Quality in the classroom
...he process is then investigated to determine the root cause of the "out of control" condition. When the root cause of the problem is determined, a strategy is identified to correct it. The investigation and subsequent correction strategy is frequently a team process and one or more of the TQM process improvement tools are used to identify the root cause. Hence, the emphasis on teamwork and training in process improvement methodology. It is management's responsibility to reduce common cause or system variation as well as special cause variation. This is done through process improvement techniques, investing in new technology, or reengineering the process to have fewer steps and therefore less variation. Management wants as little total variation in a process as possible--both common cause and special cause variation. Reduced variation makes the process more predictable with process output closer to the desired or nominal value. The desire for absolutely minimal variation mandates working toward the goal of reduced process variation. The PDCA cycle, repeated many times, provides the mechanism for accomplishing continuing variation reduction or continuous improvement. Customer Focus A major tenet of TQM/CQI philosophy is the emphasis on the customer. This customer focus occurs because customers define what quality is in a product or service. External customers are those who buy or consume the final product. Internal customers are those in the production system who depend on others and other processes upstream from them. If Process A produces material for Process B, then Process B is an internal customer of Process A. If A's quality declines, it most certainly will affect B's quality. Employee Issues A final principle of TQM/CQI is the emphasis on the value of the employee. For continuous improvement to work, people must work together in teams and they must know how to solve problems and make decisions. They are empowered to make process-related decisions because they are closest to the process and know it best. This means employees need new skills--team-leading skills, problem-solving skills, decision-making skills, and personal interaction skills. This requires a significant continuing investment in education and training. Employees with these skills are valuable and are treated as such--with the respect and dignity commensurate with being a highly valued part of the organization. College and University Adoption of Continuous Improvement Models Many colleges and universities across the United States have adopted or are adopting the philosophy of continuous improvement in portions of their operations. This includes community colleges, for-profit post-secondary institutions, four-year colleges, and large public and private universities. In Michigan, these include the University of Michigan, Wayne State University, and Western Michigan University. All have made major commitments and are beginning to see improvements in processes across their campuses. Several other colleges and universities are just beginning the process. In these institutions, virtually all of the TQM/CQI activities are taking place in areas within "business" types of processes. Activities such as parking services, financial aid, registration, telecommunications operations, and dining services are typical initial process improvement targets. In all of these, clearly the student is the primary external customer, and the fundamental aim of the quality improvement process is to improve the quality of service and product to the primary customer. Of course many other processes are being improved as well, such as administrative payroll or staff parking. Focusing on processes such as these only indirectly impact the student. However, improvements in these areas affect the general quality of life on the campus, the morale of the staff, the culture of the university, and consequently the attitudes of the people in the organization toward their student customers. These organizations have made a conscious and public decision to get better and better at what they do and how they treat people. They have made a decision to change from their existing cultures to a culture in which people are valued. Change has become a way of life, processes are analyzed and reengineered, process performance is measured regularly, and the resulting quality gains are celebrated. The public celebration of the quality gains made is an important ingredient in moving the university culture toward one that embraces the continuous improvement philosophy. The quality improvement gains documented in many of these early attempts at process improvement in these universities are in some cases extremely large. When one talks to the process improvement teams, they are genuinely excited about what they have accomplished and are eager to share their experiences with others. The excitement generated in many of these organizations is contagious and becomes a major factor in improving the culture. Given both the commitment of many universities to continuous improvement and their stated missions focusing on teaching and learning, one would expect that organized attempts to improve the teaching/learning process would abound. Unfortunately, this does not appear to be true. Only a very small proportion of articles in the TQM/CQI literature in higher education are concerned with the application of continuous improvement models to the teaching/learning process. The Concept of the Customer in Higher Education Universities have a variety of customers. One definition of customer is that of "a buyer of a product or service." Students take classes, consume meals, sleep in residence halls, buy books and use many services for which they pay tuition and fees. The student certainly fits this definition of the word customer. The businesses and professions that employ the graduates are also customers, as is the general public. Universities have an almost infinite variety of internal customers as well. As we have seen, internal customers of a service are those individuals or entities whose product or service depends on that service. For example, the payroll department is a customer of the computer center because without the computer and the computer