What is best practice?
Dec 13th, 2008 by Cathy Jo Nelson
I was asked yesterday to define beast practice in terms of technology. I thought I would stumble on this question. Best practice is one of those words in educational circles that has quite literally been over used. So over used in fact that no one can really agree what defines best practice. And I confess, I use it at times too.
My response? Best practice is when students are engaged, excited and involved in their learning. Technology may be a component, but learning is the drinving force. Best practice means my kids come to class knowing they will have some say in our activities, that the conversations will engage them, and that the learning will be not be irrelevant. They know that there will be a real audience beyond the four walls of the classroom a lot of times, and our class will not be irrelevant like so many other classes the go — a place where they sit in desks in rows, read, do worksheets, takes tests and sit quietly waiting for the expert teacher to give more directions.
So how would you define “best practice?”
