Quality In The Classroom
TQMPAPERPracticing Continuous Improvement in the Classroom
An Individual Journey Toward Teaching Excellence
Sid Sytsma, Professor of Statistics and Quantitative Methods
College of Business - Ferris State University
Most faculty members who have heard about Total Quality Management (TQM) or
Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) probably understand it to be some Japanese
management technique used by businesses to get better quality products. Some may
even know that it involves meeting customer needs. Probably very few college
faculty members, other than those directly involved in teaching CQI, have had
the opportunity to learn CQI philosophy and methodology and the tremendous
implications CQI has for improving virtually any process, including the
teaching/learning process. For the purposes of this paper, we will use the terms
TQM and CQI interchangeably.
The aims of this paper are
to provide a historical perspective on the quality movement,
to explain what the philosophy and practices of continuous improvement are all
about,
to describe areas in which universities have successfully adopted continuous
improvement models,
to explore the concept of "the customer" in the context of higher education,
to suggest ways of utilizing a continuous improvement philosophy to improve
classroom teaching and student learning, and
to suggest ways that a university can support individual faculty in this
effort.
The Quality Movement -- A Historical Perspective
The concept of quality has been with us since the beginning of time. As early as
the creation of the world described in the Bible in Genesis, God pronounced his
creation "good"-- e.g., acceptable quality. Artisans' and craftsmen's skills and
the quality of their work are...
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