center the payroll does not get produced. The dean's office is a customer of the accounting department because the dean's office needs timely, accurate financial information to make appropriate decisions. Most frequently, external customers have the freedom to choose their supplier, and in fact, do so. This is, for the most part, not true for internal customers. They are stuck. They must use their service provider, because it is their only option. This lack of competition frequently breeds contempt for internal customers. When one begins to treat a person or entity as an external customer, one's attitude toward that person or entity changes. A customer is important. A customer is vital to the survival of the organization. The customer can choose another supplier if the quality of the service or the product is inferior or deteriorates. One of the most important aspects of the TQM/CQI-focused organization is that departments begin to treat other departments as important customers by trying to meet the customer's needs and time schedules. This simple concept has an absolutely revolutionary effect on the relationships that exist within a traditional organization. The idea of the student being the customer of a professor is a concept that takes many faculty members a while to assimilate. Certainly the student/faculty relationship is obviously far more complex than that of a simple customer-supplier relationship. Yet, clearly one dimension of this relationship involves the student as customer. The student is buying the professor's course and has the unmistakable right to expect certain things for his/her money: relevant course content, fairness, access, expertise, and a reasonable learning situation. If a faculty member views the student as a customer, it is likely that the faculty member will become more tolerant, more interested in implementing ways to improve the learning process, more accessible, and more student-friendly. Many faculty members say that the student is not the customer, but is the product. However, upon closer review, it becomes evident that the student is not the product; the product is the learning of the students. Learning is a team effort between the professor and the student. Jointly, they produce a product--the learning of the student. Both parties are responsible participants in that process. Utilizing a Continuous Improvement Philosophy to Improve Classroom Teaching and Student Learning Clearly, the teaching and learning that take place within a course is a process, albeit a complex one. The product of the process is the learning of the student (Tribus,undated). Primary team members in the process are the professor and the student. Many other team members also exist in this complex system, including librarians, other faculty members, tutors, lab assistants, and other students. The businesses, industries, and professions served are also team members because they help to identify relevant course content. Maintenance and custodial personnel are team members because they have a direct effect on the quality of the learning environment. The professor, based on his/her experience and expertise, develops the plan for learning and a process that results in student mastery of the course material. When we apply modern SPC analysis to student performance data derived from a typical college course, we find enormous variation compared to most manufacturing processes. The situation is similar to what existed in manufacturing in the pre-Shewhart days. Quality is obtained, like the pre-Shewhart days in manufacturing, by inspection. Those who do well on tests are graded acceptable and are passed. Those who do not perform acceptably are scrap--rejected totally, or are reworked. Society can no longer afford this wasteful model! We must consider alternatives to many of our current educational practices. For example, we could change our current grading practices to reflect the opportunity for improvement, such as retakes on tests, mastery learning, and outcomes-based evaluation. adopt the philosophy that all students can learn and that our goal is to develop teaching/learning strategies that will lead us toward zero defects--no failures (Crosby, 1984). believe that intelligence is the rate of learning and that natural variability exists in this --process like all others and can be accounted for in appropriate teaching/learning strategies. consider published outcomes and guarantees in courses--for example, in a typing course if a student buys 35 words/minute and only achieves 25 words/minute, he/she can retake the course at no cost. examine policies at the university that inhibit a CQI model (e.g., registration only three times per year, the need for streamlined methods to award incomplete (I) or in process (IP) grades, the need for variable credit, and course length alternatives to meet customer needs, et cetera). For most faculty members today, the primary instructional process is based on the lecture. They learned the material this way, as did the person they learned it from, and likewise, the instructors before them… This process continues in spite of the fact that most faculty members know that the lecture is one of the least effective ways to deliver instruction, even when it is done extremely well. Why haven't educators made more successful attempts to improve the teaching/learning process? There are many reasons. Some faculty members see few reasons to change; most feel they are doing just fine. are far better talking about change in others than about making changes in themselves. do not know how to change; they have been taught no credible alternatives to their old ways. fear giving up the power that they now feel they have. are by nature poorly conditioned to take risks. simply don't care. Faculty members have been much more interested in learning new content than in learning to improve their teaching. This has a striking parallel to the differences between the United States and Japan in how research and development funds are expended. Historically in the United States, we have spent about 2/3 on new product research and 1/3 on new process research (Thurow, 1993). In Japan, those two figures are reversed. The result is that Japan can produce comparable product much