Do you believe there is a universal best teaching practice?

Question

Keeping in mind that there are several different types of teaching practices, such as lecturing, group activities, skill practice, technology enhanced instruction, group and individual projects and more, do you believe there is a universal best teaching practice?

Answer 1

Bless you. The question that freezes the heart of every teaching workshop presenter you've ever seen.

No--no such thing. As long as teachers have their individual strengths and weaknesses as well as students, there cannot be all the time. There, are however, certain practices that seem generally more effective than others statistically. Teacher-student interaction always works better than ignoring them completely (duh!). I personally think projects are the ideal way of assessing competence--but not for certain children. Some peoples' styles just don't work with certain things. Studnets' learning styles differ, as do teachers' comfort with teaching styles.

I really dislike all these broad assumptions that presume there is a quick fix to our schools.

Answer 2

NO! Any good teacher will adapt to the class he/she is teaching at the time as well as to the subject being taught.

Some things need to be done by lecture (although there is no need to be boring) and some are best taught by any number of the things you listed.

Answer 3

No there isn't. Everyone is a unique individual with different experiences and different ways of learning new information. What works for one person does not necessarily work for another. As the old saying goes...you can please some of the people most of the time and most of the people some of the time. But you can't please everyone all of the time.

Answer 4

Incorporate as many methods as possible to account for all learning styles and love and respect your students.