Well I don't know what's the best way.

But when I must learn a song, the first thing I do is put it on and start drumming along with it. While doing this a lot you automaticly hear what you are drumming the wrong way.

But mostly I play songs iv'e listened a lot before, then you know about 80% or more of the rhytms. For Dream Theater etc. this is not the point, because those drummers use about 30 chops in 1 song.

But I write nothing down for my band. We play pop and rock, those songs have a basic structure. On those songs my way of practicing works fine. It's the most lousy way, and it's enough for those basic songs (wich you hear on radio and tv etc.. )

But I know for sure other people have better practicing methods for "not so basic songs".  For songs with a large variety of chops I just listen to the songs enough without drumming along, and after that I try to drum with it. It's actually a quite logical method I guess.

Transcribe to chart, notate the hip fills you wanna keep, play the thing thru a couple of times to check your chart then nail it at band practice

Works everytime.

Say it takes you 1/2 hour to make a decent chart, you will spend at least that long "learning" the darn tune.

After you have your chart it will make the tune much easier to memorize

Some songs are easier to learn than others and don't require a chart...some do.

What felix said is fantastic.  I, for one, am a very visual thinker and it helps to chart a song in my own shorthand so I can have it all in front of me.  
If you've never made a chart and want to learn how, or just get another perpective, check out Gregg Bissonette's video "Playing, Reading and Soloing With a Band".  It's also avaiable as a book/CD.

Don't know if it's the best way but I just listen to the song, visualize in my head what is being played and then play along.  I then fix the parts that aren't right by hearing where what I'm playing is not matching what I'm hearing.

Some songs are ridiculously easy and can almost be played without actually learning them except for where the stops and breaks are.

Other songs are very complicated and take hours to learn.  I usually gravitate toward this type of song.  I like to be challenged.  I play a lot of Rush and Dream Theater type stuff.  I used to also play a lot of progressive stuff from the 70's by bands that not very many have ever heard of.  Whatever floats your boat.

I almost never write anything out.  I have on occasion where I either had to learn a lot of songs in a very short period of time or if a section was so complicated to my ears that I just couldn't get the pattern until I wrote it out and saw it.

Figure it out in my head, then work out the tricky parts before hand, then play along to it. I have stereo isolation headphones which are great, and a cheap mp3 player I use occiasionaly if I dont have the song on a CD. I need to get the patience to chart

Jeff