more inexpensively than the United States can because of superior manufacturing technology. The point is that expenditures pay off. In colleges and universities, most teaching faculty members are selected for their content expertise not their content delivery expertise. Most faculty research, faculty travel, and faculty consulting relates to content expertise, not to the effective sharing of that content with others. Most universities have not made significant investments in omnibus attempts to improve the teaching/learning process nor have their faculty invested their own time and effort to do it individually. Many faculty members have never even taken a course in how to teach; some scoff at the very idea. It is time to rethink our traditional ideas of what teaching and learning are all about. It is time to apply what we know about process improvement to the teaching/learning process. Process improvement theory and practice has stood the test of time. It is successfully used in process improvement worldwide. It can be used to improve the process of teaching and learning in the classroom as well. It is easier to apply CQI philosophy in the classroom than it is to apply it in practically any other place on earth. This is because of the flexibility and control that professors have in configuring their courses. If professors want to use a CQI philosophy, they can just do it. They don't even need to ask permission. It can be an individual journey toward teaching excellence. What attitudes are necessary to utilize this methodology to improve classroom instruction? An open mind A willingness to change A willingness to learn some new things--none of which are rocket science--about continuous improvement: SPC, CQI/TQM theory, process improvement tools, planning tools A willingness to take some minor risks and give up some control A willingness to carefully monitor/assess/evaluate the teaching/learning process A willingness to assume a new role--that of learning facilitator-- in the teaching/learning process A willingness to learn about some new instructional techniques and how to use them effectively A willingness to try new and innovative teaching/learning strategies; discarding those that prove to be ineffective and keeping and improving those that work What will be the likely effect? A new spirit in the classroom A reduced emphasis on grades; an increased emphasis on learning and outcomes Higher expectations by students of what they can learn Students leaving the class wanting to continue to learn An increase in student performance with reduced variation Teams helping each other learn; teams helping the professor to continue to learn How can one get started? Read some of the articles cited in the references at the conclusion of this paper. The undated Tribus and Barr articles are particularly worthwhile. Research the topic for yourself. Be as concerned about the teaching/learning process as you are about your course content. Talk to faculty members who are trying different strategies of instruction. Discover the effect these strategies have had on these faculty members' classes. Educational research clearly shows that only a few instructional strategies will lead to large (greater than two standard deviations) increases in student learning. These include the use of a mastery learning model with reteaching and retesting, instructor or peer tutoring, collaborative/participative learning (e.g., teams), and the uses of new technologies such as multimedia and the Internet. Just do it. Try a new method for teaching a course topic. You needn't do a whole course. Remember, improvement comes step by step. Apply the PDCA model. Measure the resulting student learning. If you feel it works and can be further refined, continue to do so. If it clearly doesn't work, try something else. Ask the students if something is working or not and what they think might work. Use their ideas. After all, they are the customers. Ways in Which a University can Support Individual Faculty Members in This Effort One of the most wonderful things that could happen in a university would be for all professors to adopt a continuous improvement model--a very personal decision. Clearly, this is highly unlikely. If a university wants to support a high level of TQM/CQI in the classroom and increase the probability that individual faculty members choose to adopt a continuous improvement approach to teaching and learning, the university must change its behavior. Climate, resources, and rewards are prerequisites to long-term success in this endeavor. Climate Many faculty members would be encouraged to pursue a TQM/CQI approach to teaching/learning if a continuous improvement model was being practiced consistently within the rest of the university. For a substantial cross-section of faculty members to adopt the new philosophy in the classroom, credible examples of success in other areas would increase the probability of acceptance. For this to happen, the institution must make a long-term commitment to the philosophy; otherwise, adoption would be but a small fraction of what could be possible. For a TQM/CQI philosophy to be adopted by a professor requires some risk taking. For faculty members to take risk, a climate must exist in which risk-taking is encouraged. This means that faculty members must trust the leadership and that the leadership must exhibit a genuine interest in what is happening with individual faculty members. Faculty members must feel valued and must believe that what they are doing is important to the college or university leadership. Support Resources For faculty to adopt a continuous improvement model in teaching/learning, education and training is essential. The following topics are prerequisite: Knowledge of continuous improvement theory and practice Using quality tools to improve teaching and learning Knowledge of which instructional techniques and strategies work in different instructional situations. Training on how to select the most appropriate technique for a particular topic and audience and how to effectively utilize that technique Measuring the performance of instructional processes How can this be accomplished? A teaching and learning center with the appropriate expertise, the right fun...