\u201cBest practices” is a bad way of looking at teaching. How can we frame teaching practices more productively to encourage experimentation and innovation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve got a gripe I\u2019d like to share. My hope is that my griping might help you consider your teaching practices in a new light. Here goes: I hate the phrase \u201cbest practices.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My background includes two industries \u2013 marketing and teaching \u2013 where this phrase is unavoidable. Best practices pop up in virtually every presentation, workshop, article, and more. Every time it happens, it feels intellectually lazy to me. \u201cBest practices\u201d ignores the complexity, nuance, and interconnectedness of ideas and practices in favor of a monolithic concept of what works and what doesn\u2019t work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reality is that \u201cbest practices\u201d fail all the time<\/em>. A \u201cbest practice\u201d for holding a class discussion may work on one section and completely flop on another. These are not necessarily flaws with the practices, but flaws in the framing of the idea that there are \u201cbest\u201d practices and that following them will lead you to a better place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Similarly, \u201cworst practices\u201d work all the time<\/em>. When I managed social media ads for a living, we had one campaign with an image of a stick figure for the ad. It was, frankly, a terribly constructed image that I would never<\/em> recommend anyone run as an ad. Over several years, it was our best-performing ad in the entire campaign, which included dozens of \u201cbetter\u201d ads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I have many gripes with \u201cbest practices,\u201d so here are 5 reasons I dislike the phrase. Stick around, since I won\u2019t just<\/em> be griping \u2013 I\u2019ll also share alternative ways to frame \u201cbest practices\u201d and suggestions for what to do when you find yourself in yet another \u201cbest practices\u201d presentation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Context is absolutely key to understanding whether or not something will work. Even the most ironclad \u201cbest practice\u201d can easily be broken by transplanting it to a new context. Every context in teaching is aggressively <\/em>different \u2013 the moment in time, the specific group of students, the landscape of higher ed, the social issues of the time, and so on. This is often contained in the old teaching adage that \u201cevery class has its own personality.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a larger issue at play here in which research and scholarship is universalized out of its original context. A study of two psychology courses might find that a particular strategy increases student engagements, but when that strategy is discussed, the context of the original courses and students is lost. I engaged with this in my previous article, \u201cThere Is No Perfect Length for Instructional Videos<\/a>,\u201d in which I highlighted that much of the advice for video length comes from a single study from massive open online courses (MOOCs). <\/p>\n\n\n\n The previous point may suggest shifting from \u201cbest practices\u201d to \u201cbest practices for this specific audience and context.\u201d This doesn\u2019t work, though, because it presumes a single conception of what is best for everyone in an audience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n5 Ways \u201cBest Practices\u201d Misses the Mark <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
#1 \u2013 It Ignores Context <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
#2 \u2013 It Presumes a Universal \u201cBest\u201d for Everyone <\/h3>\n\n\n\n