Approaching the Concepts of ‘Educational Achievement’ and ‘Best Practice’: Delphi Methodology as a Tool for Building Consensus

Abstract

This article presents the results of applying the Delphi technique to build a consensus around the concepts of ‘educational achievement’ and ‘best practice’ in compulsory education. After defining their key informants, including different groups of educational agents (teachers, families, students, academics and experts), the authors developed two different questionnaires. The first questionnaire aimed to gather the informants' opinions and the second was developed on the basis of the results of the first in an attempt to to reach the desired degree of consensus. Two rounds of consultation were enough to allow the authors to indicate tendencies and points of debate regarding what is meant by educational achievement and best school practice.