Instructional Pace

Instructional pace is the speed with which you cover content during the time allotted to a content area. It is no simple matter to maintain an appropriate instructional pace. If your pace is too fast, too many students will be left behind. You will then be moving on to new material for which these students have not mastered prerequisite skills. If your pace is too slow, many students will be become bored and disinterested. You will spend too much time repeating information rather than moving on to new information.
It is a fact of teaching life that students do not learn at the same pace. A good strategy is to move on when a certain percentage of students have mastered the concepts and skills you are teaching. Research suggests that you should move on when approximately 80 percent of your students have demonstrated mastery. For the other 20 percent, you should provide, to the extent possible, individual help and small-group instruction.