Narmukhametova N. M.

L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University

Department of Theory and Practice of Foreign Languages

Quality improvement methods in teaching.

Quality… What is quality? Quality has to be understood from the point of view of the user. Some aspects of quality may be identified such as how nice something or somebody works, its dependability and the duration of time before failure.

Quality is an open matter to be heatdebated from different points of view. As a practician I always face with this problem: how to achieve this co-called quality. Fortunately, my scientific supervisor from the George Washington University, Professor Stuart Umpleby suggested me a book “The Deming method” by Mary Walton about W. Edwards Deming. Deming, who made America think about Quality. A statistician from Wyoming, who was credited with helping to turn around Japanese industry after World War II. Deming was virtually unknown in the U. S. at the time, but success in helping to build quality products in Japan made him the most sought-after sage in corporate America.

Deming was a man of international prominence, who in fact has changed the world, who believed every student has something to offer, something to teach. And we, the tutors, must go to a class or seminar prepared to learn as well as to teach.

Deming’s lessons are in direct opposition to what is currently taught in most business schools or advocated by management consultants and business writers. Even some who call themselves consultants in quality are pushing methods that will only make things worse. The book was really worth of not just reading but immediately to be implied. Deming’s name has been all but forgotten for many decades. While reading, I tried to periphrase Deming’s statements, questions, points to be fit for my classes.

What is your customer? And we must understand deeper-what is your student? What comes in? What goes out? Do you know your customer (student)? Do you know what he needs? What must be done about it? Everybody here has a job in improvement. Everybody wishes to do a good job, and usually knows a lot about how to do it better, how to improve.

You see a little bit of what must be done to improve quality.

In the first place, materials that come in. May be students? What these incoming materials might be?

Due to my rich imagination I have understood – there is no need to go to Japan to see all the improvements done – I have my students, my job and the book of Deming as a manual to help me.

A perfect slogan “If Japan could, why can’t I?” How to start? According to Deming- “The first step is to improve your raw material”. What or who? Very complicated question. Firstly-raw material-it is me or my colleagues, may be you. Secondly-my students. Next-my books (tools for betterment). Finally – equipment. Never stop improving them, and that means that you work with your suppliers (high schools, universities).

Quality has meaning only in terms of the customers (students, tutors, staff), their needs, what they are going to use it for.

Very important tip for administration:

v Improve stuff that comes in, adapt it, provide more and more what the customer (student) needs. That requires competition, working together, and continual change as requirements change. And they will change.

A customer (student) – the one that pays for your product or service (lectures, seminars you give him).

Lead him. You have to tell him what he’s going to need during four years and have it ready.

It is very essential to find out what he (student) thinks is right or wrong about your product (knowledge, information you give) today. You need customers (students) that boast about your product (your efforts, methods, techniques). That return – repeat customers (students). “Someone that you served in real estate, say four years ago, helped him to find the property (knowledge, education)” that he really, urgently needed, called for. The most remarkable for me in Deming’s book were 14 points, kind of instructions to follow. The most typical and common to be implied in our universities:

Ø Create constancy of purpose for improvement of product (learning) and service (teaching) to provide jobs (lectures, seminars) through innovation, research, constant improvement and maintenance.

Ø Find the practice of awarding business (study).

Ø Institute training.

Ø Institute leadership. Leading consists of helping people to a better job of learning by objective methods which in need of individual help.

Ø Drive out fear. It is necessary for better quality and productivity that people feel secure.

Ø Break down with barriers between staff areas. Often staff areas-departments, units – whether- are competing with each other or have goals that conflict. They do not work as a team so they can solve or foresee problems. The quality movement that Deming inspired is very much alive. Deming understood that you can’t turn quality on like spigot. It is a culture, a lifestyle within a company. And that is a lesson worth remembering.

Stuart Umpleby, one of the outstanding professors of Business School at the George Washington University, the author of many interesting and valuable articles such as “Quality Improvement Priority Matrix”, “Adopting Service – learning in Universities around the world”, “How a Quality Improvement Priority Matrix Reveals Change in a University Department” and others…

Full information of Stuart Umpleby may be seen in Wikipedia or on his sites: umplebyagwu.edu or www.gwu.edu/umpleby.

References:

1. “The American who taught the Japanese about quality”.

2. “The Deming method” by Mary Walton.

3. “The Capitalist Philosophers” (Times Books, 2000) by Andrea Labor.

4. “A Quality Improvement Approach to Accessing an Organization’s Climate for Creativity and Innovation” (2011) by Igor Dubina and Stuart Umpleby.