Pace and Progression
Schools in Calgary take different approaches to aligning teaching methods and students In 2001, Harry R. Lewis, then dean of Harvard College, sent a letter to Harvard undergraduates entitled, “Slow Down: Getting more out of Harvard by doing less.” In it, he advised students to concentrate on the quality of their college experience, not the quantity of it. That was almost 10 years ago, but as the International Slow Food Movement, also favouring quality over quantity, gains momentum, more discussion has begun about slow education.
Finding the right pace for learning
Tool Kit on Teaching and Assessing Students With Disabilities: Technical Assistance Products
Printer Friendly Version (pdf, 135K) Lynn S. Fuchs and Douglas FuchsTeachers can use time management in the classroom to optimize learning opportunities for students. When we think of the concept 'time' with regard to learning we often think of pace, in other words, moving quickly through the planned learning activities. But it's easy to think that pace means having to rush through an activity, which sometimes can be a mistake.
Time management in the classroom
Good planning will enable you to stretch pupils without exhausting yourself, says Jo Smith A headteacher once described a lesson of mine he observed as having ‘unrelenting pace’. I’m not sure whether this was a compliment about a fast-moving, productive lesson in which my pupils were asked to work hard with unbroken concentration, or a criticism of the lesson providing too few opportunities for my pupils to reflect and ponder on the skills I was teaching them. For me, pace has always been an important component of a successful lesson, particularly with able or gifted groups of high-achieving students who are more than able to cope with 50 minutes of rigorous challenge, who thrive on the demands of a lesson that asks them to move quickly through exposition and review to get to new learning points and spend time developing and extending new learning.
