Thursday 2 May 2019
KEY PRINCIPLES OFTQM
KEY
PRINCIPLES OF TQM
The
concept of TQM is applicable to academics. Many educators believe that the
Deming’s concept of TQM provides guiding principles for needed educational
reform. In his article, “The Quality Revolution in Education,” John Jay
Bonstingl outlines the TQM principles he believes are most salient to education
reform. He calls them the “Four Pillars of Total Quality Management.”
Principle #1: Synergistic Relationships
According
to this principle, an organization must focus, first and foremost, on its
suppliers and customers. In a TQM organization, everyone is both a customer and
supplier; this confusing concept emphasizes “the systematic nature of the work
in which all are involved”. In other words, teamwork and collaboration are
essential. Traditionally, education has been prone to individual and
departmental isolation. However, according to Bonstingl, this outdated practice
no longer serves us: “When I close the classroom door, those kids are mine!” is
a notion too narrow to survive in a world in which teamwork and collaboration
result in high-quality benefits for the greatest number of people. The very
application of the first pillar of TQM to education emphasizes the synergistic
relationship between the “suppliers” and “customers”. The concept of synergy
suggests that performance and production is enhanced by pooling the talent and
experience of individuals.
In a
classroom, teacher-student teams are the equivalent of industry’s front-line
workers. The product of their successful work together is the development of
the student’s capabilities, interests, and character. In one sense, the student
is the teacher’s customer, as the recipient of educational services provided
for the student’s growth and improvement. Viewed in this way, the teacher and
the school are suppliers of effective learning tools, environments, and systems
to the student, who is the school’s primary customer. The school is responsible
for providing for the long-term educational welfare of students by teaching
them how to learn and communicate in high-quality ways, how to access quality
in their own work and in that of others, and how to invest in their own
lifelong and life-wide learning processes by maximizing opportunities for
growth in every aspect of daily life. In another sense, the student is also a
worker, whose product is essentially his or her own continuous improvement and
personal growth.
Principle #2: Continuous Improvement and Self Evaluation
The second
pillar of TQM applied to education is the total dedication to continuous
improvement, personally and collectively. Within a Total Quality school
setting, administrators work collaboratively with their customers: teachers.
Gone are the vestiges of “Scientific management”… whose watchwords were
compliance, control and command. The foundations for this system were fear,
intimidation, and an adversarial approach to problem-solving. Today it is in
our best interest to encourage everyone’s potential by dedicating ourselves to
the continual improvement of our own abilities and those of the people with
whom we work and live. Total Quality is, essentially, a win-win approach which
works to everyone’s ultimate advantage.
According to
Deming, no human being should ever evaluate another human being. Therefore, TQM
emphasizes self-evaluation as part of a continuous improvement process. In
addition, this principle also laminates to the focusing on students’ strengths,
individual learning styles, and different types of intelligences.
Principle #3: A System of Ongoing Process
The third
pillar of TQM as applied in academics is the recognition of the organization as
a system and the work done within the organization must be seen as an ongoing
process. The primary implication of this principle is that individual students
and teachers are less to blame for failure than the system in which they work.
Quality speaks to working on the system, which must be examined to identify and
eliminate the flawed processes that allow its participants to fail. Since
systems are made up of processes, the improvements made in the quality of those
processes largely determine the quality of the resulting product. In the new
paradigm of learning, continual improvement of learning processes based on
learning outcomes replaces the outdated “teach and test” mode.
Principle #4: Leadership
The fourth TQM
principle applied to education is that the success of TQM is the responsibility
of top management. The school teachers must establish the context in which
students can best achieve their potential through the continuous improvement
that results from teachers and students working together. Teachers who
emphasize content area literacy and principle-centered teaching provide the
leadership, framework, and tools necessary for continuous improvement in the
learning process.
According to
the practical evidences, the TQM principles help the schools in following
clauses:
(a)Redefine the role, purpose and responsibilities of
schools
(b)Improve schools as a “way of life.”
(c)Plan comprehensive leadership training for educators at all levels
.
(d)Create staff development that addresses the attitudes and beliefs of school staff.
(d)Create staff development that addresses the attitudes and beliefs of school staff.
(e)Use research and practice-based information to guide both policy and practice.
(f)Design comprehensive child-development initiatives that cut across a variety of agencies and institutions.
Education and society- Secularism
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1beYYoq3UNC4XJu60HbFDFLwjK3uFJsX-
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