Dr.
Matthew Tincani
Special Education Faculty
College of Education
University
of Nevada, Las Vega
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Effects
of Faster- and Slower- Paced Instruction on the Academic
and Behavioral Performance of Students with Emotional
and Behavioral Disorders
Effective instruction is critical to the success of students
with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) in urban
settings. Instructional pacing is an important but often
unrecognized dimension of effective instruction. Traditional
wisdom and limited research suggest that teachers should
slow down the pace of their lessons (Rowe, 1974). Students
with special needs, including those with EBD, may especially
need extra time to process lesson content. However, some
research refutes the traditional thinking on instructional
pacing (Darch & Gersten, 1985; Carnine, 1976). These
studies indicate that speeding up the pace of instruction
may improve response accuracy and decrease off-task behavior
for students with behavioral problems. The proposed study
is a systematic replication of previous research on instructional
pacing. Using a single-subject research design, this
study will compare faster- and slower- paced teaching
on the academic participation, response accuracy, and
off-task behavior of students with EBD. Specifically,
the study will examine the effects of shorter versus
longer wait-time durations on students’ responses
to simple and complex questions during group lessons.
Results of this study will extend previous research on
instructional pacing, and may help teachers of students
with EBD decide how to pace their academic lessons. |
