Applying total quality management to educational instruction

Abstract

How can education service managers, administrators and teachers make educational instruction more effective? Can concepts fundamental to the total quality management (TQM) philosophy be applied to teaching? Just as managers often buy the most advanced equipment but fail to integrate it fully into their production process, so many administrators and educators hear and read about, and are able to identify with, the TQM philosophy in general, yet they remain wanting of an understanding of how it can be applied to teaching. Presents a framework for TQM‐oriented instruction in an attempt to serve this end. Presents the specific practices that constitute this approach as part of an effort to facilitate TQM‐driven instructional processes across educational levels and disciplines, and across nations. Assesses the effectiveness of TQM‐driven teaching through student feedback from course evaluations and administers an educational survey. The approach presented can serve as one benchmark for use in the process of re‐evaluating and realigning instructional processes to ensure continuous improvement.