Action Plan: Digging In

I was digging around tonight looking for some information on “best practices for sharing best practices or innovative practices” (as much as the term “best practice” doesn’t completely sit right with me). One of the great things about this topic is that it isn’t a problem solely faced by the educational industry so there are many sources of information out there from the medical and business worlds that can be adapted to a more educational scenario.

Some of the interesting ideas around the concept that I found were:

1 – The average amount of time that it takes for best practices to wind their way through an organization is 2 years (http://hbr.org/product/best-practices-for-best-practice-sharing/an/B0901C-PDF-ENG)

2 – Having a way to share best practice is really a best practice in itself (http://www.sdtimes.com/blog/post/2011/01/31/Best-Practices.aspx)

3 – Including the rational for why the selection is best practice in an explicit way is critical to adaptation (http://www.celt.mmu.ac.uk/ltia/issue9/fazey.shtml)

4. The audience needs to see this example as a realistic and achievable  (http://www.celt.mmu.ac.uk/ltia/issue9/fazey.shtml)

5 – All learners need continual support when trying new skills, even teachers! Teachers need to know where they can go to find support and seek assistance when they are trying new things and as we say in my class “stretching their brains”.

In brainstorming possible ways to encourage more sharing of best practices or innovative practices in my division/department I remembered some experience I had this summer involving Japanese Lesson Study and Critical Friends Groups. I think my next step will be to investigate how these could be useful in examining the sharing of best practice and what the critical elements are that need to be included.

1 thought on “Action Plan: Digging In

  1. Marcie,
    I am really interested in your findings because we are looking for ways to share all our work in Cohort 21 and maybe your research could help us create that structure!

    Jen Bibby and I did some geat work together a few years back using the lesson study approach, so I am also interested in how you will apply that to your findings .

    Thanks,
    garth.

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