Bob Young's curriculum scale based upon Basil Bernstein's classification of educational knowledge (collected versus integrated codes). Young's scale on the organization of curriculum knowledge is considered to make explicit ideas partially implicit in the Barth Scale as well as adding a new dimension. This definition of open education has three unifying closely related principles: (i) respect for students as persons; ( ii) a view of knowledge being in part a personal construct; (iii) the extent by which the contents of the curriculum stand in open relation to each other. The limitations of the study and its relevance to ACT schools are stated, and it was indicated from a survey conducted that there is a need to further develop the Barth - Young scale. The literature on open education is reviewed and criticism is examined. The most important writers on open education influencing the development of the authors ideas were Roland Barth, Tinsley Beck, Basil Bernstein, Hugh Petrie, Herbert Walberg and Susan Christie Thomas, and Bob Young.