The beliefs of teachers with respect to open education are discussed. The point is made that a teacher who expresses a desire to move toward an open classroom environment must first come to trust beliefs and values that may be alien to her own beliefs and must learn to value the following ideas: (1) The life of a child in school is not a preparation for the future; to live like a child is the best preparation; (2) Knowledge is a personal synthesis of one's own experiences and learning proceeds along many intersecting paths; and (3) There is no set body of knowledge that must be transmitted to all. In order to clarify some of the beliefs toward an open approach to teaching, the following steps are recommended: (1) an interview with teachers intended to determine their beliefs about certain aspects of teaching behavior, (2) systematic observation of teaching behavior within the natural school environment, and (3) a synthesis of the interview data with the observation data in order to make some inferences concerning the relationship between what teachers say and what they do. (Author/CK)