ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the results of systematic observations in the project schools. In the course of the project, the authors carried out two different types of observation, one describing how the children spent their school day and one describing the children's classroom behaviour. Observations commenced for each child from the moment they arrived at school at the beginning of the day, and continued until the children were dismissed by the class teacher at the end of the day. Overall, 64" of classroom working time was spent in 3R (reading, writing, and maths) activities. Children spent 17" of classroom working time in maths, 20" in writing, and 27" in language activities, such as reading, discussion and story times. Continuous full-day observations carried out when children were in their third year at infant school showed that somewhat less than half the school day was devoted to learning activities in the classroom. Only 4" of the day was spent in reading.
