Episode 98: Fake Plastic Trees: Obsolete “best practice” in education

Matt’s Notes

Hey there! Thanks for joining us, as we continue our rapidly-dwindling countdown to the triple digits of this EnT! At the risk of coming off oxymoronic, all best practices in any area of endeavor will at some point be rendered obsolete! Perhaps this is as plain as the nose on your no doubt good-looking face! We, however, beg to differ, as is our wont, and we do get into the digital weeds here a bit! Please check it out, below!

We’ve done our best with what we have to make this video something you’d want to have! At least for a bit! #ednontech

This audio is authentically the most impressive we’re capable of at this exact moment in time! #ednontech

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Doug’s Notes

Obsolete “best practice” in education

References to best practice began to appear in the special education literature in the early 1980s and have become more pervasive with each passing year.

Clearly, in the span of 3 years the definition shifted from the use of age appropriate skills across settings, to strategies and methods, to delivery of instruction, to quality-of-life outcomes. Implicitly, best practice wavered from the student (skills needed) to the instruction (method) and back to the student (outcomes produced).

Peters, M. T., & Heron, T. E. (1993). When the best is not good enough: An examination of best practice. The journal of special education, 26(4), 371-385.

Best practices in teaching should help physicians meet these challenges with new skills that enable them to improve communication and be more effective agents of change.

Blackburn, G. L. (2005). Teaching, learning, doing: best practices in education–. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 82(1), 218S-221S.

“Best practices seemingly offer clear, crisp, logical and actionable ideas on how to deal with inherently uncertain questions.” In reality, however, the concept presents a series of problems relating to creation, implementation, and success

No Objective Goals
No Objective Standards
No Methodology
Conflicting, Confusing, or Wrong Best Practices

Robbins, I. P. (2009). Best practices on best practices: Legal education and beyond. Clinical L. Rev., 16, 269.

Too often we seek the most up-to-date material at the expense of the monumental works that defined a discipline … We must, of course, stay up-to-date on current trends in our field. However, we must also remember that the insights of tomorrow are dependent on the knowledge of the past.

Lunceford, B. (2009). In defense of teaching” outdated” material. ETC: A Review of General Semantics, 66(3), 263-268.

Is it possible that what was done in the past to prepare teachers is still viable today?

Teixidó, M. Pedagogy and 21st century digital technology: teaching during a pandemic and improving an outdated model. Journal of the World Federation of Associations of Teacher Education, 4(1), 88.