An Evaluation of the Discovery Time Programme.

Abstract

This article describes the Discovery Time programme, a largely child-directed developmental programme, and discusses it in relation to the sociocultural approach to learning. It considers the effects of the programme on the development of children's oral language and cooperativesocial skills in a Year 1 classroom. Survey information gathered by the teacher indicated that the language and social skills of the children increased over a 10 week period. The review of the discovery time programme also considered information through interviews with key participants, observations of the programme in action and review of the child participants' stories and pictures. This additional information indicated that discovery time provided a positive learning environment and enjoyable experiences for the children, teacher and school community. The article concludes with suggestions for further developments of the programmewithin the school.