Best Practice – Really?
Posted on October 5, 2008
Filed under Conferences, Learning 2.008 Shanghai, session notes, twitter and tagged china, conference, learn2cn, microblogging, twitter
What is Best Practice? Is there really such a thing? Is best practice for me the same as best practice for you? Is Best Practice just a phrase used to help publishers sell books?
One of the unconference sessions I went to at the Learning 2.008 conference in Shanghai was a discussion on Best Practice and if there really is such a thing. I don’t have all the answers of course, just plenty more questions!
For me, best practice (if one needs to use that term) would be something that takes my teaching and my students learning further. Something that pushes boundaries because for me, that is one of the best things you can do in a classroom. Much of the description that came out of this session about what ‘best practice’ actually is to me sounded like common sense teaching. Saying that of course, then just begs the question as to what common sense teaching actually is. So, I’m not sure if I should use that phrase. What do you think? It’s not a simple conversation to have!
‘Best practice’ is not going to look the same for everyone, as we all have different classrooms and kids, different ideas and different curriculum. Best practice then has to be the thing that is then best for those particular students in that particular context. How then can you write book saying what it is?
There is value, however, in learning for others who have done the trials and found methods that work successfully all or most of the time. Is this not best practice?
One thing we have to be careful of is getting all caught up in labeling things and saying that one thing or way is better than another. It is so easy for everyone to make judgments of others and say that things aren’t up to standard, or best practice. In order to be able to implement a form of best practice effectively, you have to have a good relationship with your students and be able to engage them or the rest is a waste of time.
Have I missed the point? What is best practice for you?
My tweets from the session – please read from the bottom up!
best practice as something that engenders the values and competenciesthat are valued by society (great comment from participant to end on!)01:30 PM September 20, 2008
students beyond what we are doing – something innovative – thoughts?01:29 PM September 20, 2008
it has to be very fluid or it very quickly becomes outdated01:22 PM September 20, 2008from twhirl
@nzchrissy yes it has to be. if you don’t know your kids, how can you engage them properly in order to use ‘best practice?’
@israelgreg yes, I think so. does it really matter as long as it is making positive differences for our kids?
best practice definitions up to the teacher – thoughts?01:11 PM September 20, 2008
@mdeborde way too many variables, which is why I don’t think there really could a be one ‘best practice’
best practice is whatever engages the student – thoughts?
best practice being about what is best for the child in the particular context
if you are going to call something ‘best practice’ then I would want it to go beyond common sense teaching
if there has to be best practice, then for me it is what is going to
take my classroom and my students forward with new skills, experiences
is there really such a thing as best practice?
what is best practice?12:49 PM September 20, 2008
Flickr image: contactjuggling
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I love the way you’ve incorporated your Tweets into your blogpost — it’s like watching the evolution of the post.
And yes, I agree. Just like diets and success manuals, there is not a “best practice” answer to fit all learning environments. : )
Quite agree that best practice defies a definition of specific modes and methods. I wonder whether you might think that ‘effective practice’ would be a better term? We are then looking for things that are effective in supporting our learners in their learning. This allows for changing circumstances (different cohorts, learning styles, times of day, weather …) to be accounted for through changes to the teaching style, aims, expectations, etc.
In terms of the language used, best also infers that there are some who are not the best. What if we are all equally good? Also, everyone could have very poor practice but someone is still the best of the (bad) bunch.
I apologize ahead of time for writing too much. I’ve been thinking about this since you brought it up.
I think the question is whether the term “best practice” is useful. If I hear you correctly, the point of the unconference was to call into question “best” and to establish what that might be at this time. However, you’re saying that their examples were wanting. Is that correct?
I like that you make the point that best can only be measured situation by situation. I think that is the essence of best practices- the ability to perceive, estimate or measure the potential of any our students and to broker an appropriate challenge that will take them to the next level, again for any student, in different situations.
Another way to look at this is how commonsense the social science can seem. Take for example the “rational actor” model in economics. It’s obnoxiously simple but it fundamental to more complicated situations and analysis, tools for assessment and curriculum design. Then again economists we can guess what the most profitable route is, but in the marketplace there is chaos. Real business have to figure out what works best in each situation using economic principles. It’s an imperfect metaphor, but it’ll have to do…
I think the term is useful. We don’t say teaching by principles or values because that language is too relativistic or moralistic. And we don’t claim to have science on our side. Theorems of education sounds fixed compared to the reality of classroom chaos. Best practices suggests “Praxis” or natural law. It says, these practices are in harmony with what we know. So in that way the language is useful and measurable according to experimentation. Therefore a best practice can be falsified by psychological experimentation.
Hi Jess,
Perhaps the choice of words is not ideal and, as Nigel suggests above, a rewording is necessary. The term best practice, like you say, works well at the personal level whereas effective practice, although it works better at a general level, to my mind it implies a bench-mark or minimum standard and not an aspiration or goal which is, after all, what I think the session you attended was trying to convey.
Here in the UK the term good practice is frequently used to describe that practice to which we should all aspire, and perhaps then we can define best practice as the value added that each teacher brings into his or her own teaching that surpasses what is defined as good or effective practice.
José
@KerryJ – thanks Kerry. I thought I better include the tweets to show the real conversation that started it all.
@Nigel I agree, ‘effective practice’ is a much better term. Like you said, ‘best’ implies that some aren’t as good, and this is not usually a fair assumption to make I don’t think. Effective practice is much better as then I think might even demand more detail as to what exactly is effective for a particular cohort, rather than just applying one ‘best’ solution. Much more room for variety there which is something we will always have as teachers.
@javabeanboy Yes, I think I did mean that some of the examples left me wanting, although the consensus of the whole group was that best practice was a term that needed to be used warily. I still did get the feeling however, that there were some who were fine with using the term best practice and the explanations of that to me seemed like things that should be done anyway (structured work, scaffolding, higher order thinking etc) and when I think of best practice I think of a bit more than that. But, I’m not sure if I’m being fair on that point.
I agree completely with what you said about the essence of best practices being the ability to perceive what our students need and act accordingly. I’m not sure how it can be much more than that to be honest. As soon as you get to be more descriptive about a practice that is to be applied generally, surely it begins to lose touch with any particular situation that it is applied to. Not to say that ‘best practices’ don’t provide good ideas or frameworks.
@Jose I see what you are saying about ‘best practice’ being something we should aim for, as something more than ‘effective practice’ perhaps being a minimum. I think that is one of the main things that I was thinking when I was part of this session. The examples that were being given for best practice were all what I would term ‘effective practice’ as to me, as it seems to be to you, ‘best practice’ is something that really should add much more value to the effective teaching that is already happening.I think that is the crux of the issue that I have with the term.